Scenarios for players to make the top 30 at the BMW Championship

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – This week’s BMW Championship marks the second leg of the three-event FedExCup Playoffs, with just 50 players teeing it up at Olympia Fields Country Club (North Course) outside Chicago.

The top 30 after this week will advance to the TOUR Championship, which utilizes a Starting Strokes format to handicap the field based on pre-tournament position on the FedExCup standings. The low score (handicapped) after 72 holes at East Lake will earn the FedExCup title.

Qualifying for the TOUR Championship carries a two-year exemption on TOUR. It also brings an invitation to the 2024 Masters and traditionally has carried exemptions into the U.S. Open and The Open as well (those tournaments have yet to announce their exemption criteria for 2024).

The FedExCup champion receives a five-year TOUR exemption.

The player who finishes atop the TOUR Championship leaderboard is the FedExCup champion. Finishing first at East Lake brings an $18 million FedExCup Bonus. The runner-up receives $6.5 million, and everyone at East Lake earns at least $500,000.

Suffice to say, there’s plenty to play for at Olympia Fields.

Click here for a breakdown of the FedExCup Playoffs format and how it works.

The first two Playoffs events offer quadruple FedExCup points (2,000 to the winner) compared to a standard Regular Season event (500 points to the winner). It means increased volatility in the standings as the week unfolds. The BMW Championship features a $20 million purse with the winner of the no-cut event receiving $3.6 million.

Players on the top-30 bubble into the BMW Championship include No. 27 Jordan Spieth, No. 30 Sam Burns, No. 31 Sahith Theegala and No. 32 Justin Rose.

Only two players moved inside the top 50 at last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship: Cam Davis (No. 62 to No. 45) and Hideki Matsuyama (No. 57 to No. 47). How many will crack the top 30 this week in Chicagoland?

Here’s a look at the minimum finish needed for players who entered the week outside the top 30 to advance to the TOUR Championship.

Note: With no cut this week, all players who complete 72 holes are assured a minimum of 50th-place points.

Minimum finish needed to make TOUR Championship