CARMEL, Ind. (AP) — Marc Leishman remembers the nervous feeling as he stood over a short putt on the final hole of the BMW Championship. It was his first time in the FedEx Cup, and the stakes were so enormous that he had a hard time blocking out everything but getting the ball in the cup.
The $10 million bonus? No, that was still a week away.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Hole this putt and you’re in the Masters.’ I wasn’t thinking about $10 million,” Leishman said. “To get into the Tour Championship … look, the money is awesome, but everything that came with it was better.”
That’s what makes the BMW Championship, which starts Thursday at Crooked Stick, the most important playoff event in the FedEx Cup.
Only the top 30 from the 70-man field advance to the Tour Championship, and they are exempt for the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open.
