Aug. 22, 2026, 7:04 p.m. ET
There are just 18 holes to go in the PGA Tour’s penultimate event of the 2026 season.
It’s the final round of the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, where Wyndham Clark holds a commanding five-shot lead after 54 holes. He’s in full control as he seeks his third win of the year, but there are several big names still in the hunt, including Rory McIlroy, who sits in a tie for second and will play in the final pairing with Clark.
Aside from the battle at the top of the leaderboard, there’s plenty of intrigue elsewhere, as dozens of pros are fighting for their playoff lives. There are 50 players in the field at the BMW, but only the top 30 in the season-long FedEx Cup points standings after Sunday will advance to next week’s Tour Championship, where there will be $40 million in prize money up for grabs.
Here’s why you need to see the final round of the BMW Championship. Here’s why Sunday Matters:
The leaderboard
Here’s a look at the top of the leaderboard after 54 holes at the BMW Championship:
Explore how to live where you love to play Access community guides, golf real estate insights, trusted agent connections, and content built for passionate golfers.PositionPlayerScore1Wyndham Clark-17T2Rory McIlroy-12T2Patrick Cantlay-12T4Chris Gotterup-11T4Gary Woodland-116Collin Morikawa-107Sungjae Im-9The frontrunner: Wyndham Clark
Last year, Wyndham Clark didn’t even qualify for the BMW Championship. He finished 56th in the FedEx Cup standings after recording just two top-10s all season and floundering at the 2025 FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. But what a difference a year makes.
Clark is the leader by five shots after posting rounds of 64, 64 and 65 over the first three days at Bellerive. If he’s able to hold onto that lead and hoist the trophy Sunday, it would mark his third win in 2026. Again, what a difference a year makes.
Since winning the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in May, Clark has been arguably the best player in the world. He recorded a solo third-place finish the following week at the Memorial Tournament, placed T-11 at the RBC Canadian Open, then won the U.S. Open at Shinnecock for his second career major title. The very next week, he finished T-5 at the Travelers Championship.
He hit a bit of a lull toward the end of the regular season, missing the cut at both the Open Championship and the Rocket Classic, but he bounced right back with a top-5 at the FedEx St. Jude a week ago. Now, he’s one solid round away from cashing a $3.6 million check and advancing to the Tour Championship at No. 3 in the season-long points standings.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for Clark, who can further establish his case in a hotly-contested race for PGA Tour Player of the Year if he gets the job done Sunday. It won’t come easy, though, and Clark knows that. He held a six-shot lead after three rounds at the U.S. Open and ended up needing a two-putt par from 50+ feet on the 72nd hole to win the tournament. Surely he’d like to make things a little less stressful than that, but with the likes of Rory McIlroy chasing him, he’ll need to bring his A-game on Sunday, as he has all week in St. Louis.
The challengers: Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay
Forget “what a difference a year makes.” How about “what a difference a week makes?”
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy returned to PGA Tour competition in Memphis last week and it was, well, kind of a disaster, especially relative to what we’ve grown used to seeing from the back-to-back Masters champ. He finished the week 8 over and placed 66th out of 68 players. His game was not sharp and the scores reflected that.
But it’s been a completely different story this week at Bellerive, where McIlroy fired a 65 on Saturday to follow up rounds of 64 and 69 over the first two days. He ranks inside the top 10 in the field in strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained putting and strokes gained on approach. That’s a pretty darn good recipe for low scores, and a far cry from where he was a week ago.
Still, though, McIlroy will likely need to go deep on Sunday to have any chance of catching Clark. One advantage he might have is the fact that he’ll play alongside the leader in the final pairing, and it stands to reason that he’ll have the crowd behind him. Make a few early birdies, get the gallery riled up, apply some pressure on Clark, and who knows? Anything is possible on Sunday. McIlroy is well aware of that. Expect him to bring his best.
McIlroy will not only be looking to chase down Clark, but he’ll also need to hold off a slew of stars still in the mix. One of those players is Patrick Cantlay, who’s tied with McIlroy at 12 under as he looks to end a victory drought of almost exactly four years. His most recent win came at the 2022 BMW Championship, where he birdied the 17th hole at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware to emerge victorious in dramatic fashion.
Does the man nicknamed “Patty Ice” have that in him again this week? It remains to be seen, but he’ll likely have a “nothing to lose” mindset, and that sort of aggressive mentality can pay serious dividends for a guy like Cantlay, who certainly has the skills to post a really low score. Don’t be surprised if he closes the gap on Clark and put himself in contention for his ninth career PGA Tour win.
The reasonable longshot: Collin Morikawa
Whenever there’s a player holding a five-shot lead with 18 holes to go, everyone in the field is a longshot, and it’s hard to say any of them are particularly reasonable. That said, Collin Morikawa is on a short list of players who seem to have a legitimate chance of making some noise on Sunday.
Morikawa ended a winless spell of nearly five years when he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am back in February. He followed that up with top-10 finishes at both the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Then, the injury bug bit him. He withdrew from the Players Championship with a back ailment, which kept him out for nearly a whole month. He returned at the Masters to the tune of a T-7 finish (even though he appeared to still be in serious pain), then grinded his way to a top-5 at the RBC Heritage the very next week.
All that is to say that in the weeks Morikawa has been healthy, he’s been really good. He’ll probably need to post something in the low 60s to have any chance of nabbing his second win of the season at Bellerive on Sunday, but crazier things have happened. Don’t count him out just yet.
The hole to watch: No. 6
A challenging par 3 almost always produces the most drama on any golf course the pros play, and that’s what we have with No. 6 at Bellerive Country Club. Through three rounds, the sixth has yielded just 17 birdies to go along with 36 scores of bogey or worse, making it the toughest hole on the course this week.
Measuring 215 yards, players are required to carry almost all of that distance over a pond that sits to the right of the green and extends to the front. If they carry it too far, it’ll find its way into a bunker behind the green. There’s a collection area of short grass long and left for a bailout miss, but that leaves an extremely difficult pitch shot back toward the flag against a green with a severe back-to-front slope.
Par is an excellent score on No. 6 and birdie can give players a major leg up on the field. But there’s also a chance for some really big numbers. Anyone can easily play their way out of contention at the BMW Championship with one bad swing here. Expect some high drama on the front nine Sunday when the last few groups get to the sixth tee.
The weather: More hot and sunny conditions in St. Louis
It will be another warm day in St. Louis on Sunday. The forecast calls for a high temperature around 85 degrees with a northwest wind at 5-10 mph. The humidity will bring the heat index near 90 degrees.
FedEx Cup standings: Who’s on the bubble?
There are 50 players in the field at the BMW, but only the top 30 in the season-long FedEx Cup points standings after Sunday will advance to next week’s Tour Championship, the final leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Here’s a look at the last five in and the first five out in the projected standings heading into the final round at Bellerive:
PlayerFedEx Cup proj.Position at BMWJustin Rose26T-35Ryan Fox27T-45Tom Kim28T-35Adam Scott29T-28Sungjae Im307thKurt Kitayama31T-33Rickie Fowler32T-35Bud Cauley33T-43Alex Noren34T-15J.T. Poston35T-35FedEx Cup Playoffs scheduleEventDatesLocationWinnerFedEx St. JudeAug. 13-16Memphis, TNScottie SchefflerBMW ChampionshipAug. 20-23St. Louis, MOTBDTour ChampionshipAug. 27-30Atlanta, GATBD
Nick Stavas is a digital producer and commerce writer for Golfweek. Follow him on X/Twitter (@nickstavas).