Scottie Scheffler is running away with things in Memphis, sitting at 13-under through Saturday’s play at TPC Southwind with a two-shot cushion. Sam Burns and Sungjae Im are chasing at 11-under. But the real drama at the FedEx St. Jude Championship this weekend isn’t at the top — it’s buried around 45th through 55th in the FedExCup standings, where a bogey can end a season and a birdie can save one.
Whoever survives that scrum joins a BMW Championship field 2026 that, as of Saturday’s list from PGA TOUR, already includes 50 confirmed names. St. Louis is getting the penultimate stop of the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time since 2008, and the guest list reads like a major championship leaderboard.
Where and When: BMW Championship 2026
Bellerive Country Club opens for practice Aug. 18-19, with tournament rounds running Aug. 20-23. It’s the club’s first Playoffs event since Camilo Villegas broke through there for his maiden PGA TOUR win in 2008 — and it comes with a $20 million purse attached, same as the opener in Memphis.
The Robert Trent Jones Sr. design has hosted heavier hardware than a FedExCup event before. It held the 1965 U.S. Open, where Gary Player completed the career Grand Slam, and the 2018 PGA Championship, where Brooks Koepka held off Tiger Woods down the stretch. A parkland layout with a course rating of 75 tends to expose loose iron play fast, which matters this week more than any other — because after Bellerive, the number that counts isn’t shots. It’s position.
How the Field Gets Set
No cut. No easing in. The FedEx St. Jude Championship trims the FedExCup’s top 70 down to the top 50, and that’s the entire ballgame for BMW qualification. Finish Sunday inside the number, you’re in St. Louis. Finish outside it, your season’s over.
That’s why Michael Brennan’s name jumps off the list. He won the Wyndham Championship the week before the playoffs opened and rocketed from 105th to 47th in the standings — a run that also happened to end Steven Fisk’s season, since Fisk started that final regular-season week at 69th and slid to 71st after missing the cut. FedExCup math is unforgiving that way. One player’s great week is frequently another’s flight home early.
Who’s Playing in the BMW Championship? A Loaded Leaderboard
Scheffler tops the group, and not by accident — he’s chasing his second FedExCup after winning it in 2024, and a runaway week in Memphis puts him in position to arrive at Bellerive with real momentum. Rory McIlroy, the record three-time FedExCup winner, is in too, part of a top tier that also includes Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay.
Tommy Fleetwood, Jake Knapp and Si Woo Kim have all been in the mix on the Memphis leaderboard itself, which tends to be the group worth watching once play shifts to St. Louis — good form doesn’t just vanish over a bye week. Hideki Matsuyama, Alex Noren and Brian Harman round out a cluster that’s quietly having strong playoff openers.
International depth stands out too. Ludvig Åberg, Nicolai Højgaard, Viktor Hovland, Robert MacIntyre, Ryo Hisatsune, Min Woo Lee and Aaron Rai give this field a genuinely global look, which is becoming the norm rather than the exception in these signature-adjacent events.
The Bubble Was Brutal
Golf Channel had it right heading into the weekend: the real BMW Championship storyline lives in the No. 45-to-55 range of the standings, not among the leaders. J.T. Poston entered the week holding it down around the top-30 Tour Championship line, with Robert MacIntyre and Nicolai Højgaard just behind him — meaning even players safely inside the BMW field are playing this week with East Lake positioning on their minds, not just survival.
Not everyone made it. Daniel Berger’s early exit from Memphis closed his door to St. Louis. Jordan Spieth, sitting at 54th entering the week and still without a top-10 finish anywhere in 2026, needed a big final round just to give himself a shot — a strange spot for a three-time major winner with 93 career top-10s to be navigating in mid-August.
What’s Next
Once Bellerive wraps Aug. 23, the top 30 in the standings move on to the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, where the FedExCup gets decided under the staggered-scoring format. Everyone else goes home to figure out next season from scratch.
That’s the part that makes this week matter more than a garden-variety Tour stop. Bellerive isn’t just a golf course hosting 50 good players. It’s a cut line with a clubhouse.
Here’s the 50-man 2026 BMW Championship field, per PGA TOUR’s official list:
- Ludvig Åberg
- Akshay Bhatia
- Michael Brennan
- Jacob Bridgeman
- Sam Burns
- Patrick Cantlay
- Bud Cauley
- Wyndham Clark
- Eric Cole
- Nico Echavarria
- Alex Fitzpatrick
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Rickie Fowler
- Ryan Fox
- Ryan Gerard
- Chris Gotterup
- Ben Griffin
- Russell Henley
- Ryo Hisatsune
- Nicolai Højgaard
- Viktor Hovland
- Si Woo Kim
- Tom Kim
- Kurt Kitayama
- Jake Knapp
- Min Woo Lee
- Robert MacIntyre
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Matt McCarty
- Rory McIlroy
- Maverick McNealy
- Keith Mitchell
- Collin Morikawa
- Alex Noren
- J.T. Poston
- Aaron Rai
- Kristoffer Reitan
- Justin Rose
- Xander Schauffele
- Scottie Scheffler
- Adam Scott
- Alex Smalley
- J.J. Spaun
- Sepp Straka
- Sahith Theegala
- Justin Thomas
- Michael Thorbjornsen
- Gary Woodland
- Cameron Young
FAQ Section
Q: Who is playing in the BMW Championship in 2026?
A: The BMW Championship field 2026 includes the top 50 players in the FedExCup standings following the FedEx St. Jude Championship, led by Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Sam Burns and Xander Schauffele. PGA TOUR’s official list is provisional until the FedEx St. Jude Championship concludes.
Q: Where is the 2026 BMW Championship being played?
A: Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri — its first time hosting the event since 2008.
Q: When is the 2026 BMW Championship?
A: Practice rounds run Aug. 18-19, with tournament play Aug. 20-23, 2026.
Q: How many players advance from the BMW Championship to the Tour Championship?
A: The top 30 in the FedExCup standings after Bellerive advance to the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
