2023 BMW Championship Picks & Odds: Bet Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa & Viktor Hovland in FedExCup Playoffs

2023 BMW Championship Preview

Lucas Glover.

Lucas Glover again.

It's hard to call the first win a surprise after many of us bet Glover at events leading up to the Wyndham Championship. However, the second win was certainly a surprise to me.

He's been on the PGA Tour for nearly 20 years and had four wins on his resume prior to the start of August. He now has two wins in two weeks and finds himself inside the top five in the FedExCup Standings. The resurgence has been remarkable, as was the resilience of his pants on Sunday (sorry, I had to). A big congrats to Glover, but let's not make it three in a row.

The top-50 golfers in the FedExCup Standings will tee it up at the North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club this week. The last time we saw this course on the PGA Tour was at this event in 2020 when Jon Rahm beat Dustin Johnson in a playoff after the Spaniard sunk a 66-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.

There were only five golfers under par that week, and it played as the fourth-most difficult course on Tour that year. Due to all of the rain in the area, the course will likely play a little easier this time around, but it should provide a stern test of golf for this talented field.

Olympia Fields' North Course is a par-70 that measures 7,366 yards. Both of the par-5s are over 600 yards, and seven of the par-4s are over 450 yards. I went back and looked at the statistics from the 2020 edition of the event and calculated some averages — Driving Distance (311 yards), Driving Accuracy (48%) and Greens in Regulation (63%).

Olympia Fields essentially played like a U.S. Open venue. Based on the average Driving Distance and the Greens in Regulation Rate, we can expect a lot of drivers off the tee and a lot of scrambling opportunities this week.

Four of the top five golfers that week in Greens in Regulation Rate finished among the top six on the leaderboard. Hitting greens was the name of the game here a few years ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case again this week.

Let's get into the BMW Championship picks!

BMW Championship Outright Picks

Cameron Young +4000 (BetMGM)

There's not a lot in Cameron Young's game log that points to an incoming win, but I'm taking a very simplified approach with him this week: This course requires golfers to hit a lot of drivers, and that is by far the best weapon in his bag.

He's also shown an ability to catch fire with his irons and contend on tough courses with stacked fields. It would be fitting for him to get his first win in a big event like this one.

This is less of a statistics-based selection and more of a course fit/feel type of play.

BMW Championship Winner Without Rahm, McIlroy, Scheffler & Cantlay

Viktor Hovland +1200 (FanDuel)

The winner-without market is the one that intrigues me the most this week. Essentially, we are betting on which golfer will finish the highest if we take the four biggest favorites off of the leaderboard. Viktor Hovland is +1600 to win outright, so +1200 in the winner without market really stuck out to me.

Olympia Fields gives me Muirfield Village vibes (Rahm has won at both courses), and Hovland won there earlier this year. He has always been a strong ball-striker, and he has turned his biggest weakness (around the green) into a strength.

He played well at The Open Championship and was close to being in contention at the FedEx St. Jude Championship if not for a couple of untimely double-bogeys.

Collin Morikawa +1800 (FanDuel)

Much like Hovland, there's not a major difference between Collin Morikawa's outright number (+2500) and his winner without number (+1800).

If this is a contest based on who can hit the most greens, it's hard not to like Morikawa's chances. He's second in this field in Greens in Regulation Rate in 2023 and third over the last 24 rounds. His accuracy off the tee could provide major benefits with the rough being so thick, and he's one of the best iron players in the world.

He's been in contention a number of times but has yet to break through with a win this season. I like the way his game is trending, and hey, he could technically finish fifth, and this bet could still cash (assuming McIlroy, Rahm, Cantlay and Scheffler all finish in the top four).

With just two events left in the season, let's finish strong.