Golf

McIlroy, Spieth and Day set for battle at BMW Championship

Jason Day is the best positioned of the big three heading into Thursday's opening round

Rory McIlroy on the 18th green during Wednesday’s pro-am ahead at the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA
Rory McIlroy on the 18th green during Wednesday’s pro-am ahead at the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA
Thu Sept 17 2015 - 11:37

With the “Big Three” of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day dominating the game at the top level, the latest chapter in their battle for supremacy will unfold at this week’s BMW Championship.

World number one McIlroy, second-ranked Spieth and Jason Day (third) are all in the elite field of 70 players at Conway Farms for the third of the PGA Tour’s four FedEx Cup playoff events as they look to end their respective seasons with additional wins.

Australian Day is the best positioned of the three heading into today’s opening round, having triumphed three times in his last five events to lead the FexEx Cup standings over second-placed Spieth. American Rickie Fowler sits third.

“Obviously to get off to a good start here would be great,“ said PGA Championship winner Day, who has a top-five spot secured for next week’s Tour Championship finale regardless of how he fares at Conway Farms.

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“I’m going to stay top five [in the standings] so being able to stay at number one would be good going into Atlanta for the Tour Championship, for the FedEx Cup,” he said, referring to his bid for overall FedEx Cup honours and the bonus of $10 million.

“I got off to a good start at the Barclays, played okay at Deutsche Bank, and I’m looking forward to moving forward on this week going into next week as well.”

Like Day, Masters and US Open champion Spieth is also assured of a top-five spot in the FedEx Cup standings heading to Atlanta, no matter how he performs this week. As a result, he plans to play aggressively at Conway Farms.

Free-rolling scenario

“It’s really just a free-rolling scenario,” said the 22-year-old American, who has matched Day with four victories on the 2014-15 PGA Tour.

“As far as the final tally or the FedEx Cup, it’s not going to make much of a difference if I win this week or finish 70th . . . it makes you feel like you may as well go for broke here, play some shots under pressure that are more dangerous.”

World number five Fowler is oozing confidence after climbing to third in the FedEx Cup standings with his one-stroke victory nine days ago at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second of the four playoff events.

Good solid start

“Just get off to a good solid start tomorrow, and there’s no reason why I can’t be in a position to win the golf tournament come Sunday.“ he said.

While 70 players qualified for the BMW Championship, only the leading 30 in the FedExCup standings after this week’s event will advance to the Tour Championship finale.

Day, Spieth and Fowler are safely through to Atlanta, but the BMW Championship will be a nail biter for American Jason Bohn (28th) and Scotland‘s Russell Knox (29th), plus South African Louis Oosthuizen who sits right on the bubble at 30th.

The margin between McIlroy and Spieth is a wafer-thin 0.023 average points, the narrowest gap between the world’s top two players since the official rankings were launched in 1986.“It’ll be like that until one of us separates ourselves a little bit,“ McIlroy said.

“At the end of the day, it’s just about playing and playing well.

“I don’t know any other way we could determine the best player in the world. You could do it on a one-year point system instead of two.”