Facing No Pressure, Collin Morikawa Starts Strong at BMW Championship

Collin Morikawa merely needs to avoid catastrophe this weekend at the BMW Championships to advance to the Tour Championship, final leg of the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs.

The 29-year-old Cal grad seems on his way to ignoring that unlikely scenario after shooting a 2-under 68 for a share of 20th place on Thursday at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.

The top 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of play Sunday will qualify for the Tour Championship at Atlanta, beginning next Thursday. Morikawa carried a No. 9 FedEx ranking into this week’s event and, while not mathematically assured of advancing, is all but certain to qualify.

The 30 survivors among 50 entries this week will compete in Atlanta for a $40 million purse, including a $10 million first prize.

Morikawa’s opening round began and ended with birdies, and his 18 holes featured five birdies against three bogeys. He sits four strokes off the pace set by five players.

It sends him in the direction of a solid showing at the BMW Championship, where he has never finished higher than a tie for 25th place in six previous visits to the event. Morikawa tied for 33rd at the BMW last year and his average finish there is 40th.

It hasn’t mattered because Morikawa typically has arrived at the second week of the FedEx Cup playoffs in such solid position in the standings that he could afford to exhale.

The flip side is Morakawa has excelled once he gets to the Tour Championship, with three top-six finishes, including a runner-up performance in 2024, when he shot 26 under par but lost by four strokes to Scottie Scheffler.

In six tries at the Tour Championship, Morikawa has averaged an 11th-place effort and carded a combined score of 66 under par over 24 rounds.

Gary Woodland, who began the week on the fence at No. 31 in the FedEx Cup standings, birdied four of his first eight holes and shot an eagle on No. 11, finishing the day in a five-way tie for the lead at 64.

Wyndham Clark, J.J. Spaun, Rory McIlroy and Chris Gutterup — all of them in solid position in the rankings — also carded 64s to own a piece of the lead.

Scheffler, sitting comfortably at No. 1 in the world rankings and FedEx standings, made bogeys on four of his first seven holes and wound up tied for 44th place with a 2-over 72.

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