Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois, 32 miles south of Chicago, will host the second leg of the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs as the BMW Championship will be staged at the historic North Course. Jim Furyk won the 2003 U.S. Open there and Bryson, let me have the Clear like Barry or the Cocktail like A-Roid, DeChambauroids won the 2015 U.S. Amateur there. The course is a 7,366 yard Par 70, the second longest Par 70 on tour this season. There are only 2, Par 5’s, No.1 is a 626 yard Par 5, and No.15 is 576 yard Par 5. More on the key holes shortly.

Justin Thomas is the defending champion of the BMW. He won last year at Medinah Country Club shooting -25 to win by 3 shots over Patrick Cantlay. Certainly a favorite this week at Olympia Fields.

Last week, Dustin Johnson put on a golfing clinic finishing -30 to win by 11 shots over second place finisher Harris English at The Northern Trust at TPC Boston. That was the largest margin of victory since Phil Mickelson won the BellSouth Classic by 13 shots on East Lake in 2006. Johnson shot a 60 on Friday only to be outdone by Scottie Scheffler’s 59, but for the week, went 67, 60, 64, 63. That’s phenomenal. He won his 22nd PGA title, tying 27 other golfers on the most victories list with Eldrick and Sam Snead having the most at 82. Dustin missed by one shot of shooting the lowest score ever on a PGA Tour event course. Justin Thomas shot a 253 at the 2017 Sony Open, and Dustin was at 254 last week.

With all of that, Dustin went back to work on Monday at Olympic Fields playing 7 holes and getting a weight lifting and conditioning session in that morning. So Dustin, who may be like Peyton Manning, who was the best “regular season” quarterback of all time winning 2 Super Bowls with 1 being over an average Chicago Bears team in 2007 in Super Bowl 41, and the other in 2016 with the Denver Broncos, when Broncos defensive end Von Miller completely dominated and won the game for the team sacking Cam Newton mercilessly and deeming him ineffective in the Broncos victory over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Manning was just along for the ride. Dustin has that kind of makeup as well. Wins a lot of regular tour events but only has 1 Major to his credit. I’m sure he’d like to build on that Major resume. He’ll have several more chances beginning with the U.S. Open, Sept. 17th-20th at the challenging and historic Winged Foot Golf Club in New York state. Dustin is 1st in the Fed Ex Standings, overtaking Justin last week, and is now No.1 in the world, taking over the spot from Jon Rahm.

Key tee times

11:52 AM CT, No.10-Sungjae Im, Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed

12:03 PM CT, No.10-Dustin, Justin, Daniel Berger

12:14 PM CT, No.10-Carlos Ortiz, Eldrick, Bubba Watson

12:58 PM CT, No.1-Xander Schauffele, Rory, Brendon Todd

12:58 PM CT, No.10, Kevin Kisner, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Champ

1:09 PM CT, No.1- Collin Morikawa, Harris English, DeChambeau

1:09 PM CT, No.10-Tyrrell Hatton, Hideki Matsuyama, Abraham Ancer

Tiger and Rory have been disasters recently. Tiger was 72nd at the PGA and last week was in the 60’s finish. Rory’s been right there with him and admits that he can’t get up for these tournaments right now. That’s unfortunate. Both of them crave the attention and they miss the fans more than anybody else on tour apparently. Eldrick has been whining about it for the last couple of weeks. For somebody who talks about “Privacy” and even named his Yacht, “Privacy,” he sure misses that attention. Kind of like 3rd graders needing their parents to approve of them when they hit a good shot. It’s just the normal right now without fans. Those 2 guys just need to suck it up and focus on playing well if they want any chance of succeeding at the Open 3 weeks from tomorrow. Not expecting much from them at Winged Foot.

Key Holes, Notes, PGATour.com

No.3, 461 yards, Par 4

The No.1 ranked hole on the course. This is considered the signature hole of the front 9. There are no fairway bunkers, but the drive is through a tight shoot of fairway, it’s a blind tee shot, and goes down a steep hill. The drive must find the left side or the approach may be blocked by the trees to a small, elevated green. The slope of the green is severe, so holding it will be a challenge. Anything on the front of the green may roll off the green and back down a steep stretch of fairway.

No.8, 247, Par 3

One of the toughest shots on the course is the drive on this monster par 3. The tee shot is long and uphill and hit into the prevailing wind. The green is well protected left and right by deep bunkers, 3 left, 1 right. Most of the players will hit fairway woods or long irons into the center of the green and hope to 2 putt for par. However, the putting surface has many undulations and tricky breaks that could lead to several 3 putts.

