BMW Preview: Is par still a thing?

Writing from Owings Mills, Md.

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Four years ago, when Patrick Cantlay and his pals tooled around Caves Valley Golf Club in about a half-million under par, there was much clucking among the tony membership of this posh suburban Baltimore club about the red numbers painted on the scorecard.

Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau finished at 27-under par, totaling 261 on the par-72 Tom Fazio layout, after which Cantlay won on the sixth hole of sudden death, in which five more birdies were scored. The biggest blow against par was a 12-under 60 by DeChambeau in the second round.

After the club’s moneyed men and dowagers were revived, the decision was made to toughen the layout. Greens were rebuilt, bunkers were shifted and, at least for this week, when the BMW Championship – the 122nd edition of what commenced as the Western Open, with roots planted in 1899 –  finds itself on the layout once again, par reduced to 70 on the 7,601-yard trail, and $20 million in boodle ($3.6 million to the winner) on offer.

And 261, now 21-under, could well be posted again by Sunday evening.

There is no stopping excellent golfers these days. Rory McIlroy, whose 22-under 266 earned him fourth place in 2021, said Wednesday, “It should be more of a test,” citing several of the above changes. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler called it “significantly harder, so should be a good challenge for us this week.”

But, the 18th hole is still driver-wedge if you carry the last bunker, and driver-7 iron if you choose not to, McIlroy said. A 7-iron is a precision instrument to anyone in the 49-man field.

Defending champion and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley sees the 18th as formidable.

“It’s very long, there’s water on the right, it’s uphill and you have to hit two perfect shots to hit the green,” Bradley said.

Cantlay is eager to repeat on a course he tore apart like a kid unwrapping Christmas presents.

“It's much different and it's in very good shape,” Cantlay said. “(The 18th), it's a hole where you have to put the ball in the fairway. I think they made the fairway a little narrower from the last time we were here. It's long and straight uphill. If you hit two good shots, you can have a birdie look. Anything other than that, you're probably scrambling for a par.”

Caves Valley will probably show well this week, but even 15-under 265 would have been 23 under last time. And this course, egos of the members who have to play it the rest of the year aside, isn’t the first course to toughen itself, perhaps unnecessarily.

Another example is Medinah Country Club. After Justin Thomas brought the house down with a third-round 61 on No. 3 in the 2019 BMW, members knew the bulldozers would be coming. The result of that low score was a $30 million renovation that features six new finishing holes.

A tough test compared to “The Monster,” as members called No. 3 a generation ago? Not to member and North Carolina team member Grant Roscich, whose 61 on the new layout – from the member tees, but still – showed how far $30 million goes these days.

“Lucky we’re playing match play,” co-redesigner Geoff Ogilvy reportedly said.

Caves Valley doesn’t have that to hide behind this week.

Run-up to the Ryder Cup

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Bradley’s biggest question remains what many observers seem is a foregone conclusion. As the 10th-ranked player in the Ryder Cup point standings, shouldn’t he pick himself for the team?

“I’ve said all along that you can’t expect to be on the team unless you’re in the top six,” Bradley said Wednesday. “I’m 10th right now, not sixth.”

It’s a 12-man team, so Bradley has six selections and logically should pick himself. He won at Hartford this summer, is the defender this week via his victory last year at Castle Pines, has a victory in each of the last four years, is ranked 12th in the world, and stands eighth among American players in the world rankings. And he has the bulldog mentality perfect for match play. What’s not to like?

“My goal is, whether I’m Ryder Cup captain or not this week, play well and play well next week at the Tour Championship,” Bradley said.

He may just be coy, but someone else would pick him. Even a McIlroy.

“I definitely think he's one of the best 12 American players right now,” McIlroy said. “That’s why everyone is so interested and it's such a compelling case, and it's going to be – I'm just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out.”

The point of the playoffs is?

The PGA Tour’s postseason consists of three tournaments, but participation is not mandatory. Thus, three-time FedEx Cup winner McIlroy, with a heavy autumn schedule, skipped last week’s first leg in Memphis, but arrives at Caves Valley sitting second in the standings.

That’s because, as has been the case since when the playoffs began in 2007, regular-season play is factored into the standings. One year, Vijay Singh didn’t play the final week, the Tour Championship, and still won the playoffs. All the tweaks since then have eliminated that possibility, but McIlroy’s conspicuous absence last week shows work is left to be done.

Asked if he feels the playoffs really determine a season-long champion, McIlroy said, “Who knows at this point?”

The Northern Ireland native noted that in most European sports, the full-season determines the champion, and that sometimes, as in Liverpool’s case in the Premier League last season, the champion can be determined weeks in advance.

