OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – It’s time for the second leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship. The event returns to Olympia Fields Country Club (North Course) for the first time since 2020, where Jon Rahm made a 66-foot birdie on the first playoff hole to win.

For the first time at the BMW Championship, the starting field features just 50 players (down from 70), with the top 30 advancing to next week’s TOUR Championship.

Patrick Cantlay has won the last two BMW Championships, at Caves Valley Golf Club (2021) and Wilmington (Delaware) Country Club (2022). He’ll head to Olympia Fields in search of a three-peat, fresh off a runner-up at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first stop in the Playoffs.

Meanwhile, there’s Lucas Glover going for his third win in three weeks, as the 43-year-old won the Wyndham Championship just to earn a Playoffs berth, then defeated Patrick Cantlay in a playoff at TPC Southwind. Glover now stands No. 4 on the FedExCup standings, behind just Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, and he’s suddenly contending for a Ryder Cup spot. Things can happen fast in the FedExCup Playoffs, after all.

Eclectic storylines on a historic venue that poses a demanding test. This week in Chicagoland has it all.

Here are the five storylines to follow heading into the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields.

Rahm’s strategic tweak illustrates ingenuity

Jon Rahm won the 2020 BMW Championship after standing 6 over through two rounds.

He did it with the help of a mid-tournament strategic shift.

After two competitive rounds at Olympia Fields that summer, Rahm was frustrated with his inability to control a draw off the tee. So, he decided he wouldn’t play a draw for the rest of the weekend. He bounced back with rounds of 66-64 to earn a spot in a playoff, where he defeated Dustin Johnson on the first extra hole.

“The one thing I can tell you, which is funny, I don’t think I attempted to hit one draw on the weekend whatsoever,” Rahm said Tuesday. “It was just not happening that week, and I was like, ‘Well, we’re going to be hitting fades.’

“It’s a golf course in which you just had to keep the ball in the right spot, no matter how, and luckily besides the tee shot maybe on 15 – because the wind was left-to-right that day – the fade fit pretty much perfectly throughout the entire golf course.”

Rahm was T51 of 69 players after the opening round, and he stood T39 after two rounds – still in the bottom half of the field. In a full-field event with a cut, he might have missed the weekend. But the event’s unique no-cut format allowed him to shift his thinking, and the stats back up the impact. Rahm hit just 10 of 28 fairways across the first two rounds that week; he hit 21 of 28 fairways over the weekend.

He missed six fairways left on Thursday and five fairways left on Friday. He missed just one fairway left all weekend.

It’s not as if playing a fade is the unanimous way to play Olympia Fields – Keegan Bradley suggested Tuesday that it’s a draw course, and Patrick Cantlay opined that either a draw or fade can prove agreeable. But Rahm knew what he had that week, and he adjusted accordingly.

Adaptability is one of golf’s required skills. It’s why pros often spend hours tinkering at the equipment truck or on the range; what is working one week, or season, might not work the best long term. It’s part of why success is so hard to maintain, and one strategic tweak – think Lucas Glover’s mid-summer putter switch en route to back-to-back wins – can prove all the difference.

“If it’s not working, why use it?” Rahm said of his draw that week. “There are many ways to play this game.”

During a week with high stakes – the top 30 advance to TOUR Championship, and it’s the final week for U.S. Team Ryder Cup automatic qualification – look for someone at some point to make a tweak that pays crucial dividends.

Spieth among big names fighting for East Lake

We can’t really have a TOUR Championship without either Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas, can we?

Spieth will strive this week to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Spieth enters the BMW Championship at No. 27 on the FedExCup standings, very much on the all-important top-30 bubble as he seeks his eighth career TOUR Championship appearance. After a T6 at last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship – perhaps a bit angsty after a 2-over 37 on the final nine – the job’s not yet done into Olympia Fields.

The Texan was all business Tuesday, spending ample time on the range with swing coach Cameron McCormick, but he also made time to sign for fans.

