There’s so much to play for at the BMW Championship in the penultimate PGA Tour event of another sterling season that it’s difficult to know where to start.
A field of 50 at Olympia Fields will be whittled down to 30 for next week’s Tour Championship finale at East Lake in Atlanta.
All of the qualifiers as the race for the FedEx Cup reaches its conclusion will gain exemption for next year’s Masters, Open and Open majors.
They will also have their PGA Tour card guaranteed for the next two years if they are not already eligible and this is the final chance for the Americans in the field to pick up the points needed to finish in the top six in the Ryder Cup points system and automatically qualify for the United States team. No pressure then, chaps, eh?
Patrick Cantlay stands to gain huge rewards by winning the tournament for a third straight time and he’s in cracking form after taking the red-hot Lucas Glover to a play-off at the St Jude’s Championship on Sunday.
Apart from those two BMW victories the 31-year-old from Long Beach, California, has finished solo second and tied 12th in this event so he obviously knows how to handle golf’s postseason.
Cantlay has been sizzling this year with last week’s charge to the top of the leaderboard his seventh top-four finish, and he appeals at 10/1 with Betway.
Victor Hovland will relish tackling a course ranked as one of the toughest on the Tour and the Norwegian is always a threat when his game clicks so he’s next on this week’s portfolio at 18/1 with with bet365 while Max Homa, who cashed the each-way part of our bet on him on Sunday, should also flourish this week.
Homa was tied-sixth in Memphis and has the new dad bounce to his game, making him an attractive proposition at 25/1 which is also with bet365.
Our final each-way bet is the interesting Kurt Kitayama.
His game should be suited to the demands of this track and it’s often a case of the better quality opposition he faces, the better quality golf he produces.
Kitayama is 200/1 with Unibet and BetUK and 11/1 with the same two firms to finish in the top ten.
• Nottingham Forest are 10/11 with BetUK to beat Sheffield United under the Friday night lights at the City Ground after a decent opening show at Arsenal. Taiwo Awoniyi is 5/1 with bet365 to break the deadlock and 21/10 with the same firm to score at any time.
• Over 549.5 One Day Cup runs when Surrey entertain Lancashire at the cosy Woodbridge Road ground in Guildford is 5/6 with bet365. Surrey are evens to hit the most sixes and 10/11 to win by over 1.5 wickets/6.5 runs with the same firm.Â
