August 26-29, 2021
Location & Course Information
Caves Valley Golf Club,
Owings Mills, Md.
Caves Valley opened in 1991, designed by Tom Fazio on rolling terrain outside Baltimore.
Some holes are tree-lined, but the corridors are generally wide. The course hosted the 2002 U.S. Senior Open and the 2017 Constellation Senior Players Championship. Yardage: 7,410, par 71.
Notable Course Features
In preparation for the BMW Championship, seven new teeing grounds were added to increase the yardage by about 250 yards. Three new bunkers were installed and the existing bunkers restored. Some of the fairways were re-shaped and new collars around the greens were added. The nines will be reversed from their usual order for the tournament.
2020 Champion
Jon Rahm, Spain
Quick Facts
Field: 70 players
Format: 72 holes
Purse: $9.5 million
Winner’s Share:
$1,710,000
FedExCup Points:
1,500 to the winner
Charity Benefit
The sole beneficiary of the BMW Championship is the Evans Scholars Foundation. Since BMW first sponsored the event in 2007, the tournament has raised more than $35 million for the foundation’s full tuition and housing college scholarships for caddies.
Media Coverage
Golf Channel/NBC
Social Media
@BMWchamps
@bmwchamps
@BMWChampionship
HOW JON RAHM WON in 2020
Jon Rahm closed with rounds of 66-64 and then holed a 66-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to defeat Dustin Johnson. It was a wild finish at Olympia Fields (North Course) outside Chicago, with Johnson making a 43-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a tie before Rahm sank his even longer putt in the playoff. Rahm started slowly with rounds of 75-71. His third-round 66 could have been better but for a one-stroke penalty on the fifth hole when he picked up his ball from the green after forgetting to mark it. Starting the final round three strokes back and T6, Rahm birdied the first and fourth holes en route to a 33 on the front nine, and Nos. 10, 12, 15 and 16 on the back to post a 4-under 276 total and await the rest of the finishers. Johnson, the 54-hole co-leader with Hideki Matsuyama, matched that figure with a final-round 67.
Rahm’s only bogey on the weekend came when he was assessed the one-stroke penalty for picking up his unmarked ball on Saturday.
Rahm’s 130 total for the third and fourth rounds was five strokes better than anyone else.
Rahm ranked T2 in Greens in Regulation Percentage at 70.83 percent and hit 17 greens in the final round.
Check this out
Playoff participants Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm were ranked 1-2 in the Official World Ranking, with Johnson remaining No. 1 despite Rahm’s win.
Jon Rahm’s 75 in the first round was the highest opening round by a winner at the BMW Championship since Walter Hagen’s 75 in 1926.
It was the highest opening round for a winner in a non-major on the PGA TOUR since Mark Calcavecchia’s 75 at the 2007 Valspar Championship.
Rahm has finished in the top five in three of his four starts at the BMW Championship. He was T5 in 2017 and 2019 in addition to his 2020 victory.
Rahm has shot in the 60s in 14 of his 16 rounds, all but the first two rounds in 2020.
Tony Finau finished fifth to record his fourth straight top-10 at the event (2017/T7, 2018/T8, 2019/4, 2020/5).
Hideki Matsuyama, who finished T3, later became the first Japanese professional player to win a major championship—the 2021 Masters.
