BMW Championship: Low-Ranked Players to watch make a leap

The FedEx Cup standings made their cut to 70 heading into the BMW Championship. Here are some players to watch who could make the jump.

At first, glance, being back 300 points or so seems nearly insurmountable. Usually, a second-place finish gets you 300 points. It’s not the case at the BMW Championship. Things are a bit different in the PGA Playoffs, as evidenced by the results at the Northern Trust last week.

A win gets you 1,500 points. In fact, all results are multiplied by three. For some of the golfers that just made the 70 player field, it’s a beacon of hope. Being 300 points back is rough, but it gives you a few more options.

Currently, the 30th ranked player, Billy Horschel, is sitting at 893 points. For now, I’m going off that number only. Chances are some of the players in the 20-40 range are going to score well, making the number of points that need to be made up increase. That leads to an exercise in futility trying to formulate and calculate all the possible results. We will leave it at the number of 893 points for now.

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Here are some of those players with a slim shot to make it out of the BMW Championship and find themselves in the field of 30 at the Tour Championship.

Corey Conners – 54th place, 259 points back, needs a 7th place finish or better to earn at least 270 points. Conners has been playing some great golf this season but is just a step below the top names in the field. Sure, finishes in the top 10-25 in multiple weeks look great on your resume and lead to a nice amount of winnings for the year. What it doesn’t do is rack up the FedEx Cup points. Conners is going to need to get to at least 7th to have a shot at the Tour Championship. —–Look at his results.

Matthew Fitzpatrick – 60th place, 291 points back, needs a 6th place finish or better to earn at least 300 points. Fitzpatrick has played some up and down golf this year. Even as of lately, he has done so as well. Just take a look at how he played last week at the Northern Trust. —- something about bad stretches, good stretches, and the same thing with his rounds.

Paul Casey – 64th place, 313 points back, needs a 5th place finish or better to earn at least 330 points. Paul Casey seems like one of those players you just can’t count out. It was just a few weeks ago where he made a charge up the leaderboard and tried to put pressure on Morikawa at Harding Park. —- Has he not played a ton on tour this year?

Max Homa – 68th place, 367 points back, needs a 4th place finish or better to earn at least 405 points. Homa, like Casey, seemed like he was going to put together a run at Harding Park. At one point, he was within a stroke of the lead, and it seemed like this was going to be the ultimate ascension for the social media darling. In the end, he finished in T-7th place, but still earned some points, respect, and the needed experience of being in a high-pressure situation.

You know who I don’t think has a chance to make it (or maybe just doesn’t want to?) is Tiger Woods. The date he is focusing on is September 17th. There is only one thing Tiger cares about, and that’s winning majors. He wants to make sure that he is in prime shape to play in the major. Playing so many weeks in a short period (5 in seven weeks possibly) is something that, at least in the back of his mind, he knows is bad for his body. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him show up at the BMW Championship, work on stuff, focusing more on his game than on the leaderboard, and head off into the sunset missing the Tour Championship in preparation for Mid-September.

Then again, he is Tiger Woods. You can never count the man out.