Set your alarms: You don’t want to miss breakfast at Augusta with Tiger

Keegan Bradley and Xander Schauffele finished first and T3, respectively, at the BMW Championship at Aronimink to crack the all-important FedExCup Top 30 and play their way into the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake, Sept. 20-23. Jordan Spieth and Emiliano Grillo were not so lucky, falling out of the Top 30 to miss out. “It’s awesome,â€� said Schauffele, whose victory at last year’s TOUR Championship cemented Rookie of the Year honors. “Been a long week. So, it will settle in on the flight home.â€� How big is getting to East Lake? Even after winning the BMW for his fourth TOUR victory and first in six years, Bradley looked back at a pair of roughly 7-foot par putts he made to finish his third-round 66 on Saturday. They meant he was projected into the Top 30 and would make it to East Lake, which was big because no one knew if the final round would even happen. “Well, I can’t remember a week of playing so solid from start to finish,â€� Bradley said. “It was really all week I’ve played great. That par putt I made (on 18 ) on Saturday night was so huge because — for two reasons: One, I didn’t know if we were coming back and I knew I needed that to make the TOUR Championship. And obviously, now coming back and playing, I needed that putt.â€� He needed every putt, and won with a par in a sudden-death playoff against Justin Rose. Meanwhile, Spieth will miss the TOUR Championship for the first time in his career. The 2015 FedExCup champion, who especially loves East Lake, struggled with his putting all week and came up against an unusually long, soggy Aronimink in the final round, shooting 73 to finish T55. “I was in control of my own destiny and didn’t have it this week,â€� Spieth said. “Riding some momentum but all in all, just game kind of got a little off.â€� After starting on the back nine and struggling with three bogeys, he staged a brief rally with birdies at the third and fifth holes before two more bogeys on 7 and 8 did him in. Still, he faulted his second round for moving him onto the bubble in the first place. Spieth was 0 for 3 on putts from 5-10 feet while shooting a 1-over 71 on Friday, losing 2.75 strokes on the greens in the BMW’s second round. It was his third-worst performance of the season in Strokes Gained: Putting, and he was still thinking about it after the tournament. “You can’t shoot over par here,â€� Spieth said. Top 5 players remain the same: They played musical chairs, but the Top 5 players remain the same. The Top 5 control their own destiny with a win at next week’s TOUR Championship. FedExCup No. 1 Bryson DeChambeau was guaranteed to remain in pole position no matter what, and after admitting to fatigue after winning the first two Playoffs events, he shot a final-round 67 to finish T19 at the BMW. He’ll get some much-needed time off before next week’s season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake. Justin Thomas, No. 5 in the FedExCup, had no such guarantees but remained in fifth position after a final-round 68 gave him a T12 finish at Aronimink. The result was important because Thomas could become the first back-to-back champion in 12 years of the FedExCup. As for everyone else, there were only subtle shifts: Tony Finau shot a final-round 65(T8) to move from 4th to 3rd; Dustin Johnson, who was FedExCup No. 1 for much of the season, shot 67 for a T24 to move from 2nd to 4th. And playoff runner-up Justin Rose went from 3rd to 2nd. “Yeah, I mean, No. 2 is an incredible spot to be in,â€� Rose said. “It’s a week that there’s many scenarios in play. I think when you go in there 15th, 16th, 17th, you know you have to win, and then you have to hope for a ton of other things to happen.â€� Moving in/out With their results in the BMW Championship, the following players will move into the top 30 in the FedExCup standings and qualify for the season-ending TOUR Championship. Keegan Bradley (1st): From 52nd to 6th Xander Schauffele (T3): From 41st to 18th These players will fall out of the top 30. Jordan Spieth (T55): From 27th to 31st Emiliano Grillo (T61): From 29th to 32nd Biggest movers Biggest moves made in the FedExCup standings after the BMW Championship. Up 46 spots: Keegan Bradley (From 52, entering BMW, to 6) Up 23 spots: Xander Schauffele (From 41 to 18) Up 11 spots: Andrew Putnam (68, T16, from 44 to 33); Adam Hadwin (67, T19, 47 to 36) Bubble boys Gary Woodland, winner of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, started this week clinging to the final berth in the TOUR Championship. After opening with consecutive 66s, Woodland brought it home with a 67 for a T12 finish to move up to 28th. Patton Kizzire, a two-time winner early this season, shot 73 to finish T61 at the BMW. Although it dropped him nine spots down the standings, he’s going to East Lake at 30th. Jordan Spieth, 2015 FedExCup champion, was the odd man out. He started the week 27th, but was on the bubble going into the final round. Five bogeys and a 73 (T55) left him stuck at 31st. Top 5 Watch The top five players in FedExCup points after the BMW Championship will control their own destiny entering the TOUR Championship. A win at East Lake will guarantee any of the top five the FedExCup title. Here’s the current Top Five heading into the TOUR Championship: 1. Bryson DeChambeau (still 1st): After winning the first two events of the FedExCup Playoffs, DeChambeau was guaranteed to take the top spot into East Lake. Fighting fatigue, he never seriously contended at Aronimink but did shoot a final-round 67 for a respectable T19. 2. Justin Rose (was 3rd): Winner of the 2010 Quicken Loans National at Aronimink nearly did it again but bogeyed the 18th hole twice, once in regulation and once in the playoff, to finish second to Keegan Bradley. Rose still moved up a spot, and is also the new world No. 1. 3. Tony Finau (was 4th): Fired a final-round 65 to finish T8 at the BMW, which gave him his 11th top-10 finish this season, tied with Dustin Johnson for the TOUR lead. 4. Dustin Johnson (was 2nd): Never really threatened at Aronimink, but didn’t slide too far down the standings with final-round 67 (T24). 5. Justin Thomas (was 5th): Reigning FedExCup champion shot a final-round 68 for a T12 finish at the BMW, staying in the all-important Top 5. Has an excellent chance to make history as the first back-to-back FedExCup champion since the Playoffs began in 2007.