That can’t happen with the PGA Tour now.

Justin Rose, who captured the FedEx Cup in 2018 without winning a playoff tournament, was pleased by the elimination of the “starting strokes” concept, which gave the top players under-par scores before the first ball was struck in anger. The thumb on the scoring scale made the tournament look like a scramble.

“It’s nice to have 72 holes mean something again,” Rose said. “Before you could shoot the lowest score and get the most world ranking points and not win the tournament. This is a really clean way to finish the season.

“I don’t know if you’d call it the ‘season-long race to the FedEx Cup, but it is the most elite tournament and the one to get into.”

McIlroy concurred.

“I see it more as a one-off rather than a culmination of a season,” McIlroy said.

Besides, the season has a bonus prize system of its own. Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, copped $8 million a fortnight ago for leading the regular-season standings. And, shades of Singh back in the day, he didn’t even have to play in the Wyndham, the last regular-season tournament.

Around Caves Valley

The Evans Scholars Foundation should benefit to the tune of about $8 million this week, which will help both the caddie program in general and in paying off the new Evans House at the University of Maryland, dedicated a few days ago. Last year’s tournament at Castle Pines near Denver brought in $10.2 million, the 2023 edition at Olympia Fields $5.5 million.  … Even big-time golfers waste money. McIlroy said he bought a “horrific” watch with his first paycheck, spending $20,000. “It had diamonds around it. The worst purchase ever,” he laughed. He wouldn’t divulge the manufacturer, but he said it wasn’t his current sponsor, which is Omega. … Online coverage starts on ESPN+ at 8:15 a.m. CT, in time to watch J.T. Poston play as a single, and expands to four feeds by 9:15 a.m. Golf Channel’s four-hour telecast begins at 1 p.m., when the final twosome of Tom Hoge and Bud Cauley tee off.

– Tim Cronin

Burmester prevails against the greats

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Your name is Dean Burmester. You are a champion golfer, but can go through airports unnoticed. In fact, until Sunday, you could go through rounds of golf unnoticed as well.

Maybe that changes now. Sunday at Bolingbrook Golf Club, Burmester won his second tournament in as many years on the LIV circuit, and for a second time did so in sudden death.

He ran in a 5-foot birdie putt on the first hole of unscheduled golf – Bolingbrook’s 18th for the tournament, the ninth in everyday play – to knock off a pair of fellows who need private jets to travel in peace: Jon Rahm, the defending champion who is recognizable on six continents, and Josele Ballester, the rookie pro sensation who will soon be similarly swamped by attention.

Or maybe it doesn’t. Burmester is a balding 36-year-old South African, with a less imposing resume than Rahm, Bryson DChambeau and many of the other LIVers on the trail. But on this day, Burmester was the top dog, after starting his round like he wanted to go home early.

Bogey, bogey, bogey, his trek began, and he tumbled from 9-under and two strokes ahead to 6-under in a pack. He played flawlessly after that, got back to 9-under with a 5-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole, and watched Rahm and Ballester join him after he failied to score another birdie at the last to avoid sudden-death. (They made birdies of four and three feet, respectively, at the 18th to gain the right to keep playing.)

On that 55th hole, it was Burmester who hit a better approach, a splendid wedge out of light rough to the right of the fairway to the aforementioned five feet to set up the winning putt – after he watched Ballester miss from 15 feet and Rahm was errant from a dozen feet.

“This rough is no joke,” Burmester said. “The grass was with me, which helped. There’s a bit of luck, but I pitched it exactly where I wanted to.”

Perhaps Burmester doesn’t win, perhaps doesn’t contend, if his wife Mel doesn’t participate in an ultra-marathon in West Virginia recently. He praised her to the skies after winning.

“That Sunday I was on my phone watching her, and that truly gave me an inspiration to kind of – if she can do that, she can run 90 whatever kilometers in a day, nine and a half hours or whatever it was, then I can do anything,” Burmester said.

Golf is less arduous, but Burmester has also been dealing with a personal issue he did not divulge, and if there’s one thing golf does in four hours-plus, it gives someone time to think. Burmester managed to keep his mind on his game.

“I've just been grinding and trying to get better,” he said. “Today was not easy.”

But it was eventually successful, and profitable. Burmester collected $4 million for the individual win and another $750,000 for being a part of the winning team, Stinger. Since he was occupied in the playoff, captain Louis Oosthuizen picked the other team members, Charl Schwarzel and Branden Grace, for the two-on-two sudden-death playoff against Torque. Both birdied to take care of business.

“We may all be looking at houses,” joked Oosthuizen.

All four stayed in the same house this week.

