The last time the BMW Championship was held at Caves Valley Golf Club, Patrick Cantlay defeated Bryson DeChambeau in a six-hole playoff to hoist the trophy with a 27-under score. All 69 golfers finished under par in 2021.
A full renovation of Caves Valley followed in 2023, ensuring there wouldn’t be the same dazzling results from the field the next time the course hosted the BMW Championship. That showed in this year’s tournament.
“I think it definitely played more difficult this week than it did a few years ago,” tournament champion Scottie Scheffler said. “I think they tried to make it more difficult, which obviously I think the winning score this year was much different than it was a few years ago, and I think they accomplished their mission in that sense.”
Scheffler entered the final round four strokes behind Robert MacIntyre for the lead, but the world No. 1 claimed the title with a three-under Sunday round and an overall score of 15-under. Twenty-one golfers hit that number in 2021.
Ahead of the tournament, world No. 2 Rory McIlroy made note of the new green complexes and the two par-fives that had become par-fours. He also mentioned that the entire course was drier than when it had been previously. He anticipated more of a challenge, and that assumption was correct.
McIlroy bogeyed three times in the first six holes of his first round, ending the day at even-par. He had one total bogey during his first round in 2021, instead marveling the gallery with seven birdies and one eagle.
After a four-under Friday round, McIlroy took himself out of championship contention on the third day with a one-over showing. That started with a double-bogey on the first hole, and by the end of the round, he had four bogeys on his card.
The par-three sixth was the most challenging hole for McIlroy on the weekend. He went four-over on that hole after a two-under score in 2021. But that wasn’t the hole McIlroy singled out as having undergone big changes — the par-four 18th hole was.
McIlroy said the tee shot on the 18th was particularly important, feeling it was a gettable hole if he played his tee shot properly. He found success with that, posting three pars and a birdie.
“For me, it’s a little bit of an awkward visual off the tee,” McIlroy said entering the tournament. “They’ve moved those bunkers a little closer to the tee this year. If you want to take them out of play, you’re going to be leaving yourself quite a long ways back.”
In 2021, Keegan Bradley finished tied for 60th with a score of three-under. This year, he scored a top-20 finish (one-under). He had three birdies at No. 18 four years ago. This year, he had four pars.
“It’s very long. It’s got water all up the right. It’s uphill,” Bradley said entering the tournament. “Any sort of shot into the green that’s going left to right has a good chance of going in the water. It’s extreme. You’ve got to hit two perfect shots to get it on the green. You have to hit the fairway.”
While Bradley didn’t struggled throughout the weekend at one specific hole, the par-four 12th with water to the right proved one of the more difficult ones for him — as it did for the entire field.
No. 12, which McIlroy predicted would be the toughest hole of this year’s BMW Championship, finished the weekend with the most bogeys (55) and double bogeys (18) of any hole. Golfers averaged an over-par score in every round. It was Scheffler’s worst hole, with two bogeys.
Before the tournament started, Scheffler said there’s a bit of an obsession with “score to par” in terms of the design of a golf course, while players prefer courses that reward good shots and punish bad ones.
Scheffler’s incredible chip-in birdie on the penultimate hole of the tournament effectively sealed his victory.
“I knew if I continued to execute and stay patient that things were eventually going to go my way,” Scheffler said. “Really, it all just boils down to execution. I think sometimes throughout the course of a round like that, if you’re not getting the most out of it, it can be frustrating, and then things can kind of snowball from there.”
Photo Credits: Jenny Butler and Charles Cherney