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OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - Rory McIlroy doesn’t need fans to keep his head in the game at the BMW Championship. Olympia Fields is so tough it won’t allow anything but his full attention on every shot. McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay made their share of mistakes Friday and shrugged them off because that’s bound to happen on the toughest test the PGA TOUR has seen this year. By the end of another steamy afternoon south of Chicago, they were the sole survivors to par. One week after McIlroy admitted to going through the motions without spectators around to provide the cheers, he had a 1-under 69 to share the 36-hole lead with Cantlay. RELATED: Full leaderboard It was plenty tough for Tiger Woods, whose PGA TOUR season appears to be two rounds from being over. He didn’t have enough good shots to atone for his bad ones, and he had to make a 35-foot par putt on his final hole to shoot 75, leaving him nine shots behind. Woods was toward the bottom of the pack at a tournament where he needs to finish around fourth to be among the top 30 who advance to the TOUR Championship. Cantlay holed a 50-foot chip for birdie, and holed out a 50-yard wedge for eagle. He also missed the green on three of the par 3s, the last one leading to a double bogey. He finished with a 6-iron out of the thick rough and made a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. It added to a 68, matching the best score of the round. They were at 1-under 139, one shot ahead of Hideki Matsuyama and Dustin Johnson, who were going in opposite directions when it was time to sign their scorecards. Matsuyama, the only player to reach 4 under at any point this week, dropped four shots over his last 10 holes for a 73. Johnson finished birdie-birdie for 69. “I think the test is what’s helped me focus and concentrate because if you lose focus out there for one second … just one lapse in concentration can really cost you around here,” McIlroy said. “I think one of the big keys this week is just not making big numbers. If you hit it out of position, get it back in position, make sure that your worse score is bogey and move on. Honestly, bogeys aren’t that bad out here.” He made a mistake on the 14th hole by going long and left, and only a great wedge to a back pin to 5 feet kept him from a big blunder, even though he missed the par putt. He flirted with trouble later in his round on the fifth hole with a wedge from 134 yards that came up 30 yards short, the pin tucked behind a big bunker. He left that in collar short of the green and got up-and-down for bogey. Cantlay doesn’t expect to hole out twice a round with wedges and hopes he can sharpen up his game a little. Still, he loves the idea of having to think and plot his way around the course. “It’s about as stiff of a test as you would want,” Cantlay said. “It’s very, very difficult, and you have to play from the fairway, and you have to play from below the hole, frankly. The greens have so much slope on them that you really need to be putting uphill. And so if you’re in the rough, it gets exponentially harder to do that.” For those playing well — anywhere within a few shots of par in this case — it was an enjoyable challenge. For everyone, regardless of the score, it was a grind. “I don’t know if any rain will matter, really,” Kevin Kisner said after a bogey-bogey finish ruined an otherwise good day and gave him a 70, leaving him three shots behind. “I think even par wins the golf tournament.” Doesn’t 280 always win the U.S. Open? That’s what Arnold Palmer used to say. And this feels like a U.S. Open. Go back to Shinnecock Hills two years ago in the U.S. Open to find the last time someone won at over par (Brooks Koepka). For non-majors, the tour said over par hasn’t won since Bruce Lietzke at the Byron Nelson Classic in 1981. It’s a massive change from last week, when Johnson won by 11 shots at 30-under 254. “Last week was fun, too,” Johnson said. “But this week is more of a grind, that’s for sure. Every single hole out here is difficult. You’ve got to really be focused on every shot that you hit.” Among those two shots behind was Louis Oosthuizen, whose birdie in the dark on the final hole last week at the TPC Boston moved him to No. 70 to qualify for the BMW Championship. “This is the golf course I needed to do what I must do,” he said of moving into the top 30. “Look, this can go really south on you quickly. You can shoot 6, 7 over on this golf course very quickly. But if you really stick to it and play middle of the greens and lag those putts, you can make a lot of pars. And you’re not going to lose spots if you’re making pars.”

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Bryson DeChambeau hinted at it during the Ryder Cup, and now it is going to happen: a golf match between DeChambeau and adversary Brooks Koepka. The 12-hole match between the two golfers who feuded for much of 2021 will take place Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.

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