2025 BMW Championship odds, picks, predictions: Three long-shot bets for second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs
Patrick Roy, the legendary goaltender and current head coach of the New York Islanders, is a big believer in the 'Midnight Rule.'
Roy allows himself and his team until midnight each night to celebrate their wins or sulk in defeat before turning the page.
We're a bit looser with our guidelines here at the Post, so we'll take one more victory lap for picking Justin Rose to win last week's St. Jude Championship at 100/1.
With that out of the way, we move on to the 2025 BMW Championship at Caves Valley in Baltimore.
The second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the BMW Championship, is a no-cut event featuring a field of 50 players.
Scottie Scheffler is the clear betting favorite at +280 odds and is coming off a T3 at TPC Southwind last week.
The World No. 1 has finished inside the top 10 in 14 of 17 starts in 2025.
Rory McIlroy, who skipped the St. Jude, is the second-favorite at +800 and the only other player with single-digit odds.
Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Aberg round out the top five, according to the betting board.
Given its elite, exclusive field, you'd think the BMW Championship always goes to one of the big dogs, but last year's winner was Keegan Bradley, who teed off as a 66/1 outsider.
With that in mind, let's see if we can't land another big score this week.
Justin Rose was 100/1 to win the St. Jude Championship.
AP
2025 BMW Championship picks
Harry Hall (60/1, BetMGM)
It looked like Harry Hall was going to be in the thick of the proceedings at TPC Southwind after shooting 64 on Thursday.
Unfortunately, the scally-cap wearing Englishman fell off the boil with a 72 in Round 2 and was never able to mount a serious charge, ultimately finishing T22.
Considering his start, you'd have hoped Hall to post a better result, but the big picture still paints him as a player trending in the right direction.
Not only has Hall made 15 cuts and finished 22nd or better in nine of those outings, but he leads the PGA Tour in sub-par rounds (66) and birdie average (4.55) this season.
Harry Hall has one of the best statistical profiles on the PGA Tour in 2025.
Getty Images
Nick Taylor (110/1, bet365)
A trendy long-shot pick at the Open Championship, Nick Taylor missed the cut, ending a terrific stretch of golf where he finished no worse than T23 and posted two top-15s (including a fourth-place finish at the Memorial) in six starts.
Taylor didn't look much sharper last week at the St. Jude Championship, but his season-long numbers would suggest this is more of a blip than anything too concerning.
The Winnipeg native has a win, three top-10 finishes and 11 top-25s in 21 starts this year, and he's proven that he has the mettle to swing with the big boys like he did at the Waste Management in 2023.
Betting on golf?
Jhonnatan Vegas (140/1, bet365)
Caves Valley should be a track that plays to the bombers, and Jhonnatan Vegas fits that bill.
An elite driver of the ball, the Venezuelan gatecrashed the top 50 to qualify for this event thanks to a splendid weekend at TPC Southwind.
Vegas shot 6-under in the final 36 holes to finish T14 and punch his ticket to a course that should suit his game quite nicely.
Although his form going into TPC Southwind was unremarkable, he seemed to find his game in Memphis by hitting 39 of 56 fairways, which was one of the best marks in the field.
If Vegas brings that kind of accuracy off the tee with him to Caves Valley, he will be a real threat to outrun his long odds.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ryder Cup Tracker: Bryson DeChambeau, Robert MacIntyre among new qualifiers
We're less than two months away from the Ryder Cup, and the rosters are starting to take shape. Six players each from the United States and Europe will automatically qualify their way onto the team, with another six selected by each captain. The final automatic American spots were solidified after last week's BMW Championship, while the final European spot will be determined after this week's British Masters. Here's what we know: [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] Locked in United States: As expected, DeChambeau, English and Henley all earned their way onto the U.S. squad without having to worry about a captain's pick. DeChambeau wasn't able to earn points given that he's on the LIV tour, and won't be able to join the rest of the team for a tune-up in September, but he's good to go as an automatic pick. English finished at T12 in the BMW Championship this past weekend, and Henley finished a stroke behind him to come in at T15, so both continue to turn in solid performances. Europe: It wasn't a great weekend for MacIntyre inside the ropes; Scheffler ran him down for the win, and American fans heckled him into frustration. But he did qualify for the European team — not a shock, but still nice to hear — as did Hatton, who finished out his string on the season's LIV tour. In position to qualify automatically United States: The United States has closed out its automatic qualification, which means everyone now is fighting for the attention of captain Keegan Bradley. Europe: Straka and Lowry will both make the team, so there's not a whole lot of drama here. Both are in the field for this week's Tour Championship, so that might determine who gets the automatic bid and who gets the pack-your-bags phone call. Both are having strong seasons and will be reliable performers on foreign soil. In contention for captain's picks Each