Rory McIlroy would appear to be juggling a lot of balls in the air at the one time – as a player and increasingly as a vocal advocate for the PGA Tour in the face of LIV Golf’s arrival on the professional scene.
But the world number three’s early arrival at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware for the BMW Championship was with the intent of getting a head start on everyone in impacting at this second of three tournaments in the FedEx Cup playoff schedule.
A missed cut in the first event, the St Jude Championship, gave McIlroy one of two options: to join his family in upstate New York for the weekend, or to get to Wilmington early to appraise the new tour stop in his efforts to move up the standings and get into a stronger position heading to next week’s Tour Championship.
“If I went [to New York], I wouldn’t have been practicing or playing, and the one thing I needed to do was practice and play,” said McIlroy of his reasoning in getting to the course with his caddie, Harry Diamond, adding:
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“It’s a golf course that’s a little more up my alley compared to, say, last week in Memphis. I was a little rusty last week as well, but there’s a lot more drivers off the tee, a lot of room off the tee, more scope to hit driver. Length is an advantage here, it’s the sort of golf course that I feel I can excel on.”
McIlroy is currently ninth on the FedEx Cup standings with the leading 30 players only advancing to the Tour Championship in Atlanta next week.
Séamus Power and Shane Lowry, paired together for the opening round, are on the outside looking in and need good weeks in the no-cut tournament to get back inside the top-30.
The eve of the tournament also saw Tiger Woods flying into town for a meeting with the PGA Tour’s top players in marshalling their player power on the circuit in light of the ever-growing threat posed by LIV.
Of Wood’s impact, McIlroy remarked: “It’s impactful, and I think it shows how much he cares about the [PGA] Tour, how much he cares about the players that are coming through and are going to be the next generation.
“Like if or not, they can’t really sell Tiger Woods any more. The Tour had an easy job for 20 years. They don’t have Tiger [any more]. They have got a bunch of us and we’re all great players but we’re not Tiger Woods. We’re moving into a different era, and we just have to think about [doing] things a little differently.”
FedEx Cup
Purse: €14.75 million (€2.7m to the winner).
Where: Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
The course: The South Course at Wilmington Country Club – 7,534 yards Par 71 – was originally designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr in 1959 but underwent upgrading and necessary renovation under Andrew Green in 2021 after a tornado ripped through the area in August 2020 and caused severe damage.
In just five minutes, 300 trees were uprooted, including a 250-year-old Oak which enabled Green to move the 14th green back by 60 yards. The back nine features two Par 5 holes in excess of 600 yards, the 12th (634 yards) and 14th (649 yards).
The field: Cameron Smith, the Open champion and world number two, has withdrawn from the field citing a hip injury for a tournament that will feature just 68 players – with no cut – in what is the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Will Zalatoris, on the back of his breakthrough tour win last week in the St Jude Championship, holds the number one spot on the FedEx Cup standings. Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, and Rory McIlroy are among those looking to bounce back after suffering missed cuts in Memphis.
The leading 30 players after this tournament progress on to the Tour Championship in East Lake, Atlanta, where a $18 million pay-day awaits the winner.
Quote-Unquote: “My goal is to finish as high as possible on the leaderboard. I play to win; and, if not, I’m going to try to finish second; and, if not, third; and so on. I mean, 30th is better than 31st. simple as that, right? My mindset doesn’t really change. I know the consequences could be greater going into next week if you miss a shot or not, but you can’t be down the stretch thinking” — Jon Rahm.
Irish in the field: Shane Lowry and Séamus Power are in the pairing for the first round (off the first tee at 3.25pm Irish time); Rory McIlroy is playing alongside Sepp Straka (off the first at 7.30pm).
Betting: A new tour stop for one and all, so no previous course knowledge to factor in: Rory McIlroy is the 10/1 favourite with Jon Rahm priced at 12/1 but better value can be found elsewhere, with last week’s winner Will Zalatoris rated a 16/1 shot and recent breakthrough winner Joo-hyung (Tom) Kim at 33/1. Davis Riley looks decent each-way value at 66s.
On TV: On Sky Sports Golf live from 5pm (red button from 3pm).
