Golf dad yells in delight after 4-year-old gets hole-in-one
At Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, Colorado, 4-year-old Caden gets a hole-in-one on the first golf course he’s ever played.
Rickie Fowler already knows how this can go wrong. He came into last year’s BMW Championship 48th, played his way into position and then he gave it all back on the back nine Sunday. Now, he is 30th heading into this week’s tournament, the last spot that advances to Atlanta, and he holds it by less than two points.
He will be able to feel the rest of the pack breathing down his neck.
The top 30 players in points will advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake. The 31st goes home. At Bellerive Country Club this week, Nos. 28 through 31 are separated by less than two and a half points total.
A spot at East Lake, however, isn’t the only thing being decided this week.
The season-long points race ends Sunday night in St. Louis, not in Atlanta. The Tour Championship is straight stroke play, all 30 players starting even. So the standings stop mattering Sunday night. This is where the PGA Tour pays out close to $100 million in bonus money, with 30th place paying $215,000.
Here are the players under the most pressure heading into the BMW Championship:
Rickie Fowler
He is the cut line right now. Fowler leads Gary Woodland by a point and change, which means one putt over four days can decide it.
Last week did not help Fowler. He shot 66 in the third round, closed with a 72 and tied for 34th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He started that week 28th and left it 30th. He has reached the final week of the postseason once since 2019.
He is 37 now and hasn’t won since the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic. He had just four top-10 finishes this season.
Bud Cauley
Cauley was outside the top 30 eight days ago. A tie for 12th in Memphis moved him up five spots to 29th, 0.115 points ahead of Fowler. Kurt Kitayama made the same jump into 28th the same afternoon.
Neither has been here before this month. Neither can absorb a bad week the way a Scottie Scheffler can.
Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay also tied for 12th at TPC Southwind last weekend, one of his better weeks of the year, and dropped a spot anyway, from 42nd to 43rd.
He needs roughly 230 points to reach the top 30, which means he needs to contend on Sunday.
Cantlay won the FedEx Cup in 2021. He has four top-10 finishes this season and no wins.
Justin Thomas
Thomas tied for 47th in Memphis last week and fell five spots to 44th. He has two PGA Championship wins on his resume. He has roughly 230 points to make up and just these four rounds to do it.
This season Thomas has two top-10 finishes in 16 starts.
Collin Morikawa
Morikawa is safe in the FedEx standings. He is ninth in points, nowhere near the cut line, but he is playing for the Presidents Cup. The six automatic U.S. qualifiers lock when this tournament ends and Morikawa has been holding the last one with Chris Gotterup right behind him.