Don’t feel bad for Rahm and Ballester, who each pocket $1.875 million in individual earnings for finishing second, nor for Carlos Ortiz, whose fourth-place finish a stroke out of the playoff at 8-under 205 earned him a cool million.

“I had a good opportunity the last few holes to maybe close it, but I couldn't do it, and yeah, I'll learn from it,” Ballester said. “When you lose in a playoff to a birdie, there's not much you can do. I think I hit a great second shot. I executed a great putt. It could have gone in. Hopefully next time it does.”

Ballester has improved every start since joining LIV at Virginia. A tie for 50th there, solo 48th in Dallas, tied for 23rd in Andalucia, Spain, tied for seventh in London and now a playoff loss here. Indianapolis is next week, and he may see the checkered flag first.

But Sunday, it was Burmester and his Stinger teammates making like Dan Gurney and spraying the Champagne.

Around Bolingbrook 

A brief shower scattered the gallery of about 10,000 spectators around noon. … Anthony Kim, the butt of too many jokes in his comeback, scored 5-under 66 in the final round, his second straight under-par round after an opening 82. … Joaquin Niemann (tied for 17th) still leads the LIV standings, but Jon Rahm closed the gap to a little over 12 points. Niemann still leads the money race with $21,447,381 in earnings. Dean Burmester increased his season haul to $9,673,333.

– Tim Cronin

The Grill Room – LIV still on the outside looking in

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Sunday, August 10, 2025

This is the fourth year of LIV Golf, which today wraps up its fourth visit to the Chicago area, the first two years at Rich Harvest Farms, and the more recent two years at Bolingbrook Golf Club, a course as public as Rich Harvest is private.

Galleries have been reasonably large all four years – Saturday last year set what LIV said was a record for a round of their rodeo in the U.S., with 15,000 on hand, and that was surpassed yesterday by a throng of some 18,000 – and the crowds have seen some fine play. The three victors here – Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm – all have undeniable pedigree in the game at large. All three have at least a decade more of being a threat in major championships.

That pedigree is something LIV still lacks. The supposed agreement to somehow meld the PGA Tour and LIV into one happy professional golf family only ended up ending legal hostilities, and the invoices from the law firms that come with it. That benefited the PGA Tour, which, unlike the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV operation, doesn’t have oil wells to draw on for excess expenses. (And the animus toward those who bolted continues, if the report of a five-year suspension of Hudson Swafford from PGA Tour play is any indication.)

What LIV doesn’t have in the golf universe is a sense of importance. Never mind the glitz associated with a LIV weekend – the skydivers, the techno music, the Saturday night concert (something adopted by the John Deere Classic, as traditional a tournament as there is, on weekends the past three years), and the Formula One TV leaderboard that proves we all need better eyesight or bigger televisions. All that, if changed or abandoned, wouldn’t make a difference in what LIV golf really is.

It is golf’s version of the Savannah Bananas. That concoction of baseball, created nine years ago by Jesse Cole, a fan of Bill Veeck, has swept the nation in popularity the last three years. Fans love the dancing, the music, the wacky rules changes – a fan catching a foul ball counts as an out – and the atmosphere. But the Bananas and their companion teams in the Banana Ball Championship League, the Firefighters, the Party Animals and the Texas Tailgaters, know where they stand in the firmament of baseball. They are the convivial sideshow, introducing new fans to the game as much as entertaining old fans.

Nobody sees the Bananas as a threat to the majors, or even the minors.

LIV has the same fun vibe in person, fans having a good time even in sweltering heat, but from the start, the PGA Tour has seen LIV as a threat. While the Tour made many missteps, starting with commissioner Jay Monahan’s refusal to talk to the Saudis, an error which has cost the Tour dearly, LIV’s signing a galaxy of stars certainly hurt the established circuit in the short run.

LIV’s misstep was in believing all the notables would add up to instant credibility. It has not. The stubborn reluctance to tweak its rules enough to gain a seat at the world ranking table has meant LIV’s results are essentially irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Joaquin Neimann has won five times this season and is undeniably one of the world’s best players, but that’s gotten him bupkis in the point system.

Just why the world golf ranking bosses – now led by CBS commentator Trevor Immelman, a former Masters and Western Open winner – is so dead-set against team play being a component of LIV tournaments is baffling, but that’s a major sticking point. And the LIV leadership, right up to the Saudi crown princes, thinks team golf is the greatest thing since the drill bit, so the stalemate is likely to continue. (One idea being whispered in LIV circles is dumping the silly team names – we’re looking at you, Majesticks – and lining up players by country or region, and playing a tournament in each country/region annually for a world team championship.)

