It’s a tournament for gripping it and ripping it at the BMW Championship with the PGA Tour’s finest taking advantage of playing at altitude by crushing their drives.
Castle Pines Golf Club is situated 6,200 feet above sea level and the thinner air is adding extreme yardage gains for the field in the second event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Just before the tournament these gains were being highlighted as Rory McIlroy’s stock yardages took a huge rise upwards, while he also managed to smash a ball out of the driving range at the Colorado course.
Then in the first round Ludvig Aberg stunned everyone with a 418-yard drive – seeing as it came from him only using his 3-wood.
That was far from the only one though, with the first round of the BMW Championship seeing 26 drives hammered out to over the 400-yard mark.
We’re well used to seeing such extreme distances at The Sentry which is held at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Hawaii – where the course has several huge drop-offs from tee to green enabling monster drives as standard.
That’s where Max Homa smashed his record 477-yard drive and where four of the top 10 longest drives in PGA Tour history have been measured.
In Colorado during the first round, Byeong Hun An led the field with his muscular effort of 431 yards, with former Masters champion Adam Scott launching one just short of that at 426 yards.
Aberg’s 3-wood was actually the joint third-longest drive recorded of the day – with Canadian Taylor Pendrith matching that number.
Three players in the field managed to send one out there to 417 yards, with Sahith Theegala and Russell Henley’s efforts matched by Xander Schauffele.
The double Major champion of 2024 has made noticeable distance gains of late and that’s certainly evident in Colorado judging by that 400-plus yard effort – even in rarefied air that’s some hit.
Schauffele shot a three-under 69 to sit in T7 three shots off leader Keegan Bradley after the opening round – as he chases what remarkably would be his first non-Major victory of the year.
Claiming the PGA Championship and then the Open at Royal Troon are the ‘only’ two victories Schauffele has this season – although he did finish T2 at the FedEx St Jude last week.
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