Hideki Matsuyama produced a magnificent birdie-birdie finish to win the FedEx St Jude Championship on Sunday'and cash a +3000 pick for us, and he will take his place in the 50-man field for the penultimate event of the PGA Tour season, the BMW Championship, in Colorado. Castle Pines, once the home of The International, has not staged a PGA Tour event since 2006 but it takes over BMW hosting duties this week.
The top 50 on the FedEx Cup standings will tee it up in the BMW Championship with one of two things in mind: achieving the best possible starting position at the Tour Championship or making sure they make the top 30, which books a ticket to East Lake next week. However, the BMW is a valuable prize in its own right and those who have hopes of banking the $18 million FedEx Cup bonus know that winning at Castle Pines will put them in a stronger position with next week in mind.
On paper, this Jack Nicklaus-designed Colorado layout is brutally long. Longer, in fact, than any other PGA Tour course at 8,130 yards. However, the high altitude makes the yardage deceptive and several winners of The International – a modified stableford event played from 1986 to 2006 – were among the shorter hitters in the field.