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Vincenzi: BMW Championship First Round Leader picks

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The top-50 players who remain in the FedEx Cup playoffs will head to Olympia Fields, Illinois to play the 2023 BMW Championship. Olympia Fields Country Club is a brute of a golf course that will test best players on Tour in all facets of their game.

In the past five editions of the BMW Championship there have been nine first-round leaders or co-leaders. Of the nine, six have started their rounds in the morning, and three have started in the afternoon. However, with only 50 players in the field, tee times shouldn’t be as much of a factor this week and all the players will be playing in similar conditions.

The only other time the BMW Championship was held at Olympia Fields CC, Hideki Matsuyama was the first-round leader after teeing off at 1:09 PM and shooting a 67 (-3). The course is extremely difficult, so targeting players who can limit mistakes will be just as important as targeting players who are prolific birdie-makers.

BMW Championship First-Round Leader Picks

Tony Finau +3500 (Caesars)

First-Round Tee Time: 1:16 p.m. ET

Tony Finau has been struggling of late but appears to have taken a step in the right direction over his last few starts. After finishing 7th at the 3M Open last month, he struck the ball pretty well at TPC Southwind last week. He lost 8.2 strokes putting, which clearly impacted his finishing position, but gained 2.0 strokes on approach.

In 2020, Finau was one of only five players to finish the week under par. Olympia Fields is a course where he should be able to use his elite driving ability to his advantage once again. He’s also finished in the top-10 of the BMW Championship in four of his past six starts at the event.

Cameron Davis +4000 (BetMGM)

First-Round Tee Time: 11:43 a.m. ET

Cameron Davis is extremely hot at the moment and his form should not be taken lightly heading into the BMW Championship. In his past three starts has finished 10th, 7th and 6th. In those three starts, he’s gained 6.6, 7.9 and 5.6 strokes from tee to green. His putter hasn’t been cooperating as much as he’d like, but on a golf course where he doesn’t need to go extremely low to grab the first-round lead, that’s less of a concern.

Over his last five starts, the Aussie has gained an average of 2.3 strokes on the field off the tee. That skill set will be crucial in starting off hot at Olympia Fields.

Justin Rose +4000 (BetMGM)

First-Round Tee Time: 9:59 a.m. ET

Right when it seemed as if Justin Rose’s form was falling off towards the end of the season, the veteran went and shot a course record (61) at TPC Southwind.

The Englishman loves difficult tracks, and Olympia Fields certainly qualifies. As a former U.S. Open champion, Rose is the type of player who thrives when conditions get tough. He’s also been incredibly successful at BMW Championships. He has four top-5 finishes at the event, including a victory in 2011.

With the Ryder Cup right around the corner, Rose looks like his game is getting sharp at just the right time.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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