The current stalemate leaves someone like Neimann in limbo, 103rd in the world rankings when he should be in the top 25 – despite finding more high grass Friday than a herd of elephants – and potentially adrift when it comes to next year’s majors unless he tries to qualify for the Opens. (That ranking will get worse when his fifth and first in a pair of 2023 Australian PGA tournaments goes off the board late this year.)

DeChambeau, 16th in the world, has a remarkable seven top-10 finishes in his last nine non-LIV starts, eight of them majors, including the 2024 U.S. Open win at Pinehurst, so he’s safe for the nonce.

Tyrrell Hatton is 27th at the moment, the next-highest LIVer, but Rahm is 75th and dropping like a rock. He was as high as third before leaving for LIV, but even a pair of top-10 finishes in the PGA and U.S. Open got him no higher than 59th. At least he has a green jacket and the permanent invitation that comes with it.

Until LIV and the Tour make a deal on team play, and on how LIV can co-exist with Tour play in the U.S., and presumably the lifting of sanctions on players like Swafford, the LIVers will be where legendary Beverly Country Club caddie master Eddie Barr said you don’t want to be in golf. They will be on the outside looking in.

– Tim Cronin

Of leaders and real leaders

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Saturday, August 9, 2025

There’s an old saying in golf that in the early rounds, those in the lead are sometimes only there thanks to math, and that those in control of the proceedings, sometimes several strokes back, are the real leaders.

That brings us to the leader board at breezy Bolingbrook Golf Club, where LIV Golf Chicago as completed two of three rounds. Atop the pile through 36 holes is Dean Burmester, whose total of 9-under-par 133 is built upon rounds of 68 and 65, the latter crafted on Saturday of five birdies and an eagle, offset by a lone bogey.

Burmester is 36-year-old South African who played several years on the European Tour and for a brief time on the PGA Tour before jumping to LIV for a small bucket of cash. 

Nearly as well placed is Josele Ballester, the Spaniard who recently turned pro and remains better known for urinating into Rae’s Creek during the opening round of this year’s Masters. He has since apologized for the breach of toonimint ethics, and, as best is known, has thankfully availed himself of the facilities so far at Bolingbrook, which is dotted with tempting lakes.

Ballester, who got off to a shaky start in LIV but finished tied for seven in the most recent tournament in the U.K., stands at 7-under-par 135 after rounds of 69 and 66.

There’s someone else at 135: Jon Rahm, of whom you may have heard. He is among the world’s elite players, the defending champion at Bolingbrook and the premier gate attraction, along with Bryson DeChambeau, this weekend.

It’s not only fair to say Rahm is the real leader, the concept just about shouts at those who consult the scoring. Rahm has Masters and U.S. Open titles. Burmester has watched the Masters on television. Ballester found the creek but missed the cut at Augusta National.

That trio will be in the final grouping tomorrow morning – play begins at 9:05 a.m., courtesy of our television peers at Fox – but Rahm is the one to watch in the group.

DeChambeau is the other one to watch, and he’s immediately behind at at 6-under 136 following a second straight 3-under 68.

Rahm built his 4-under 67 on a foundation of 5-under across four holes – an eagle on the par-5 12th followed by three straight birdies after a so-so start. Burmaster used the same formula to kickstart his 6-under 66.

“I made an incredible swing on 12 on that second shot with a 4-iron,” Rahm said. “That was about as good as I can hit a golf shot. Making that eagle is what kind of propelled me, changed the momentum the rest of the round and gave myself a really god chance on those final nine holes.

“Happy to give myself another chance going into tomorrow.”

Rahm has mostly been out of the rough and in the fairways thus far, much as he was last year. He certainly seems to be a horse for this course.

Burmester had trailed Ballester by two strokes at the turn, but his eagle-birdie binge jumped him into the lead and he kept it. It was his second eagle on No. 12, a straightaway 621-yard hole reachable in two by big hitters, in as many days.

“It’s exactly what I needed,” Burmester said. “Eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie and just hang on coming in.”

It’s worked so far.

Ballester said he want back to basics after finishing tied for 50th and 48th in his first two LIV starts. Saturday’s round was his sixth straight under par.

“I’ve been working really hard over the last month,” Ballester said. “It’s been great to see it paying off a little bit.”

Spoken like a leader.

