With Castle Pines not hosting a PGA Tour event since 2006, many will likely be expecting Scottie Scheffler to secure an eighth win of the year at the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup play-offs.
The Colorado course is something of an unknown quantity for many of the world’s best, while the BMW Championship is the first PGA Tour event to be held anywhere in the Centennial State in a decade.
Of course, the altitude is going to be a huge factor in deciding who clinches the final win ahead of The Tour Championship. Justin Thomas suggested that working out distances is going to be the biggest challenge at Castle Pines.
But when there is doubt over who is going to play well or poorly in the testing conditions, most fans probably assume that that means that Scottie Scheffler will emerge victorious, particularly in 2024.
Scottie Scheffler issues verdict on Castle Pines ahead of BMW Championship
Scheffler has won in all sorts of conditions this year, and only finished outside of the top 10 on two occasions throughout the season. So it may be ominous for many of his rivals that the world number one seems to like the look of the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.
“First impressions are good. Golf course is in great shape. Greens are starting to firm out a little bit,” he said.
“I think they could get it really firm if they wanted to, it just depends on what happens with those evening thunderstorms you have a tendency to get here. Yeah, golf course is in good shape. I think it’ll be a good test. Some of the fairways are pretty generous off the tee but there’s some also some other ones where they’re pretty tight and the rough is healthy, so I think it’ll be a good test this week.”
World number one an obvious favourite this week
The challenge for Scheffler is that he is more than likely going to be starting The Tour Championship with a two-shot lead – unless he plays poorly and Xander Schauffele does win this week. So he would be forgiven for not being as motivated as usual, particularly as someone who does not like playing the week before the biggest events.
Confidence is going to be so important around Castle Pines, with players needing to trust their yardages with their various clubs. Xander Schauffele noted that some of the yardages are weird to work with, so who adapts best to the task is likely to be right up there come the end of the week.
Given how Scheffler has won in all sorts of ways throughout the season, it should really surprise no-one if the 28-year-old does add the BMW Championship to his list of accomplishments.
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