captain — Bradley for the U.S., Luke Donald for Europe — will have six picks, and here's where it gets interesting. Do you select a player who's performed well in lower-stress events, or a player with a spottier resume but performs big under pressure? Do you go with a talented rookie or a Ryder Cup veteran? Do you go with … yourself? (More on that in a minute.) Here are some of the notable faces who can count on a captain's pick: United States: Morikawa and Thomas have solidified their status on the team. Meanwhile, Griffin, despite a bizarre creatine-overdose hiccup early on Sunday at the BMW, remains in position for a bid of his own. The more interesting questions lurk just outside the top 12, where a trio of reliable performers — Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns — all lurk. Which of those will play their way into the top 12, or into captain Bradley's good graces? Europe: Europe has an enviable deep bench, with Åberg, Højgaard and Hovland ready to test the mettle of the American squad and the keyboards of the American media. The key for European captain Luke Donald is figuring out how to incorporate players like, say, 14th-ranked Marco Penge of England, who plays well on the European Tour — two wins already this year — but has little to no experience in golf on American soil. Standings Unites States 1. Scottie Scheffler2. J.J. Spaun3. Xander Schauffele4. Russell Henley5. Harris English6. Bryson DeChambeau7. Justin Thomas8. Collin Morikawa9. Ben Griffin10. Maverick McNealy11. Keegan Bradley12. Brian Harman Europe 1. Rory McIlroy2. Robert MacIntyre3. Tommy Fleetwood4. Justin Rose5. Tyrrell Hatton6. Shane Lowry7. Sepp Straka8. Rasmus Højgaard9. Ludvig Åberg10. Viktor Hovland11. Matt Wallace12. Matt Fitzpatrick The big question: Will Keegan Bradley pick himself? Bradley is already one of the most fascinating figures in Ryder Cup history — shunned by then-captain Zach Johnson in 2023 despite dedicating himself to the pursuit of a Ryder Cup spot, he was suddenly elevated into the role of captain for 2025. The Ryder Cup captain is generally a player with his best on-course days behind him, but Bradley has kept his run going, playing himself all the way up to 10th in the U.S. standings. If he were 'just' a player, he'd be a no-brainer for the team. But now, he has a choice to make: Will he pick himself as a player, and be a playing captain? Will he leave the spot for someone else? Will he select himself and abdicate the captain role? Each option would be second-guessed no matter what happens at Bethpage in September. It's just one of many fascinating elements of this year's Ryder Cup … and we're still weeks away. Bradley finished T17 this past weekend at the BMW, which is right in line with this entire season ... a strong performance, but not strong enough to justify an automatic slam-dunk pick of himself, given all that comes with it. Combine that with the fact that Rory McIlroy revealed this week that he declined a chance to be a playing captain, and, well ... the picture is becoming no more clear. Bradley will tee it up this week at the Tour Championship, where he no doubt will hear fairways full of "U-S-A!" chants ... but will his performance in Atlanta be enough to push him one direction or the other? Chances are: Nope, he's going to have to make this decision all on his own.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
PGA Tour golfer Ben Griffin says he 'overdosed' on creatine amid bad start to BMW Championship final round
PGA Tour golfer Ben Griffin may have had an outside shot at winning the BMW Championship on Sunday if he put together a round similar to how he did on Thursday. But Griffin's Sunday started out less than ideal. He carded at least a bogey on the first three holes. He scored a seven on the par-4 first hole and a six on the par-4 second. He then salvaged a bogey on the third hole. He was able to lock in and record seven birdies on the final 15 holes to put together a final round 69. Griffin was 3-under par for the tournament and finished tied for 12th with Rory McIlroy and Harris English in the tournament. Scottie Scheffler won the BMW Championship with a 15-under – two strokes better than Robert Macintyre and four better than Maverick McNealy. He explained after his round that an issue with creatine caused his chances on the first three holes to slip away. He said that he filled up his water bottle with a "snowball" of creatine and when he took a sip from the bottle he swallowed a massive chunk. "I've never overdosed on creatine before, but I think I did in the moment because I didn't really drink any water after that," Griffin said, via "I basically just inhaled a snowball. So I started getting super shaky. I've never felt like that before and I felt like I had tremors. "I four-putted 1 and on 2 I like was freaking out and didn't know what to do. Like I hit it so far out of bounds." Griffin credited his caddie, Adam Ritthamel, with helping him get through the intense problem." The North Carolina native has two PGA Tour wins in his career – both coming this season. He won the Zurch Classic of New Orleans with Andrew Novak and the Charles Schwab Challenge.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Schupak: PGA Tour considers taking Tour Championship on the road, a home run of an idea
When PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said last year during a State of the PGA Tour press conference that everything's on the table, the idea of moving the Tour Championship – and the FedEx Cup Playoffs sites in general – is one that caught the fancy of several Tour players. 'It's been discussed,' Adam Scott, a player director on the PGA Tour policy board, said. 'We've questioned everything at some point. I couldn't tell you contractually how long we're tied to there, but East Lake is where it's at.' But that doesn't mean it needs to stay there – though there apparently is the prickly issue of former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem granting East Lake as the permanent site in perpetuity, according to someone in the know. East Lake ties for No. 4 on Golfweek's Best list of the top private courses in Georgia and ties for No. 85 among all classic courses in the U.S. It has been the permanent site of the Tour Championship since 2005. The investors at SSG, who have poured $1.5 billion into the Tour, know that the Tour Championship has untapped potential. While the USGA has played amateur championships at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and The Olympic Club and has Cypress Point Club on deck for the Walker Cup – where primetime TV, cool climes and nary a thunderstorm are concerns – the Tour's three legs of the playoffs have visited Memphis, Baltimore and Atlanta, all three first-team All-Swamp sites and at courses that lose at least 5 and 4 to the USGA's rota. The Tour can do better, and as part of its much-vaunted Fan Forward surveys, they have heard it from the people they say matter most. Peter Malnati, another Tour policy board player director, has never qualified for the Tour Championship, but he understands the argument for moving the Tour Championship from a fan perspective. 'I don't hear fans say it is an exciting golf course to watch golf. I know it does a lot for the community and that's very important, but I think it would be cool for our biggest trophy to be given away at a course that really excites fans,' Malnati said. 'But there is a lot of things that have to be done in the right way to make that happen. I think East Lake works really hard to be an amazing host. I'd love to see our fans be excited about where we play the Tour Championship in addition to the tournament itself.' But moving the season finale is proving trickier than at first blush. 'It's been a slog,' one Tour insider said. The reason is quite simple: too many chefs in the kitchen, too many constituencies to please. Scott said the 16-member Player Advisory Council had multiple meetings over multiple months, and the only thing on which they could agree was to scrap the staggered-scoring start. That was rubber-stamped back in late May, so all 30 competitors will start at even par this week. But to pull up the anchors in Atlanta, broadcast partners will need to be on board and presenting sponsors who foot the bill — Coca Cola Co. and Southern Co., who enjoy entertaining their guests on the home front — must sign off. Jordan Spieth, a former policy board member, agrees that where the Tour plays matters and can be important to enticing players to compete. East Lake has flipped nines, undergone a massive renovation, turned par 4s into par 5s and back to 4s again, and yet it still doesn't capture the imagination of the sports fan. No one is tuning in to to see East Lake the way they would if the 30-man finale was held at Cypress Point or Pine Valley or Pinehurst (though a 30-man field may be a tough sell for a resort course). This doesn't preclude East Lake being part of a rotation. Selfishly, Spieth said he's good with the Tour Championship staying right where it is. 'Because I've played it so well. I think it's a great golf course,' he said. 'I would have to see what other options were available in order to have a reason for it not to be there every year.' Cypress Point surely would get Spieth's attention. Former Golfweek colleague Jeff Rude years ago suggested playing at Cypress Point, site of The Match between Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan against Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward, and starting the tournament on Wednesday with the winner of the Tour Championship crowned Saturday. Then, send out the top four in points for a trophy dash on Sunday for the FedEx Cup. Airing in primetime, it would be must-see TV and a ratings bonanza. But let's not stop there. Jason Day would be in favor of seeing the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, the first leg of the playoffs, rotate too, because he doesn't play well at TPC Southwind. 'I'm like, when can we leave?' he said. 'But I definitely think we should move around a bit, yeah, for sure.' The Western Golf Association, which runs the BMW Championship, has been the trailblazer and has perfected the model. It broke with tradition of playing annually in Chicago and now rotates to golf-starved metropolitan cites – St. Louis is on tap for 2026 – and set records for its fundraising last year at Denver's Castle Pines. Scott joined the Tour's board of directors because he wanted to elevate the Tour Championship to a legacy event on par with the Lombardi and Stanley Cup trophies. The FedEx Cup is in its 19th year and it's still very much a work in progress. As Scott put it, it was 'impossible to change everything this year.' They ran out of time so this is a bridge to the end result, he said, and he promised, 'Next year you'll see the full picture.' It may take even longer to move the Tour Championship because as Scott said, 'we need everyone comfortable,' but discussions persist. One can only hope that new CEO Brian Rolapp can breathe some new life into the Tour Championship by simply taking it on the road to some of golf's great American cathedrals.
