Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland are among the PGA stars who will need a strong showings at the BMW Championship in order to reach the Tour Championship.

The three are part of the 49-player field this week, but need to find points in order to move into the top 30 that will qualify for the Tour Championship and its $10 million prize, along with a five-year PGA Tour exemption. Sepp Straka withdrew from the BMW Championship on Monday, but will advance to the Tour Championship as he sits fifth in the FedEx Cup standings. 

With the starting strokes format eliminated, reaching the top 30 has never been more important with the whole field entering the Tour Championship on level footing in the winner-take-all event. A whopping 2,000 points will be given to the winner of this week's tournament enough to propel anyone into the top five, but the 280 points of a top-10 finish are also enough to rocket any player into the East Lake field.

Schauffele, the world No. 3, dominated the 2024 season, winning both the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, but success has been harder to find this year. The 31-year-old is without a win this season and has just three top-10 finishes on the year through 14 events.

Impressively, Schauffele has made the cut in every event he's played in this year - a streak that currently stands at 70 straight tournaments - and he has nine top 25 finishes on the season. Entering the week 43rd in the standings, he will need to find similar success at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland this week, with a finish of solo 21st or better required to keep his season alive. Schauffele finished tied for 22nd at the St. Jude Championship, but still fell back one spot as others rose.

Watch the BMW Championship LIVE starting Thursday on TSN+, with coverage on TSN starting Saturday.

Fitzpatrick enters the BMW Championship sitting just ahead of Schauffele at No. 40 in the standings and needs a finish of a two-way tie at 21 or better to advance. The 30-year-old is also without a win this season and has five top-10 finishes over 20 events on the year. He's made the cut in 16 of the 20 tournaments he's played, recording nine top-25 results. He managed to move up one spot with a T32 finish at the St. Jude Championship last week. 

Hovland owns the best outlook of the three, entering this week in position to reach the Tour Championship at No. 28, but he has little wiggle room to fall. The 27-year-old finished tied with Fitzpatrick at the St. Jude and fell two spots, leaving him in a precarious spot to make the year's final event. Hovland was one win, two top-10s and seven top-25 finishes over 16 events this season. 

Things are tight in the fight for the top 30, with Hovland owning just a 90-point lead over Sam Stevens, who is outside the Tour Championship picture at No. 31.

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Day, Fowler need big performances in Maryland

Veterans Jason Day and Rickie Fowler also enter this week's tournament on the outside looking in and need strong showings to keep their seasons alive. 

Day, a 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, sits 44th entering the BMW Championship after falling seven spots with a T56 finish last weekend. That performance followed two consecutive missed cuts in July after a top-five finish at the Travelers Championship in June. The 37-year-old has just one win since 2018, taking home the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson. 

Fowler is moving in the right direction after jumping into the field for this week's event finishing tied sixth for at the St. Jude to jump from 64th to 48th in the standings. It was just the second top-10 finish of the season for Fowler, who will now need a finish of solo 13th or better to advance to the Tour Championship. The 36-year-old hasn't missed a cut since June and has three top-20 results in five events over that span. A six-time winner on the PGA Tour, Fowler's last win came at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic. 


Pendrith on the bubble

Canada's Taylor Pendrith enters the BMW Championship sitting 35th in the FedEx Cup standings and needs to rise at least five spots to keep his season alive.

Pendrith jumped three spots with a T28 finish last week, bouncing back after a T68 finish at the 3M Open in late July and a missed cut at The Open Championship one week earlier. The 34-year-old native of Richmond Hill, Ont., has four top-10 finishes this season and eight top-25 finishes over 22 events, making the cut in 17 of them. 

He is looking to join fellow Canadians Corey Conners and Nick Taylor in the top 30, with both appearing likely safe to make the Tour Championship. Taylor sits 22nd in the FedEx Cup standings after falling four spots last week. Conners is 16th after dropping three spots at the St. Jude.