No.14, 444 yards, Par 4

This is the signature hole on the backside. Butterfield Creek crosses in front of the fairway at 125 yards out from the tee and runs down the right of a fairway that has been shifted over to bring the creek very much into play off the tee. The creek crosses the hole again at 300 yards from the tee. The elevated tee shot calls for a long iron or 3 wood to take the creek out of play, but that leaves an uphill shot over the creek to an elevated green with a tremendous amount of slope from back-to-front. Anything blocked to the right will find the trees, while anything hit in front of the green could roll back off and down the steeply sloping fairway. Instead of 2 routine putts for par, the player could face a 40 yard chip.

No. 15, 576 yards, Par 5

This is not a guaranteed birdie hole. Shorter hitters will play it as a true three-shotter, because the fairway turns sharply to the right about 275 yards from the green. Look for them to use a long iron or fairway wood off the tee, then hit a long iron to set up a wedge on their third shot. The Johnsons, JT’s, Performance Enhancer, and long hitters can reach in 2, but only if they keep their tee shots down the left side, which is tough as the fairway slopes left to right. If they end up on the right side, they’ll have to hit a slice, not a fade, around the crook of the curve to reach the green.

No.18, 496 yards, Par 4

The 18th is a long par 4 that plays into a prevailing wind. The tee shot must split 2 fairway bunkers, leaving a mid iron into a huge, sloping green. The green is one of the most difficult on the course with right to left and back to front breaks and a several slopes. Even the best can three putt this hole which will lead to a dramatic 72nd hole on Sunday.

Top 10 Fed Ex Cip Standings

1. Dustin, 2571 points. The No.1 player in the Fed Ex Standings after this event will start the Tour Championship at -10 and with a 2 shot lead. Pretty greatl reward for the leader going into next week at East Lake. So major incentive to be No.1 after the BMW.

2. Justin, 2479, 92 points back, 1,500 points for the winner at the BMW

3. Webb Simpson-2,163 points, 408 back not playing, withdrew due to burnout, saving up for Tour Championship next week.

4. Daniel Berger-1,917 points, 654 back.

5. Collin Morikawa-1,902 points, 669 back.

6. Harris English-1,767, 804 back.

7. DeChambeau-1,657, 914 back.

8. Sungjae Im-1,633, 938 back.

9. Rahm-1,580, 991 back.

10. Patrick Reed, 1,447, 1,124 back.

Weather

Thursday, Sunny, 90, 20% chance t storm. Wind 12 MPH.

Friday, 89, 20%, wind 10-20.

Saturday-76, Sunny, 10%, wind 13

Sunday, 76, Sunny, wind 7 MPH.

So after a couple of hot days the weather will be superb on Saturday and Sunday. Wind will be a factor thoug, especially the first 3 days.

TV

Thursday-Friday-2-6 PM CT, Golf Channel

Saturday-11 AM-2 PM CT, Golf Channel, 2-5 PM CT, NBC

Sunday-12-2 PM CT, Golf Channel, 2-6 PM CT, NBC.

Winner

I’ll take the 25 year old from Spain by way of Arizona State University. He finished tied for 5th last year at Medinah, though 9 back of Justin. Shot 68, 69, 66, 69 last year. Last week at TPC Boston in the Northern Trust, He shot 69, 67, 67, 65 to finish tied for 6th, well back of Dustin’s -30 at -16, but everybody was well back of Dustin. He wants to get his World No.1 ranking back as he’s now No.2, and he wants to win the Fed Ex Cup like all of the competitors who can win the $15 million bonus if they prevail as No.1 in the standings after next week at the Tour Championship. He won the Memorial in July. His only drawback can be his hot headedness at times. He seems to have a little better grip on it this year, but still has his moments where he kind of loses it. That could be costly in Majors. I’ll take him this week though.

Jon Rahm

Sleeper

I’ll take the 24 year old from “Goin” Mobile, Alabama by way of the University of Alabama. He finished his last 6 holes 6 under last week going birdie, birdie, eagle, par, birdie, birdie and shot 63 to get into the top 70 this week.. Wow. He’s 62 in the Fed Ex Standings, so he needs a big week to get in the top 30 at East Lake next week. Almost picked him to win it this week. He very well could.

Robbie Shelton