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There's something about difficult golf courses that Max Homa is able to make look extremely easy. Carding a course-record second-round 62 at the North Course at Olympia Fields on Friday, Homa has taken control of the 2023 BMW Championship at 10 under. Commanding a two-stroke, 36-hole lead over Chris Kirk, Homa is now projected to move to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings and start next week's Tour Championship with a two-stroke lead.
In order to get to next week, however, Homa will need to play the weekend outside Chicago in a similar manner to Friday's 18. Carding 10 birdies around the tricky par 70, the six-time PGA Tour winner looked like a man amongst boys splitting fairways, peppering greens and holing putts unlike any other in the field.
Four birdies across his first seven holes saw Homa rise to 6 under on the leaderboard after opening Thursday with a 68. After a hiccup on the long eighth, the 33-year-old then kick-started his homeward half with five birdies in his first six holes to surge past Kirk and Matt Fitzpatrick in the clubhouse and also a stuck-in-neutral Rory McIlroy. A bogey-birdie-par finish put the finishing touches on Homa's day.
Slowly regaining confidence from a middling start to his summer, Homa has rekindled the form that carried him to a pair of early-season victories in his native state of California. Arriving at the BMW Championship having improved his finishing position in each of his last four starts, including his first major top 10 at The Open, Homa has eyes on improving once again and capturing his first postseason win in the process.
The leader
1. Max Homa (-10): The last time Homa shot 62 on the PGA Tour was the second round of the 2022 Tour Championship. Should he continue to play like this, he will head into the season finale in pole position where another 62 would put this postseason picture to bed. While he was impressive from tee to green hitting 10 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens in regulation, Homa was next level with the putter in hand. He posted +4.34 strokes gained putting, which was good for the third-best single-round performance of his career.
Other contenders
2. Chris Kirk (-8)
T3. Matt Fitzpatrick, Brian Harman (-7)
T5. Rickie Fowler, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Harris English, Justin Rose (-5)
T10. Sungjae Im, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay (-3)
Another week, another instance of Scheffler needing his putter to show some life. Once again beating Olympia Fields into submission from tee to green, the world No. 1 fell short on the greens en route to 17 pars and one birdie for a round of 69. He finds himself five strokes off the pace of Homa after losing three strokes on the green in Round 2, and will need his putter to cooperate this the weekend if he is to make up ground over the final 36 holes.
"It's easier said than done when you're watching it on TV," said Scheffler. "These greens have a lot of pitch. No. 10 is a good example I would say… Like you see Jon [Rahm] hit a good shot in there on 9, and then he hit a good shot in there on 10 and it spins all the way off the green. It's just hard to put the ball in the right spots to get the uphill putts. I think my strategy today was really good the way I was hitting it, just trying to get as many looks as possible, ball was just dodging the cup."
Bubble boys
It would be a shame for someone with the season of Tyrrell Hatton to miss the Tour Championship, but it may become a reality Sunday. Dropping four spots in the standings, the Englishman is the bubble boy heading into the second half of this tournament as strong performances from his fellow countrymen Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick have Hatton in a precarious position.
| Name | Projected | Official |
|---|---|---|
Tom Kim | 26 | 18 |
Jason Day | 27 | 21 |
Jordan Spieth | 28 | 27 |
Emiliano Grillo | 29 | 23 |
Tyrrell Hatton | 30 | 26 |
Sepp Straka | 31 | 24 |
Sam Burns | 32 | 30 |
Sahith Theegala | 33 | 31 |
Denny McCarthy | 34 | 34 |
Harris English | 35 | 49 |
Jon Rahm's rough postseason
The Masters champion entered the postseason atop the FedEx Cup standings and was lucky to see his name in the same position entering the week. After back-to-back 72s, the Spaniard sits outside the top 30 in this 50-man field and is projected to drop to No. 3 in the standings. This could be crucial for Rahm's chances to raise his first FedEx Cup as a slip in the standings would mean starting behind the 8-ball in the Tour Championship where a staggered start has proven difficult to overcome.
2023 BMW Championship updated odds, picks
- Max Homa: 7/4
- Rory McIlroy: 13/2
- Scottie Scheffler: 15/2
- Brian Harman: 9-1
- Chris Kirk: 10-1
- Matt Fitzpatrick: 10-1
- Patrick Cantlay: 18-1
- Rickie Fowler: 22-1
- Xander Schauffele: 25-1
If McIlroy drives the ball well (he has hit only nine fairways through two rounds), he will win. At the same time, if Scheffler putts, he will win. It is hard to look past the top two players in the world, especially considering how reliant on the putter Homa was en route to his record-setting day. Schauffele may be the play at 25-1 for those looking for more juice as he gained nearly six strokes ball striking on Friday and only trails by a half dozen.
