2022 BMW Championship: Picks and Predictions for Wilmington
Wilmington Country Club hosts the penultimate event in this year’s FedEx Cup playoffs for the very first time.
With the first event in this season’s race for the FedEx Cup officially in the books attention now shifts towards this week’s BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware.
The second of three playoff events will be played at Wilmington Country Club this week for the very first time as players fight for the right to advance to next week’s season finale, Tour Championship, in Atlanta.
The 125 who advanced to this year’s FedEx Cup playoffs have been trimmed down to 70 after last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, and after this week’s BMW Championship only 30 will have earned the right to travel down to East Lake for the season finale.
Both Tommy Fleetwood and Cameron Smith earned the right to play in this week’s BMW Championship, but both have elected not to for different reasons, this all means that the field for the second event in the FedEx Cup playoffs is now set at 68.
Unlike last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, the BMW Championship will not feature a halfway cut meaning that each individual is guaranteed 72 holes of action this week. All ten players in the OWGR were set to tee it up this week, but that number has been reduced to nine following Cam Smith’s withdrawal on Monday.
Will Zalatoris returns to action this week as the new FedEx Cup number one after his win combined with Scottie Scheffler’s missed cut last week earned him top spot. The pair are joined by Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, and Viktor Hovland in a loaded field making the trip to Delaware this week.
The Robert Trent Jones designed Wilmington Country Club was established in 1901 and it will host this year’s BMW Championship for the first time, the biggest event the club has hosted since its establishment. Wilmington CC also played host to the Palmer Cup back in 2013, its biggest event to date.
The Par 71, 7,534-yard layout will use a mixture of holes from both Wilmington CC’s South and North courses to make up this week’s tournament routing.
The course will feature thick and penal rough, tight and challenging fairways, and large Bentgrass greens. Overall, players will need to bring a complete game from tee to green in order to contend this week.
Here is how the top 10 favorites coming into this week’s BMW Championship shake out over on WynnBet.
2022 BMW Championship Top 10 Favorites
(All odds courtesy of WynnBet)
- Tony Finau (+1000)
- Rory McIlroy (+1000)
- Jon Rahm (+1200)
- Scottie Scheffler (+1200)
- Patrick Cantlay (+1400)
- Justin Thomas (+1400)
- Matt Fitzpatrick (+1500)
- Will Zalatoris (+1500)
- Collin Morikawa (+2000)
- Xander Schauffele (+2000)
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Top 10 Pick: Aaron Wise (+350)
With the field shrunken down to 68 this week, I’ll begin things with a top 10 pick for the BMW Championship.
Aaron Wise has missed just one cut in his last ten starts and he comes into this week off of a solid showing at last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship where he picked up a 31st place finish.
A result that could have been significantly better had Wise just been able to piece together some things with his short game. The 26-year-old struck the ball extremely well last week in Memphis gaining strokes both off the tee and with his approach play.
Aaron has the complete tee-to-green game, an area he ranks 21st on Tour in this season. He also ranks top 25 in Par 4 scoring and has a penchant for excelling on demanding tracks, such was the case as part of a loaded field at this year’s Memorial tournament where he finished runner-up to eventual winner Billy Horschel.
If Wise can get anything out of his putter he can contend at this week’s BMW Championship.
Pick To Win: Joaquin Niemann (+4000)
2022 Genesis Invitational winner Joaquin Niemann had a reletively dissapointing major season after he came to life back in February at Riviera. The Chilean hadn’t played since St. Andrews going into last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, but he certainly showed very few signs of rust en route to a 13th place finish in Memphis.
The ball-striking was sharp for Joaquin and it was really just the putter that kept him from contending last week.
The 23-year-old ranks 11th on Tour in strokes gained tee to green this season and his ability with the driver should not go unoticed as well, Joaquin also ranks 16th from off the tee and 35th in driving distance.
If he can turn things around on the greens this week, which is a real possibility as he has typically performed better on Bentgrass greens thoughout his career, there is little reason why he can’t challenge for the title in Delaware.
I’ll take a chance on a player with exceptional talent at a nice number heading into this week’s BMW Championship.
Pick To Win: Cameron Young (+3000)
Can Young breakthrough the week after Zalatoris earned his first PGA win? It would certainly make for a great story if the former Wake Forest teamates were to go back to back in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
If you could imagine a perfect skillset to take to a locale like this week’s, Cameron Young may very well possess those set of skills.
Young is elite off the tee ranking top five in both strokes gained off the tee and driving distance this season. He also played a lot better last week then the final result (31st) may indicate after he gained over eight strokes from tee to green, and over four with his irons.
Next. 2022 BMW Championship Power Rankings. dark
The New York native should be very comfortable in this part of the country and after two runner-up finishes in his last three starts, this could be the spot where the PGA Rookie of the Year candidate earns that first W. I’ll roll with Young at a similar number to what Zalatoris just came through at last week.