The FedExCup play-offs continue at Bellerive Country Club for the BMW Championship.
With 70 -- or rather 69 following Daniel Berger's absence -- whittled down to 50, only 30 more will progress to next week's Tour Championship at East Lake.
Since 2007, the BMW Championship has served as the penultimate event of the FedExCup play-offs and has been held at 11 different venues, including Bellerive in 2008 when Camilo Villegas emerged victorious.
A former major venue, Bellerive held the 2018 PGA Championship when Brooks Koepka held off Tiger Woods to win by two shots.
Using the 2018 PGA Championship as a guide, Bellerive will play into the strengths of long hitters this week, with Koepka, Adam Scott, Jon Rahm, Gary Woodland, Thomas Pieters and Justin Thomas all finishing in the top nine the last time we saw Bellerive.
There is a creek running through the course and players need to be mindful of the water hazards dotted around the course, forcing occasional lay-ups off the tee.
Greens are bentgrass, as seen at Augusta, TPC Craig Ranch, Colonial, Hamilton, Muirfield Village, TPC Deere Run, TPC Twin Cities, Aronimink and Black Desert.
Rory McIlroy has spoken out about the state of his game after his poor showing at the FedEx St Jude Championship last week, but does he make the top five in our BMW Championship Power Rankings? Read on to find out.
5 - Tommy Fleetwood
The market is fascinating to look at this week. Scottie Scheffler's price has halved from last week after his rampant win at TPC Southwind and with Rory McIlroy's concerning form, he's drifted into the rest of the pack as one of half a dozen players vying for second favouritism. As such, Tommy Fleetwood gets the nod here.
In theory, the longer tests shouldn't suit Fleetwood as much as others owing to his driving distance, but what Fleetwood does have is a relentless driving accuracy that allows him to hit his 200-yard shots from the fairways rather than the rough, something few in the world are better than the Englishman at.
Bellerive looks like a test for the longer drivers, but we often see Fleetwood compete at these sorts of courses; he was T5 at Quail Hollow this year and T4 at Muirfield Village, two of the PGA Tour's most demanding tests in terms of distance.
In terms of his recent form, Fleetwood remains really strong. He's been no worse than T14 in his last seven starts, finishing T4-T11-T11-T14-T13-T4-T7, most of which have come at Signature Events and majors.
4 - Xander Schauffele
After a promising spring which included a third place at The Players and a T4 at the Valspar a week later, Xander Schauffele's form waned over the summer, missing a second cut of the season at the Scottish Open. Remember, Schauffele's last missed cut before this season came at the Masters back in 2022. Incredibly, his last missed cut outside of the big five came at the Farmers Insurance Open back in 2020.
That said, Schauffele might be turning a corner. The two-time major winner ranked 13th for SG: T2G at The Open and finished runner-up at the Rocket Classic, where he perhaps ought to have won having led at the turn on Sunday.
A really poor second round did for Schauffele last week, though he recovered well to finish T7 at TPC Southwind where, when excluding that second round, he actually shot the same score as winner Scottie Scheffler.
Schauffele isn't a bomber like a McIlroy, but he's got plenty of length off the tee that will serve him well this week.
3 - Sam Burns
There is a chance that Sam Burns's chance to win has been and gone; it's hard to sustain the level of play Burns is at right now, but make no mistake, the 30-year-old is playing truly elite golf.
In five of his last six outings, Burns has ranked fifth, third, seventh, fourth and fourth for SG: APP. He also ranks first in the field for SG: APP, SG: T2G and SG: TOT over the last eight tournaments as per Golf Betting System.
Burns continued his fine play with a T3 at TPC Southwind where no one was ever catching Scheffler. Burns will hope Scheffler's remarkable putting week last time out was a one-off...
2 - Ludvig Aberg
It would have been hard to believe if, when reaching the back nine at TPC Sawgrass with a two-shot lead, someone would have said Ludvig Aberg would go the entirety of 2026 winless, but that's where he's heading.
Aberg has actually played some really good golf this year but there are concerns about his ability to get over the line. Admittedly, he's not been particularly close to winning, but he did falter at the Valero Texas Open -- another event he could have won having taken a lead on Sunday.
A strong spring from Aberg saw top-fives at Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass, TPC San Antonio and Harbour Town, going on to finish T8 at Quail Hollow and T4 at Aronimink for the PGA Championship.
An underwhelming summer may be behind Aberg, who was T9 at The Open when ranking sixth for SG: T2G and T7 at the FedEx St Jude despite dumping three balls in the water on the par-3 11th across the week, playing those holes in five-over-par.
Aberg led the field in SG: OTT and was fourth for driving distance, and his work with the big stick should come in particularly useful at Bellerive.
Aberg is a strong bentgrass putter, but it's the length of Bellerive that will most play into his hands this week. Aberg loves the longer assignments and if he's to finally get that first win of the season under his belt, this might be the week for it.
1 - Scottie Scheffler
He's back. It's very hard to win an event on the PGA Tour while losing strokes in any of the four categories, but Scheffler managed it at TPC Southwind. A mere 11 birdies on Friday catapulted Scheffler to the top of the leaderboard, a position he never remotely looked like surrendering.
Scheffler has played outstanding golf all year and leads the PGA Tour in countless stat categories, it was just a case of putting four rounds together where it all clicked.
Strangely, it didn't all click last week for Scheffler, given he lost strokes around the green, but his best approach performance of the year combined with his best putting performance of the year was enough to lap the field and secure a second win of the year.
It's hard to see Scheffler playing as well as he did last week, but given he was so much better than the rest of the field, he might not have to.
