The top 50 players of this PGA Tour season have advanced to this week’s 2023 BMW Championship, the second leg of the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs.
After the opening round was delayed for two rounds due to inclement weather in the area, Rory McIlroy and Brian Harman find themselves atop the leaderboard at 5 under after each shot 65 on Thursday. Matt Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala and Chris Kirk are in tow a shot back in T-3 at 4 under.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the second round of the 2023 BMW Championship. All times Eastern.
An unexpected easy day at Olympia Fields in the first round of the BMW Championship on finished with an expected first-round leader Thursday. Rory McIlroy (-5) co-leads after 18 holes along with Brian Harman (-5) with a host of stars chasing from just beyond those two.
McIlroy’s day ended spectacularly with one of the great birdies you’ll ever see (video below) before Harman matched his 65 later in the day.
The course itself took on loads of rain that delayed play early in the day and caused a championship venue to play a bit less difficult than it did back in 2020 when the last BMW Championship was held here. That is not expected to be the case over the next three days, however, and the tournament will likely get more difficult from here.
Let’s dive into McIlroy and Harman’s rounds, see who’s chasing them and what to expect over the final 54 at Olympia Fields.
Leaders
Rory McIlroy, Brian Harman (-5): McIlroy somehow hit three fairways but 15 greens in regulation to shoot his 65. It was a Bizarro Rory round, but it ended with this up and down from 128 yards away behind a gaggle of trees off to the left of the 17th fairway.
The shot was, by Rory’s own admission, pretty ridiculous.
“The window was OK,” McIlroy said. “It was more there was a couple of branches above the window I was looking at, and I was like, ‘If it hits those, it’s just going to drop down sort of near that front left bunker and I’ll have a decent angle down the green and mostly have at least a 10-footer or less to save par.’
“It was a bit of a hit and a hope. Just trying to thread that needle and hit it straight at the 17 sign. Yeah, it was just one of those, it was either sort of chip it out or try to take it on, and it’s only Thursday, I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll take it on and see what happens.'”
What happened was that he made 3 when 5 (or worse) was probably in play, which is often the type of turnaround you need when you’re trying to win a big time tournament like this.
Other contenders
T3. Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Chris Kirk, Rickie Fowler, Sahith Theegala (-4)
T9. Corey Conners, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young (-3)
Is this the week Scheffler’s putter keeps up with the rest of his game? That was the case Thursday when he gained a half stroke on the field with the flat stick. If that happens the other three days, he should cruise to his third victory of the season.
“I think it was a really solid day,” Scheffler said. “I hit a lot of greens. I rolled the ball pretty good on the greens. It was a pretty solid day. I think the conditions late in the day, the greens with all the rain, they got pretty chewed up, and all you could do was hit nice putts, and I felt like I did that most of the [time].”
Scheffler has finished in the top five in 24 of his last 46 starts and has six wins in there, which is a lot but perhaps not as many as he believes he could have based on how well he’s hit it. This week is a good chance to add No. 7.
I believe McIlroy is going to win this tournament, but that’s a tough number after the first round. You can go one shot down the board to somebody like Rickie Fowler (who hit it great on Thursday) and get a much better number. That’s probably the range I would land in without having to go too far back, which you don’t want to do because McIlroy and Scheffler are involved at the very top, and they’ll be very difficult to catch.
Friday tee times, TV and streaming info for the 2023 BMW Championship | NY Sports News
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