Around Bolingbrook

Anthony Kim, who opened with an 11-over 82, bounced back with a 3-under 68 on Saturday, one of his best rounds since rejoining competitive golf. It’s his seventh under-par rounds in 35 starts this season. … There’s a three-way tie for the team lead between the Crushers, captained by DeChambeau, the Fireballs, featuring Ballester, and Stinger, whom Bermester toils for. They’re all 10-under. Rahm’s Legion XIII is sixth at 1-under. … The 91-degree temperatures are slightly mitigated by clouds, but the steady 21-mph south wind had the feeling of a blast furnace. … The gallery of about 18,000 set a new LIV record for an American gallery. Friday’s appeared to be around 9,000. … Sunday TV: 9-11 a.m. on FS2, switching to WPWR-TV 50 at 11 a.m., as WFLD is occupied with the Bears’ preseason pillow fight with Miami.

– Tim Cronin

Johnson, Garcia come back to life

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Friday, August 8, 2025

Remember Dustin Johnson? How about Sergio Garcia?

Those erstwhile stars now ply their trade on the LIV golf circuit, which has rumbled into the Chicago area – Bolingbrook Golf Club, to be specific – this week for the fourth time in as many years. Friday, both players brought back memories of their best days on the PGA Tour, each scoring 4-under-par 67 to share the lead after the first of three rounds on the sturdy municipal layout.

Johnson, who captured the 2010 BMW Championship / Western Open at Cog Hill and last won at LIV’s Las Vegas stop 18 months ago, scattered six birdies across his card, offset by a pair of bogeys, to get to a share of the lead late in the round. The 41-year-old sees room for improvement in his game.

“I hit a lot of really good iron shots and drove it halfway decent,” Johnson said. “It’s close. It only takes a couple of shots here or there.”

Garcia, the world traveler from Spain first seen chasing after Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah, most recently triumphing in Hong Kong in March and lately falling out of form, survived a scare on the par-4 15th, his 16th hole, shanking a wedge but saving bogey after a run of four straight birdies and eight birds overall.

“A tricky day out there,” Garcia said. “It was good to be able to hit the right numbers (on approaches) most of the day. I’m happy with my round.”

Speaking of memory lane, remember Phil Mickelson?

The lefty? The phenom who took forever to win a major, then won his sixth, the 2021 PGA, after he’d turned 50?

That Phil Mickelson? The one who then jump-started golf’s civil war by signing with LIV for a king’s ransom and opening the door to similar riches for many of his peers? And who, four years in, hasn’t won on the rebel circuit?

Yep, that Phil Mickelson. Well, the 55-year-old led for a long time Friday thanks to a string of four straight birdies before back-to-back bogeys on the 17th and 18th, his 16th and 17th holes, derailed his chance to lead outright or share it. But at 3-under 68, it’s his best start since a 4-under 67 at LIV’s stop at Robert Trent Jones Golf Course in Virginia Beach. He sees the end of the season – there’s one individual tournament after this one, then the team championship, the same week as the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake – as an opportunity to salvage his year.

“This is a hard golf course, and with the (16 mph) wind, it can be challenging,” Mickelson said. “I was fortunate to make some birdies. It’s got a mixture of fun birdie holes and really difficult pars.” 

Mickelson is among a sixsome of players at 3-under, a gaggle including Bryon DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Terrell Hatton. All could have had better rounds but for a miscue. Hatton, by his reactions on the green, thought he should have scored 57 or so. Every missed putt was greeted with a look of shock.

The average age of the eight players at 67 and 68 is 38.25. Experience pays in LIV golf.

Then there was Joaquin Niemann, who was allergic to fairways in the opening round. A five-time winner this year, Niemann was 4-over though eight holes thanks to a bogey on the par-5 third and a triple-bogey 7 on No. 7. He rallied a bit and birdied the last to come in at 3-over 74, one of 27 players over par.

Fox in the henhouse

LIV touted its move from CW to Fox as a boon to larger ratings this year, but it really hasn’t worked out that way. Part of the problem may be the variety of times and the need to change channels. LIV uses the shotgun format to, in theory, get everyone in the field on television, but all three days at Bolingbrook are split between broadcast network Fox and either cable channel FS1 or FS2, the latter of which in in fewer homes.

Friday’s broadcast started at 11 a.m. and went from FS1 to Fox at 1 p.m. Saturday starts on Fox at noon and switches to FS2 at 2 p.m. Sunday starts on FS2 at 9 a.m. and moves to Fox at 11 a.m., but in Chicago there’s a twist. Fox-owned WFLD has the Bears preseason opener on Sunday, so the Fox portion of the final round will be on WPWR-TV 50. (And the IndyCar race on Fox apparently won’t be seen in Chicago until it airs on tape on FS1 at 7 p.m.).

Around Bolingbrook

Word on the street is 18,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday. … High man for the day was Anthony Kim, whose 11-over 82 included six bogeys, a double-bogey and a triple-bogey.

– Tim Cronin