The BMW Championship heads to Caves Valley Golf Club this week, located outside of Baltimore, Maryland. The last time Caves Valley hosted a PGA Tour event was back in 2021 for this same tournament. We saw Patrick Cantlay take down a beefed up Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff at -27 under. Both golfers averaged at least 2.5 strokes per round with the flatstick.

With these green complexes not being too challenging, players will need to spike with the putter. Players will be faced with bent-grass greens this week. Over the last 3 years, here are the top 12 players in the field that have average the most strokes gained on bent-grass greens:

While Viktor Hovland’s finish on the surface last week was certainly underwhelming, as the big-hitting Norwegian finished just 32nd in a 70-man field, I was still highly impressed by the way that Hovland closed the tournament. Hovland entered shot himself out of the tournament with an opening 74 on Thursday, but he followed it up with three consecutive rounds of 2-under par or better, and the ball-striking really started to come around for him on Sunday.

Now Hovland returns to a Northeastern, Bent-grass parklands golf course that is not entirely dissimilar from Valhalla, Oak Hill, or Olympia Fields, all golf courses where Hovland has performed admirably at in the past. I think short game is significantly mitigated at this golf course, which certainly works in Hovland’s favor, and we really feel due for an elite putting week.

Andy wrote about Viktor Hovland above so I won’t dive that deep into his statistics. I have saved Hovland for the last two months as he just always plays well at these type of golf courses, especially in the north east. He’s due to contend and why not here to end the OAD year off strong. If you have already used Hovland, I believe Ben Griffin or Harris English are sneaky picks if you are trying to sneak into the money in your pool.

For many, this is the last week of the OAD year. I am taking my victory lap, winning the first annual staff ISN pool with $23,594,772 and counting. I hope this segment helped you win some money in your league!

Closing Stretch

Andy Lack

Course Review: Sleepy Hollow Golf Club

Location: Scarborough, New York

Architect: C.B. MacDonald/AW Tillinghast/Gil Hanse 

Rating: 8.5 

Sleepy Hollow Country was original designed in 1911 by CB MacDonald and Seth Raynor on a 338 acre estate overlooking the Hudson River. It’s a truly remarkable piece of property which was originally owned by William Rockefeller and Frank Vanderbilt. In 1927, AW Tillinghast added seven new holes to the golf course, which unfortunately resulted in a somewhat disjointed and incongruent golf course from a routing standpoint, and if there is one criticism to be had of the golf course, it is certainly the uneven feeling of golf holes designed on top of one another. Some may find this clunky and discombobulated, but I wasn’t the least bit bothered by an interweaving, unnatural journey through the majestic site. 

After multiple failed restoration attempts in the 1990s, Gil Hanse and George Bahto began their efforts in 2007. What resulted were 27 fully restored holes that feel entirely representative of the best that Golden Age architecture has to offer. I should caveat at the top— this style of golf is my favorite to play. My favorite three golf courses in America are the Creek, National Golf Links of America, and Chicago Golf Club. They are all designed by CB MacDonald and Seth Raynor, and primarily feature template holes. This style of architecture is incredibly endearing to me and engages my sensibilities perfectly— combining the nostalgia from my first experiences playing golf at the Creek, while also hitting on what I believe to be truly phenomenal strategic architecture and green design. For this reason, Sleepy Hollow was my most anticipated new golf course of 2025. 

I don’t believe that every golf course that deploys template holes is a slam dunk. Yeaman’s Hall didn’t totally do it for me, and template holes are really only brought to the perfect light by the corresponding topography. I was overwhelmed by the topography of Sleepy Hollow and I had no idea that it was such a hilly site. I have played Raynor/MacDonalds that are flat as a pancake like Yeamans and Chicago, while the Creek traverses far more engaging topography and overwhelms the senses not just by the architecture, but also the setting.

Sleepy delivered in this aspect in a way I was not expecting. Of course I had seen images of the famous 16th “Short” hole, with the thumbprint green overlooking the Hudson River, yet the entire property was filled with elevation changes and some fairly dramatic land movement. In fact, the severity of some of the false fronts on the back nine are incredibly similar to the Creek. I happen to love this type of severity and drama in my golf, but it certainly required a level of exacting shot making on approach that I felt perfectly balanced out the generosity off the tee.

