BMW Championship 2022 Overview
The 2022 BMW Championship will be played on the South Course at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware. The 2022 event will mark the first time the PGA TOUR has played an event in Delaware, and it will be the third time since 2018 that the BMW Championship has been held on the East Coast.
Wilmington Country Club first opened its doors in 1901, with 18 holes spread across 135 acres. The club relocated in the 1950s, and the South Course, which opened in 1959, was designed by famous golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. The South Course, which measures over 7,500 yards from the championship tees, has been named by Golf Digest as one of the greatest in the United States.
The South Course at Wilmington Country Club will play 7,534 yards, par 71 this week as we combine holes from the North and South course. As we touched upon Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed it. After a tornado devastated the region in August 2020, Andrew Green redesigned the course in 2021. A 250-year-old white oak was among the 300 trees that the tornado downed in just five minutes, allowing Green to relocating the 14th green back by 60 yards. The front and back nines of the course will be combined in the tournament routing (e.g. Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 are actually the 10th, 13th, 14th, and 15th, holes for the members). The club had hired Andrew Green to redesign its North Course, but after the tornado, the club asked Green to help with the South Course as it got ready for the PGA TOUR Fedex playoff this week.
Looking at the overheads this week there will be a premium on driving the ball long and straight, the course will have thick rough and will certainly penalize the players, unlike many courses on the PGA Tour rota. Seconds shots here won’t prove that difficult for players who are hitting from the short grass, the greens are huge, and the key part will be hitting the right segment of the green to open up birdie looks. I expect tough scoring conditions this week with a winning score in the low teens circa 12-14 under par.
Let’s break down those all-important key skill sets required to lift the trophy and have a shot at the 18 million dollar FedEx cup trophy next week at East Lake
Key Skill Sets Required
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- SG T2G – A new course for the players this week with little to no data to reflect upon. Mean the starting point for my research will be those players who are excelling right now with their T2G game. Given this is the crunch stage of the season and big prizes on offer I want players onside who are cruising with their T2G game. I don’t want players who are up and down, fighting their overall game, especially heading into a tough test like this.
- SG Off The Tee – Looking at the video by the NBC team, the course has some seriously dangerous rough, from all accounts the rough will be grown to 3inch deep come to the tournament start date. This will mean hitting fairways is an absolute premium and gaining strokes off the tee over your competitors will set up opportunities to make birdies and climb that leaderboard. I expect the winner will be in the TOP 10 of SG Off The Tee come Sunday.
- Proximity to Hole – Hitting greens in regulation will be a walk in the park for the 70 hottest players in world golf, so instead of looking at GIR and SG Approach I want to pay more attention to proximity to the hole stats, and identify those players who, hit it closer than their peers consistently.
- SG Around The Green – This is a long track which will stretch many players. This will result in lots of short shots in and around the green complexes. I want players onside who have shown their long-term short game is up to the test ahead.
- SG Putting – Large and Undulating Bentgrass putting surfaces face the players this week, it will be the first time these players will have seen the surfaces here in Delaware, so when doing your research id encourage you to look for players with good 36/50 round stats in their favour on this unique surface.