Spieth enters the week with 1,422 FedExCup points, currently 128 points ahead of No. 31 Sahith Theegala (whose longtime coach Rick Hunter was on hand Tuesday, as well). With quadruple FedExCup points on offer this week (2,000 to the winner), it’s a razor-thin margin.

For context: 10th place is worth 300 points, 20th place is worth 180 points, 30th place is worth 112 points, 40th place is worth 64 points, 50th place is worth 34 points.

Other names of intrigue around the bubble include Tyrrell Hatton (No. 26), Sungjae Im (No. 28), Sam Burns (No. 30) and Justin Rose (No. 32). Rose was loose Tuesday evening, making a trip to Wrigley Field to throw the Chicago Cubs’ first pitch against the Chicago White Sox. Rose is a past BMW Championship winner in Chicago (2011 at Cog Hill) and will look to use those local vibes to his advantage.

Qualifying for the TOUR Championship carries a two-year exemption on TOUR. It also brings an invitation to the 2024 Masters and traditionally has carried exemptions into the U.S. Open and The Open as well (those tournaments have yet to announce their exemption criteria for 2024).

Making the top 30 also keeps one’s hopes alive for a shot at the FedExCup crown, as the TOUR Championship’s FedExCup Starting Strokesformat ensures that all players who advance to East Lake will have a chance at the FedExCup.Click here for minimum-finish scenarios for players outside the top 30.

The drama will be fast and furious into Sunday, and we’ll be keeping a close watch on the bubble all week. It could include Spieth, who has made back-to-back TOUR Championship appearances after missing three in a row. He’ll be intent on keeping that streak in the positive.

State your case: Ryder Cup edition

Keegan Bradley knows the BMW Championship marks the final week for U.S. Team automatic qualification for next month’s Ryder Cup in Italy. He couldn’t escape the thought, even if he tried.

“I think about the Ryder Cup every second I’m awake, basically,” Bradley said Tuesday.

It’s a bold statement, but it’s backed up by Bradley’s track record. A team guy at heart, Bradley relishes the environment. He went 3-1 at the 2012 Ryder Cup in a losing cause (the "Miracle at Medinah," just 44 miles up the road), then was part of another losing U.S. Team in 2014. He desperately wants to be part of a winning squad.

He just needs to get there, and a win at Olympia Fields would likely earn him one of the U.S. Team’s six automatic spots. Otherwise, his fate would be in the hands of captain Zach Johnson, who will make six captain’s picks after the TOUR Championship. Bradley enters the week at No. 10 in the U.S. standings, and he knows there are plenty of veteran options for the captain to consider. Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark have clinched Ryder Cup berths, with Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Brooks Koepka and Max Homa rounding out the top six spots heading into the BMW Championship.

If those positions hold, that leaves a crop of potential captain’s picks including Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Lucas Glover – and Bradley.

At least four of these 16 players will be left off the Rome-bound squad. Recent impressions could prove crucial as the captain’s decision is finalized. Hence the importance of this week at Olympia Fields.

“This go-around seems like it’s maybe tougher than years past,” Cantlay said. “There are a lot of horses for a limited amount of spots. It’s going to be a tough pick for him, or a tough set of picks.”

One X factor perhaps in Bradley’s favor this week? His aunt Pat Bradley has some hardware in Chicago as a winner of the 1981 U.S. Women’s Open at nearby La Grange Country Club. Bradley’s eyes lit up Tuesday when his aunt’s name was mentioned.

“My aunt Pat is my hero,” Bradley said. “I grew up idolizing her. She won the U.S. Open here. It's so fun to have a person in my family that is going through what I'm going through, what it's like to miss two cuts in a row or what it's like to be playing great and not scoring well.”

Aunt Pat also just happened to hit the first shot at the 1990 U.S. Solheim Cup, the event’s inaugural iteration. It’s a bit tangential, to be sure, but a small window into the significance of international team competition for Bradley.

