🏌🏻Scheffler vs Schauffele: $25 Million At Stake

Good morning! Round 1 of the BMW Championship and the Women’s British Open is in progress - you can watch all the action live on Golf Channel and the USA Network.

For all tournament updates and the latest news, check out our Youtube channel.

Fun Fact: Lilia Vu won the Women's British Open in 2023 - she was the first American golfer to do it since 2014.

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 2010, The Senior Tradition, held at the Crosswater Club, was won by Fred Funk by one shot over Michael Allen and Taiwan's Lu Chien-soon.

ALBATROSS
Scheffler Set To Counter Altitude Challenge @ BMW Championship

No obstacle seems too large this year for Scottie Scheffler, the World No 1 with six wins on the PGA Tour including the Masters, plus his gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

This week, however, he is in the mountains of Colorado. The BMW Championship, the PGA Tour's second event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, will be played in thin air at a tour-record 8,130 yards long at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock.

Shots figure to travel farther this week than at a more typical altitude on tour. The Castle Rock course will have 400 feet of elevation change.

Scheffler and his caddie, Ted Scott, are doing a lot of Math this week to prepare for the event. Variables can include the time of day, or how long the ball is in the air. Uphill shots are likely to spend less time in the air while Downhill shots will be affected by a larger percentage.

⛳️ What are the Challenges @ Castle Pines? Castle Pines Golf Club is a mountainous layout that sits more than 6,200 feet above sea level.

The thinner air found at high altitudes doesn’t just make balls fly farther - it also makes them curve less. The impact of altitude is more nuanced than simply subtracting 10% from a shot’s distance, and it’s an adjustment that players will need to make rather quickly at this week’s BMW Championship.

As altitude increases, air density decreases - that’s why Castle Pines will measure a record 8,130 yards this week. At sea level, that’s roughly 7,350 yards long, about the standard on TOUR.

The 659-yard, par-5 opening hole would play just under 600 yards at sea level.

Each player has a unique game and it becomes a complex equation to accurately assess each shot. For high ball hitters, some clubs may fly upwards of 15% further, and they may average over 10% across all clubs.

Pros with a low ball flight may have no clubs that average over 10%. Some players also may adjust their trajectory, opting to hit it higher in Colorado to counteract the decreased lift on the ball.

The tournament tees off today at 9:25 am ET.

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TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
FedEx Cup: Can Schauffele Chase Down Scheffler?

The regular season was a thrilling ride, but the real fireworks are yet to come in the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship, with a whopping $100 million purse up for grabs at the last event. Scottie Scheffler comfortably occupies the top spot currently but one player still has a realistic chance to topple him and he is Xander Schauffele.

Schauffele must win the BMW Championship outright. Moreover, Scheffler 1 must finish 5th or worse for Schauffele to claim the top spot.

Scheffler holds the first spot with 6,533 points, while Schauffele holds the second with 5,037 points. If the nine-time PGA Tour winner ends up winning the BMW Championship, he’ll earn 2,000 points, bringing his total to 7,037.

On the other hand, a 5th-place finish would earn him 440 points, bringing his total to 6,973. Which would be 64 points short of Schauffele’s projected lead.

Scheffler and Schauffele are currently first and second on the season’s money list with impressive earnings of $29.1 million and $17.6 million, respectively.

📌 Scheffler and Schauffele's Season So Far: Scheffler crushed the competition this year with an incredible six wins. Out of six wins, he bagged 4 titles in less than two months including the coveted Masters at Augusta.

To top it all off, he’s now an Olympic gold medalist, courtesy of his triumph in Paris.

Schauffele’s season was also nothing short of epic - he bagged two wins, three runner-up spots, and 13 top-10 finishes. He went from being a 0-time major winner to being a 2-time major winner in a single season with his wins at the PGA Championship and The Open.

He became the first PGA Tour pro to win two majors in one year, since Brooks Koepka in 2018.

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LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

Farewell: Catriona Matthew announced Wednesday that this year's AIG Women's British Open will be her final appearance at the event. Matthew, who turns 55 on Sunday, will compete in her 30th Open, which begins Thursday at the fabled Old Course at St. Andrews.

Rule Change? The PGA Tour Player Advisory Council (PAC) convened before the BMW Championship this week to deliberate on possible alterations to event eligibility and field sizes - click here to check out the details.

LPGA Tour: The purse for this week’s AIG Women’s Open will be $9.5 million, an increase of $500,000 from last year. This year’s champion will earn $1,425,000 - Lilia Vu won $1.35 million with her victory in 2023.

Loophole: The Trump National Golf Club saves $257K a year through a tax break by claiming to have 12 goats - find out how.

BIRDIE
This Is How PGA Tour's Prize Pools Evolved In Last 30 Years

Season-long prize pools on the PGA Tour have increased dramatically over the last 30 years and today we take a look at its growth from 1994-2024.

This season, eight signature events took place before the FedEx Cup play-offs. Each one carried a total prize pool of $20 million, while the Players Championship handed out $25 million to its competitors.

The total of all the PGA Tour’s 2024 prize pools (not including the seven-event FedEx Cup Fall series that takes place from September to November) is a staggering $551,400,000 (including the Tour Championship’s $100m bonus pot).

In 1994, the total prize pool was $57,200,000 and the most lucrative event was the Tour Championship, which had a total purse of $3,000,000. The difference between the 1994 and 2024 PGA Tour prize pools is just a touch under $500,000,000 at $494,200,000.

The Tour's average earnings in 2024 are $1,841,450 – and that’s before the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. In 1994, the tour average was $172,000 – a terrific annual salary, but more than ten times fewer than 2024’s figure.

This year, Scottie Scheffler tops the pile, having amassed just under $30,000,000 to date. All of the top five have surpassed the $10,000,000 mark, while 72 golfers have earned more than $2 million in 2024.

In 1994, Nick Price led the standings with $1,499,927 and only six golfers cracked the $1,000,000 mark.

When you consider that $1 in 1994 is worth $2.12 in 1994 as per the CPI inflation calculator, it really drills home just how absurd modern golfing prize pools are.

Read the full article.

DRIVING RANGE
Role Of Cheeks In Impact Position

In today's video, we explain how cheek movement and positioning can affect your swing, helping you improve your impact for better results.

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