The Sunday Sweat

BMW Championship

Every Sunday, the LoopGolf team writes a newsletter for our community highlighting all the action around golf, betting and culture.

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An event not nearly hyped as much as it should be, the US Amateur golf tournament started this past Monday, 8/14, at Cherry Hills just outside Denver, CO, and it has been ⚡️⚡️⚡️.

The US Am is not only a fantastic format, a 64-player bracket style match play. It’s incredible drama, with kids walking after shots, fist pumping, slamming their club on the ground in frustration, and grinding over doubles to push holes. It’s also a look into the up and coming talent on the PGA TOUR. As a reminder, Sam Bennett won the US Am in 2022 then went on to finish 16th as an amateur at The Masters in 2023.

This Sunday will showcase Neal Shipley of Ohio State vs Nick Dunlap of Alabama in the final match which will take place over 36-holes and put one of these players in the history books. This is especially the case for Nick Dunlap, who would join Tiger Woods as the only players to win both the US Junior Am and the US Am 👀. The only difference being Tiger won both the US Junior Am and US Am three times EACH, both in back-to-back-to-back fashion. Just wow. The winner tomorrow also receives automatic bids to three major championships in 2024, The Masters, The US Open, and The Open Championship.

Shipley is coming off an INCREDIBLE semifinal win Saturday where he didn’t lead the match until winning the 16th hole taking a 1UP lead. He then proceeded to nearly jar his 3rd shot on the 17th hole, leaving a tap in birdie, enough for a 2UP dub. He was FIRED UP after that wedge on 17 👇.

  • ⛳️ Tournament: BMW Championship

  • 💰 Purse: $20,000,000

  • 🎥 Watch: 2-6pm ET (CBS)

The BMW Championship is the last tournament of the PGA TOUR season before the pros compete for the ultimate $18M prize next weekend. With the top-50 in the FedExCup standings competing this weekend, only the top-30 will make it to East Lake in Atlanta, GA next weekend.   

Players on the bubble: With 20 players getting cut this weekend there are some notable names looking to play well enough this Sunday to make it to next weekend; Justin Rose (26), Jason Day (27), Jordan Spieth (31), Sahith Theegala (34), Cameron Young (40).

The Narrative: Max Homa started off this season 🥵. Winning the first tournament of the year, The Fortinet Championship, having himself a big Presidents Cup, winning the Farmers Insurance Open, and then finishing 2nd at the Genesis Open. With high flying expectations after that start he didn’t play well in the majors, T43 at the Masters and not making the cut at the US Open. But after a T10 at The Open Championship, a T6 last weekend at the FedEx St. Jude, he’s starting to get his groove back. Well, right up until he made a triple on the 7th hole Saturday and finished the day at 1-over par.

However, on Friday Homa shot a course record 62 (8-under par) and is right there heading into the final round, only two back of Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick. Should he win, he could secure the top spot in the FedExCup standings heading to East Lake 👀.

Scottie Scheffler ripped DOD on his approach to the 609-yard par 5 and touched 184mph ball speed. For context, the average ball speed with a driver off the tee on the PGA Tour right now sits around 171mph. The fact that Scottie got this one to the front edge shows his ball-striking genius… sheesh.

Speaking of ball speed… Rory McIlroy almost touched 190mph and sent this drive almost 370 yards. These guys are playing a different game than we do. With a win tomorrow, Rory would head to East Lake in first place and attempt to go back-to-back as the FedEx Cup champ, raking in $36mil over the last two years in that tournament… 💰💰.

Sam Burns is making a push to qualify for the Tour Championship next weekend. After two disappointing rounds to start this week, it appeared he might miss the top-30 cutoff. That is until he fired off a tie for the course record 8-under (62) on Saturday and now sits inside the projected top 30. Shots like this sure do help:

Outright Winner: Max Homa @ +900 ($100 to win $900) 

Why? Max Homa proved Friday he can go low when he shot 8-under course record 62 at Olympia Fields. Saturday he proved he can withstand some adversity: he made a triple bogey on the par-4 7th hole, but fought through the round and finished 2 shots back of the lead. Olympia Fields is a long course with really thick rough, sort of a US Open style venue. Homa has kept it in the fairway well this week and is top-8 in Strokes Gained, Off The Tee (DataGolf). He made over 135 feet of putts on Friday and his game seems to be trending nicely. C’mon Homa!!

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