While some may want to take a breath and breathe a sigh of relief, the postseason rolls on. After the St. Jude Championship cut the field size from 70 players down to 50, those who still remain in the FedEx Cup Playoffs test a new site this week with Bellerive Country Club hosting the 2026 BMW Championship.
Having not held a professional golf tournament since the 2018 PGA Championship — which also doubled as the final PGA Championship in the month of August — Bellerive will look much the same. A par 70 that can stretch just about 7,500 yards, the Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design should cater itself to big hitters and world-class ball strikers.
Whenever that phrase gets introduced, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler soon follows. Now 21 times a winner on the PGA Tour, the four-time major champion looks to keep the momentum rolling into a title defense as he outlasted Robert MacIntyre at Caves Valley a season ago.
While Scheffler seems to be surging at the perfect time to collect another FedEx Cup crown, three-time winner Rory McIlroy was met with head-scratching results in his return to competition. Beating only two players in Memphis, the Masters champion hopes to do better over these next eight rounds with the BMW Championship offering an opportunity to work out the kinks and rust in his game that was well apparent at TPC Southwind.
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Both Scheffler and McIlroy have secured their place on the tee sheet at the Tour Championship just as 22 of the 50 men in the BMW Championship field. According to Data Golf, Viktor Hovland is the last man at No. 22 in the season-long race to have a 100% chance of making it to East Lake.
Alex Smalley, Justin Rose, Ryan Fox and Tom Kim trail Hovland in the standings but still have north of an 80% chance to play their way into next week. That percentage drops rapidly once Adam Scott enters the fold, but the wily veteran should be more than comfortable given his play at Bellerive in the past.
Those hoping to take Scott’s spot include Sungjae Im at No. 40, who was the only player to play himself into the BMW Championship last weekend. The South Korean is just ahead of former BMW Championship winners Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay and behind PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai, who checks in at No. 37.
2026 FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble
|
27 |
Adam Scott |
1,315 |
|
|
28 |
Kurt Kitayama |
1,259 |
|
|
29 |
Bud Cauley |
1,258 |
|
|
30 |
Rickie Fowler |
1,258 |
|
|
31 |
Gary Woodland |
1,256 |
solo 48th |
|
32 |
J.T. Poston |
1,237 |
solo 31st |
|
33 |
Nicolai Højgaard |
1,208 |
three-way T18 |
|
34 |
Alex Noren |
1,197 |
solo 17th |
|
35 |
Jake Knapp |
1,196 |
three-way T16 |
| 36 | Robert MacIntyre | 1,191 | three-way T15 |
2026 BMW Championship schedule
Dates: Aug. 20-23
Location: Bellerive Country Club — St. Louis, Missouri
Par: 70 | Yardage: 7,448 | Architect: Robert Trent Jones, Sr.
Purse: $20 million
2026 BMW Championship field, odds
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
- Scottie Scheffler (3-1)
- Rory McIlroy (13-1): Rory’s return was one he wishes to forget. Carding a few double bogeys throughout the week in Memphis and playing the par-4 18th in poor fashion, the world No. 2 now turns his attention to event No. 2 of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. McIlroy is treating this run as a 12-round tournament, so it may be as simple as using this week as a tune-up and workshop of sorts ahead of next week at East Lake, where he has found his fair share of success.
- Xander Schauffele (17-1)
- Ludvig Åberg (18-1): He seems to be finding it after a little lull this summer. Åberg finished top 10 at the St. Jude Championship in his first start since The Open as he pieced together the best driving performance of the season. If that carries over to Bellerive, Åberg’s name should carry even higher up on the leaderboard. The short game has been checkered since May, but when on, he has little to no flaws.
- Sam Burns (18-1): Another week and another close call for Burns, who has four top-four finishes in his last six tournaments, all of which he has finished inside the top 20. He ran into a buzzsaw Sunday at the St. Jude Championship, but his driver did not do him any favors. Over the last three months, Burns tops the world in iron play, showing that if he just gives himself a few more chances from the fairway, he will finally cross the finish line in first.
- Cameron Young (19-1): The worst putter over that same timeframe is none other than…Sepp Straka. But do you know who is the second-worst? That’s right, the Players Championship winner. Young continues to excel from tee to green, ranking seventh in the category, but problems with the putter have officially become a cause for concern in the back half of this season. Since the PGA Championship, Young has gained strokes on the greens twice leading to quality results at The Open and the Rocket Classic.
- Tommy Fleetwood (20-1)
- Matt Fitzpatrick (24-1)
- Chris Gotterup (24-1)
- Viktor Hovland (27-1)
- Si Woo Kim (27-1): Is he the best player without a victory this season? The case could be made for Burns and Åberg, but Kim now has five podium finishes and is the only other player not named Scheffler to have double-digit top-10 finishes. The latest came in the form of a runner-up result in Memphis where he went around a difficult TPC Southwind Sunday in bogey-free fashion. It’s been the best year of his career by far, he just needs some hardware to show for it.
- Hideki Matsuyama (27-1)