After falling outside the top 90 in the world in early 2022, Bradley has clawed back to current No. 16, including two wins this season. He’s 11th on the FedExCup into the BMW Championship. He has one final week to secure that automatic spot – as do his fellow challengers.

Rookie of Year contender Cole takes the road less traveled

Eric Cole drove seven-plus hours from the FedEx St. Jude Championship to the BMW Championship. The decision was intuitive.

“I drive everywhere,” said Cole with a laugh, after finishing the 18th hole in a Tuesday practice round, having linked up with Jon Rahm and Tony Finau mid-day.

That could be a frequent practice grouping next year, as well. Cole is the only rookie to advance to the BMW Championship, securing a spot in next year’s eightSignature Events and building a strong case for Rookie of the Year consideration (other contenders include Taylor Montgomery, who fell just short of advancing to the BMW Championship, and Barbasol Championship winner Vincent Norrman).

Cole knows it’s difficult to get here as a rookie, and he did so in comeback fashion – he missed his first four cuts and didn’t notch a top-25 until his 11th start (stolen clubs and COVID-19 were among the curveballs).

It just meant Cole would have to take the road less traveled, which suits him just fine. Cole, who holds 80-plus wins on the Minor League Golf Tour, also drove from the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina to the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, a 10-hour journey to combat flight delays. This is the guy who drove eight hours through the night in June, from Connecticut to Pittsburgh, to play (and win) the final Frank B. Fuhrer Invitational in support of a longtime friend. On the Korn Ferry Tour, he once returned home to South Florida from an event in South America late on a Sunday, drove overnight to west Florida for the LECOM Suncoast Classic Monday qualifier, successfully qualified, then drove round-trip to procure his laundry.

The list goes on for the self-described “middle-aged” rookie who possesses a youthful spirit and an easy smile. Playing next year’s Signature Events will be a treat, Cole said, but he feels the exact same way about playing the PGA TOUR.

Cole enters the week at No. 42 on the FedExCup, needing a solo seventh at minimum to advance to the TOUR Championship. His back has been against the wall before, as recently as last year, where he cemented his first TOUR card on the very last day of the Korn Ferry Tour season.

He’ll relish the challenge – and if he gets it done, don’t count out a drive to Atlanta.

All aboard!

It’s well known in golf circles that Tom Kim’s nickname was derived from Thomas the Tank Engine. Kim will tee it up this week, entering the BMW Championship at No. 18 on the FedExCup, but Olympia Fields’ train ties don’t stop there.

Olympia Fields is situated adjacent to a train station on the Chicago metro rail, a throwback to the halcyon days of train travel in the early 20th century. Fans will be able to take the Metra Electric Line from downtown Chicago to within a stone’s throw of the tournament gates, and the train station’s parking lot is utilized at the BMW Championship – including for media, one of the most convenient walks to work at an event of this stature. The scenic 5-minute journey leads a media member through a tunnel under the train tracks, emerging at the tournament gates.

“The train was critical to the club in the early years, as that was the only way for members to get to the club from the city,” recently retired Olympia Fields Director of Golf Brian Morrison told Medium in 2021. “Without the train, there would be no club.”

The club’s rich history dates to 1915; its first president was Amos Alonzo Stagg, a pioneering football and baseball coach. Olympia Fields once maintained four courses, now with just two (North and South), both ranked top 12 in Illinois’ 2023 Golf Digest ranking. The club has hosted four major championships, most recently the 2003 U.S. Open, won by Jim Furyk.

Don’t look for Olympia Fields station to cease anytime soon. As Morrison told Medium, the train “is really a part of who we are.” For the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, an estimated 18,000 daily fans attended via train, and the method of transport should prove popular this week as well.

In a week of big-ticket implications, the train provides a timeless twist – and perhaps the winner will even take a train ride downtown for a victory libation before heading to East Lake.