The BMW Championship is the third event of the FedEx Cup play-offs and presents a number of problems in finding the winner, Phil Casey writes.
Tournament venue Aronimink Golf Club returns to the PGA Tour after a seven-year absence, having hosted the AT&T National in 2010 and 2011, events won by Justin Rose and Nick Watney respectively.
However, since then designer Gil Hanse has been employed to oversee changes intended to restore the course to something resembling the Donald Ross original, with wider fairways framed by four-inch rough and 102 new bunkers, taking the total to 176.
The field is restricted to the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings – down to 69 with Daniel Berger’s withdrawal – and only the top 30 after the event will advance to the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta next week.
And with the Dell Technologies Championship having only finished on Monday, those players will have less time than usual to get to grips with the new challenge.
With that in mind, the preference is to seek some outside value and we’ll start with England’s Paul Casey, who could benefit from the release of some pressure if, as expected, he is handed a Ryder Cup wild card on Wednesday.
Casey’s form has been solid if not spectacular since his victory in the Valspar Championship in March, as indicated by a tie for 21st in Boston on Monday.
The 41-year-old ranks 23rd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green this season, a potentially key factor this week, and can be backed each-way at 60/1.
Next up is Canada’s Adam Hadwin, who finished alongside Casey in Boston and was also 11th the previous week, form which makes each-way odds of 80/1 appealing with five places on offer in a limited-field event.
Even more appealing are odds of 200/1 about 2017 Players Championship winner Si Woo Kim and 250/1 on Brian Gay, both of which are in the each-way market.
Kim should have won the RBC Heritage earlier this year and was 10th in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on a course which rewards straight driving, while Gay ranks seventh in driving accuracy and has recorded five top 10s this season.
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