Picks Summary
- Hideki Matsuyama to Win Outright (+3300) at Bet365
- Hideki Matsuyama to Finish Top 20 (-138) at Bet365
- Patrick Cantlay to Win Outright (+1000) at Bet365
- Patrick Cantlay to Finish Top 5 (+225) at Bet365
- Collin Morikawa to Win Outright (+2200) at Unibet
- Collin Morikawa to Finish Top 10 (+200) at Unibet
2023 BMW Championship
August 17 – August 20, 2023 at Olympia Fields
Can Hideki Raise His Game for the BMW?
Yes, I believe Hideki Matsuyama has shown the ability to raise his game at different times this season and could do so again this week at Olympia Fields in the BMW Championship.
The current campaign for the 2021 Masters champion has been a difficult one, fighting a shoulder injury throughout, which has seen him forced to return home for treatment.
Given that context, to make the cut for this week’s event at St. Jude with a brilliant last round of 65 was a mighty effort. Matsuyama left it very late, playing holes 13 to 17 in 5-under par, to move his FedEx starting day position of 61 to 47 and inside the top-50 cut-off.
That showed a huge bottle for the thirty-one-year-old Japanese player and the last time the BMW Championship was played here, in 2020 when he finished 3rd.
This championship track is right up Matsuyama’s ball-striking alley as you might expect. He must feel like last week’s finish got him out of jail and gave him another life and a second chance at a track that he is ideally suited to.
Here at OddsTrader our first pick for the BMW Championship is Japanese superstar Hideki Matsuyama.
Golf Pick: Hideki Matsuyama to Win Outright (+3300) at Bet365
Golf Pick: Hideki Matsuyama to Finish Top 20 (-138) at Bet365
FedEx Cup and Olympia Fields
The PGA Tour reaches Olympia Fields Country Club in Chicago, Illinois this week as the FedEx Cup has been whittled down to the top 50 players, and this event reduces the field size further to the top 30 for next week’s Tour Championship.
2020 saw the event held at the track with a winning 72-hole score of a miserly 4-under par by Jon Rahm, illustrating the severe test that awaits the players this week.
The course is a long par 70 at 7366 yards, and a major championship test of golf for the cream of the PGA Tour. The last men’s major championship held here was the 2003 US Open won by Jim Furyk by three strokes at 8-under par. The 2015 US Amateur was won here by Bryson DeChambeau and the 2017 women’s PGA by Danielle Kang.
Illinois’ own, Nick Hardy who just missed out on a spot here this week, described the difficulty of the course in a recent interview by saying,
“You can’t really fake it around there. You got to play really strong tee to green. I think it requires a great all-around game.”
Approach shots can be key into multi-tiered Bentgrass/Poa Annua super-fast greens which reach 12.5 on the stamp meter, which means long and straight off the tee is a pre-requisite.
If Anyone Can, Patrick Cantlay Can
If anyone can win this week and needs serious consideration it is Patrick Cantlay who returned to form last week, when losing a sudden-death play-off to the in-form, Lucas Glover.
The thirty-one-year-old from California arrives at Olympia Fields looking for a hat-trick of BMW Championships in succession and he will be hard to beat.
Cantlay was 12th here in 2020, which shows he can handle to demands of the track, and will be keen to put a PGA Tour title on the board for the first time since last year’s renewal.
Patrick Cantlay’s consistency during that time has been superb and it is only a matter of time until he lands the overdue win, perhaps it will be this week!
Golf Pick: Patrick Cantlay to Win Outright (+1000) at Bet365
Golf Pick: Patrick Cantlay to Finish Top 5 (+225) at Bet365
Will Collin Translate Consistency Into a Win?
Collin Morikawa’s last win was the 2021 Open Championship and the twenty-six-year-old has had a frustrating wait for a sixth PGA Tour win.
The start that Morikawa made to his professional career was remarkably fast, winning his first major, the PGA Championship of 2020 a year after turning professional.
Morikawa is still very young and has hidden course form at Olympia Fields when he was runner-up in the 2018 Amateur Championship at the track. Combine that with his 2020 effort here at the BMW Championship which was better than the bare bones of 20th as his final two-weekend rounds of 68, were only bettered by the winner, Jon Rahm.
Collin Morikawa’s form in 2023 has been very consistent with six top-10 finishes and represents a nice betting shape this week at one of the top sportsbooks for OddsTrader readers.
Golf Pick: Collin Morikawa to Win Outright (+2200) at Unibet
Golf Pick: Collin Morikawa to Finish Top 10 (+200) at Unibet