Thursday at the BMW Championship arguably has the potential to be one of the most intriguing days on the PGA Tour this season, with Castle Pines hosting the world’s best players for the first time since 2006.
Of course, the stakes are extremely high for many players in the field at the BMW Championship, with those in the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings booking their ticket to Atlanta and The Tour Championship at East Lake.
But obviously, Castle Pines looks set to put the top 50 players on the PGA Tour this year to the test. Wyndham Clark has noted how unique a challenge Castle Pines is, with the 2023 US Open champion growing up in Colorado and often practising on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.
Justin Thomas has suggested that working out yardages is the biggest challenge this week, with the altitude seeing the ball travel a lot further through the Colorado skies.
Smylie Kaufman reveals why the Castle Pines greens have been messing with his head
The players who adapt best to the change in elevation are likely to be right in the mix to clinch the penultimate play-off event. But it also appears that reading the greens is going under the radar as a key skill for the coming days.
Speaking on The Smylie Show about the course, Smylie Kaufman suggested that he has been surprised by the layout in Castle Rock – but he was also stunned when he got up to the greens ahead of the event.
“Going around this golf course, what surprised me is how residential this place is with some out of bounds very close to some of the fairways that will definitely catch some guys’ attention. And it’s a Jack Nicklaus design and it reminds me at times of shots that you have at Memorial, some shots remind me of what you’ll have at Augusta National. Some of the drives remind me, for the most part, of what you see in typical mountain golf which Reno would be an example, but I don’t think anybody in the top 50 here has probably played Reno in quite some time, so it’s probably not a good one to look at,” he said.
“But it’s a very unique golf course, blended with mountain golf, perfect conditions and then typical small sections that you have to hit to with wedges that you’re now trying to calculate with some firm greens and the ups and downs you’re going to have to calculate. And pretty much every single hole for the most part, you can’t miss long, so that’ll be the big thing, can guys leave it in the correct positions?
“Because I do think when you do get on the greens, you’re going to be able to make some putts. Although, just me standing on the back of a certain green and then I go to the front of the green, I’ll think it’s uphill when I’m looking at the front, and then I’ll go to the back and then I see it the total opposite way, and it was messing with my brain.”
A test to not take lightly
Clark noted that scoring is probably going to be lower than some of the members would like this week, so there are likely to be some players who absolutely love the challenge and thrive.
But clearly, Castle Pines is threatening to really trip some of the players up. If they are unable to get a grip on their yardages or find themselves slightly wayward off the tee, then they are going to have serious problems throughout the week.
And it would certainly appear that the greens are ready to cause a number of issues if players get at all complacent on the putting surfaces.
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