Day: August 15, 2022

Power Rankings: BMW ChampionshipPower Rankings: BMW Championship

It’s a first in The First State. The PGA TOUR is making its debut in Delaware. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look | Five Things to Know This week’s BMW Championship will be contested on the South Course of Wilmington Country Club in Delaware. It’s as neutral a site as any to host a FedExCup Playoffs event. For analysis of the course, how the winner and contenders should be defined, and more, continue reading beneath the expanded ranking. POWER RANKINGS: BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Draws and Fades will include reviews of notables including Hideki Matsuyama, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry and Cameron Young. The middle leg of the Playoffs reserves room for 70 golfers, the top 30 of whom at its conclusion will advance to the season-ending TOUR Championship in Atlanta. However, Cameron Smith has withdrawn due to an injured hip and Tommy Fleetwood (personal) didn’t commit, so the field in Wilmington is 68 deep. At third in the FedExCup, Smith will survive to compete in the finale, but Fleetwood’s season officially is over. He’s currently 56th in points. Robert Trent Jones, Sr., designed the South Course over 60 years ago. Today, it’s a par 71 capable of stretching 7,534 yards. How it routes for the BMW Championship differs from the walk experienced by members. This yields an uncommon par-5-3-5-3 stretch on holes 12-15. The Palmer Cup was staged here in 2013. Justin Thomas is the only qualifier of the BMW Championship who competed in that amateur team competition, but that’s nine years ago and the course has undergone significant renovations since, anyway. Therefore, consider that there is no useful competitive experience in play this week. When a new challenge is presented, ball-strikers are benefited. Seeing targets and hitting targets plays everywhere, but greens require experience to master with the putter. The surfaces at Wilmington CC average of 8,000 square feet, but they protected firmly and fairly by commensurately sized bunkers. With fairways resembling ribbons in places and primary rough beginning at four inches high, the tee-to-green game plays up. Within a day or two, and depending on hole locations, the field will find the pulse of the bentgrass greens, and because of their size, guys who rely on the flat stick will enter the chat. Speeds will touch 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. There is no cut, so everyone who tees it up is promised 72 holes. This makes it more difficult to advance to the finale, but it’s never impossible. In the previous two editions of the current points structure (2019, 2021), five golfers have risen into the top 30 with strong performances at the BMW Championship. Aside from a threat of rain on the weekend, the weather should cooperate for all. Seasonably warm and dry conditions will extend into Saturday. Daytime temperatures will reach into the mid-80s. Wind should be a non-factor. Other than a chance to be crowned the 16th FedExCup champion at East Lake next week, everyone positioned inside the top 30 at the conclusion of the BMW Championship is poised to earn exemptions into the 2023 editions of the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship. Those are traditional benefits for generating the best seasons on the PGA TOUR and timely performances in the Playoffs. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ’Em Preview SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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PGA TOUR announces four additions to 2022 PGA TOUR Player Advisory CouncilPGA TOUR announces four additions to 2022 PGA TOUR Player Advisory Council

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR today announced Max Homa, Brandt Snedeker, Keith Mitchell and Kevin Streelman as additions to the Player Advisory Council (PAC) for the remainder of 2022. Homa and Snedeker fill vacated positions previously held by Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell. In a separate election to replace Paul Casey, Mitchell and Streelman tied for the most votes, and both players have been added to the PAC, which has increased in size from 16 members to 17. The PAC advises and consults with the PGA TOUR Policy Board (Board of Directors) and Commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the TOUR. Homa, Snedeker and Mitchell will be members of the PAC for the first time. Streelman served as PAC co-chairman in 2016 and subsequently served a three-year term as a Player Director on the Policy Board (2017-19). Homa, 31, a California native who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, has four career PGA TOUR wins, including two during the 2021-22 season. He is currently No. 16 in the FedExCup standings, No. 10 in the United States Team standings for the Presidents Cup and No. 22 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Homa joined the PGA TOUR for the first time in 2014, and in addition to his four career TOUR wins, he has two victories on the Korn Ferry Tour. Snedeker, 41, of Nashville, Tennessee, is a nine-time PGA TOUR winner and qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in each of his first 15 seasons on the PGA TOUR, missing the Playoffs for the first time in 2022. Snedeker is one of four players that has been named PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year (2007) and won the FedExCup (2012), along with Vijay Singh, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods. Mitchell, 30, a Chattanooga, Tennessee native and resident of St. Simons Island, Georgia, is in his fifth season on the PGA TOUR. Winner of the 2019 Honda Classic, Mitchell has a career-high six top-10s in 2021-22 and seeks his first appearance in the season-ending TOUR Championship, entering the BMW Championship at No. 38 in the FedExCup standings. Mitchell turned professional in 2014 and played on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica (2015) and the Korn Ferry Tour (2016 and 2017) before joining the PGA TOUR at the start of the 2017-18 season. Streelman, 43, a native of Winfield, Illinois who lives in Scottsdale, is a two-time PGA TOUR winner, most recently winning the 2014 Travelers Championship. Streelman, who enters the BMW Championship at No. 93 in the FedExCup standings, has qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in each of the last 15 seasons; the only players with longer active streaks are Matt Kuchar and Adam Scott, who have qualified every year during the FedExCup era (since 2007). 2022 Player Advisory Council Patrick Cantlay (Player Director appointee 2023) Austin Cook Joel Dahmen Harry Higgs Max Homa Billy Horschel Russell Knox Justin Lower Peter Malnati (Co-Chairman) Maverick McNealy Keith Mitchell Trey Mullinax Jon Rahm Webb Simpson (Co-Chairman) Brandt Snedeker Kevin Streelman Will Zalatoris Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson will replace James Hahn and Kevin Kisner as Player Directors on the PGA TOUR Policy Board next year, serving three-year terms (2023-25). Patrick Cantlay will also join the Policy Board in the 2023 with the addition of a fifth Player Director.

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