Hovland races to BMW Championship prize

Viktor Hovland used a near-flawless final round of 61 to power past world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and former U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick and win the BMW Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs penultimate event. The victory vaulted him to second in the standings entering the final week at East Lake. 

The round of 9 under was the lowest of Hovland’s career and the lowest by a winner this season on TOUR. Not to mention, no one has ever shot lower in the final round of any event in the FedExCup Playoffs, which began in 2007 – when Hovland was 10 years old!

Hovland, who trailed by three entering the final round, made 10 birdies on Sunday and more than doubled his birdie or better percentage in the first three rounds (24.1 to 55.6) “I sort of realized around like 14, 15 something pretty special was happening,” Rory McIlroy, who played with Hovland, said.

The stellar Sunday enabled the 25-year-old Norwegian to gain 7.69 strokes on the field, the fifth most during a final round ever in the FedExCup Playoffs.

Glover strikes gold at FedEx St. Jude Championship

With his victory at the Wyndham Championship, Lucas Glover was the only player to play his way into the first Playoffs event. Precariously perched at No. 49, one shy of advancing another week, though, Glover knew he had work to do at TPC Southwind.

Once again, the veteran took advantage of the par 4s, playing them in 8 under, which tied for the best among the 70 players in the field. Overall, though, the normally steady 43-year-old struggled to find greens in regulation, hitting just 63.89 percent to rank tied for 37^th in the field. The new-found confidence in his broomstick putter, though, alleviated some of the pressure. Glover was able to get up-and-down 23 times in 26 attempts to lead in the field in Memphis.

Sunday was particularly key as he only hit nine greens in regulation but made only one bogey – that coming on a 30-foot putt. He also made par-saves of 20 and 11 feet on the back nine on Sunday when he used just 25 putts total for the round.  When he beat Patrick Cantlay with a par on the first hole of sudden death, Glover had more victories in his 40s (3) than his 20s (2) and his first two consecutively.