This is my personal favorite style of golf: tremendous amounts of room off the tee, yet demanding approach shots to large and heavily undulated green complexes. If I could play this style of golf course every day, I would. This is probably why Sleepy resonated so deeply with me. It was by far the most similar golf course to the Creek I have ever played, and particularly holes like number seven, the reverse Redan par three, number 13, or the dramatically downhill 17th, could all easily be placed on the Long Island sound.

My greatest takeaway from the afternoon at Sleepy is that MacDonald and Raynor architecture paired with dramatic, rolling topography might be the most fun and engaging style of golf I have ever encountered. This style of architecture is tremendous on flat land as well (re: Chicago), but I was blown away by the topographical variety and challenges that Sleepy presented. It’s hard to think of too many golf courses I’d rather play every day. 

Josh Segal

Are the Europeans going to run back the same team from the 2023 Ryder Cup?

I have penned thousands of words over the last couple months about the upcoming Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black on Long Island that has primarily been about the Team USA roster, Keegan potentially being a playing captain, and how the Americans are going to set up Bethpage Black. However, I have not touched on the outlook of Team Europe.

It is no disrespect to Luke Donald and company, but it has seemed like his team has been pretty solidified for a while now. Additionally, it is way more fun to debate Team USA because the back half of the team has looked very bleak, and the emerging concept of Keegan actually being a playing captain has picked up steam since his Travelers win. 

After analyzing the European team over the past couple of months, these are the nine players that should be penciled in:

1. Rory McIlroy 

2. Jon Rahm 

3. Tommy Fleetwood 

4. Viktor Hovland

5. Ludvig Aberg 

6. Shane Lowry 

7. Sepp Straka 

8. Robert MacIntyre 

9. Tyrrell Hatton

Anyone who is a golf sicko and loves Ryder Cup discourse would probably agree that these nine players have been projected to make the team since the massacre in Rome. 

Over the last month or so, I believe both Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick have earned their spot on the team. Rose went really cold after losing to Rory in a playoff at this year's Masters, but he had a great showing across the pond before winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship. After Fitzpatrick made a coaching change and hired Mark Blackburn, he has rattled off four T10 or better finishes in his last five starts. 

If we pencil in Rose and Fitzpatrick alongside the nine players that I named above, every player listed was on the 2023 Ryder Cup team in Rome. That begs the question, who will Luke Donald pick as his 12th member?

Team Europe is very heavy on analytics when they pick the optimal pairings, mainly due to Dodo Molinari, who got all the praise for setting up Marco Simone perfectly to fit the European strengths. 

Team Europe could go in a couple different directions with the last pick depending on skill set and course fit. They could go with a bomber like Nicolai Hojgaard, who was the 12th man in 2023, his twin brother Rasmus Hogjaard, Nikklas Norgaard, or Thomas Detry. If they are predicting Team USA to grow out the rough, which then fits a more accurate driver of the golf ball, they might want to go with Aaron Rai. If they want someone who has a high birdie or better % and can spike with the putter, they might choose Harry Hall. 

At the end of the day, I don’t think the 12th man is as important in this format. You need your studs to play well, and if they don’t, you are most likely going to lose, especially if you are Team USA. The Americans desperately need Scottie Scheffler to show up because he has been pretty lackluster team formats.

Luke Donald and Dodo Molinari basically threw a no hitter on nailing the majority of their pairings together. The 12th man will most likely come down to optimizing pairings and who the 12th man will fit with one or two of the guys already on the roster. 

My prediction is Team Europe runs back the same exact 12 guys they had in Rome, meaning Nicolai Hogjaard gets the nod again.

I truly do believe that TPC SOUTHWIND is a solid PGA Tour venue for testing the best golfers in the world.

Yes, it’s in a business park in Memphis and they play it during August but it really has provided some compelling Sundays and has rewarded proper players.

I struggle to find a better Sunday on the PGA tour than we had this weekend. We had Tommy chasing his first win, European stalwart Rose trying to solidify a Ryder Cup spot and make up for Masters heartbreak, JJ Spaun looking to solidify his US Open win and world #1 trying to chase them all down.

The course and venue rewarded accuracy over distance, proper iron play and solid ARG and putting. We saw some high leverage golf shots being shown and delivered. It’s Ovboiusly not Rivera, or Sawgrass or Quail Hollow but it’s good for what it is, testing pro golfers, rewarding the proper skills and producing a fun Sunday.