We’re into the second leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, with the PGA TOUR heading to St. Louis for the 2026 BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club. At the BMW Championship, DraftKings users can play in DraftKings PGA Pick6 contests for all four rounds. If you’re new, Pick6 is a single-user daily fantasy game where you select players to go over or under their projected totals.
Only the top-50 players in the FedExCup standings advanced to the BMW Championship, giving us an elite, no-cut field with plenty at stake. After this week, only the top 30 in the standings will move on to the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake.
Players teeing up at Bellerive this week will face a long par 70 measuring 7,448 yards. The course last hosted the PGA TOUR for the 2018 PGA Championship won by Brooks Koepka, and it has undergone changes since then, including lengthened holes and rebuilt greens. Distance should still be an important factor on a layout that stretches close to 7,500 yards, but players will also need strong approach play to create scoring opportunities.
With only 50 players remaining in the FedExCup Playoffs, the field is loaded with many of the TOUR’s top names, including Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele. Scheffler enters the week atop the FedExCup standings after winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship by eight strokes, while players around the top-30 bubble will need a strong week to secure their place at East Lake.
I reviewed additional statistics and course dynamics in the BMW Championship PGA Cheat Sheet and included some notes on Bellerive below for Pick6 research.
“For this week, Bellerive will play as a 7,448-yard par 70. The course is known for its large, undulating Bentgrass greens, deep bunkering, and significant water, with a large creek winding through the property. The fairways feature Zoysia grass, creating a somewhat different playing surface than the Bentgrass greens.
Several fairways on Bellerive are strategically bunkered, and the opening hole is a good example, with the landing area tightening around 300 yards, meaning players may choose less than a driver to ensure they find the fairway. Water also comes into play on numerous holes, so accuracy and approach positioning should matter as much as raw distance.
Bellerive’s large greens can offer plenty of scoring opportunities, but their undulation and surrounding hazards make precise iron play important. Players who consistently find fairways should also have an advantage, particularly when avoiding the strategically placed bunkers and bringing the par 5s into play.
The course has produced plenty of low scores in previous PGA TOUR events, including Brooks Koepka’s 18-under performance at the 2018 PGA Championship. That event may be a good one to monitor for the style of golfer who may find success this week. Tiger Woods finished second at Bellerive in 2018, while Adam Scott finished third with Jon Rahm and Stewart Cink in T-4. Another great driver of the golf ball, Gary Woodland, finished T-6. Overall, great drivers of the ball seemed to find success here in 2018, and I’d expect that trend to continue in 2026, given the course’s length, which now exceeds 7,400 despite the course being pared down to par 70 after playing par 71 in 2018.”
As of now, we have Round 1 totals up on the Pick6 site for play, so that’s where we’ll be focusing this week. This is a longer/tough course, but we haven’t seen it in action on the PGA TOUR in quite some time, so I’m hesitant to be too bullish on one side (higher scoring) vs. the other (easier scoring). Instead, I’ll be focusing on players’ recent form and looking for value in specific totals across categories.
With that in mind, I’ve focused on a few of my favorite plays for the BMW Championship in Round 1 below.
Top DraftKings Pick6 Plays for the 2026 BMW Championship
Eric Cole More Than 3.5 birdies or better
Cole has remained one of the better birdie-makers on TOUR this season, ranking 24th in Birdie or Better Percentage (24.03%) and 18th in both Birdie Average (4.28) and Par-5 Birdie or Better Percentage (53.62%). The recent form has been uneven—he finished T-58 at the FedEx St. Jude after a T-29 at the Wyndham—but his putting and short game remain strengths, ranking 13th in SG: Putting and fifth in Around-the-Green.
From a pure value perspective, Cole’s 3.5 BoB total is worth taking just based on the fact it’s a full point lower than several players with 4.5 totals. Overall, Bellerive’s length may expose Cole’s weaker off-the-tee numbers, but the fact he’s generally a fast starter and his ability to convert scoring chances makes the More Than appealing in Pick6 on this smaller total.
Sahith Theegala More Than 2.5 Bogeys or Worse
Bellerive could be a difficult setup for Theegala, particularly given the state of his long game. He enters the BMW Championship having averaged -0.797 SG: Total over his past five starts, including negative averages both Off-the-Tee and on Approach. He’s also just 117th in GIR percentage this season, which could lead to plenty of scrambling around Bellerive’s demanding greens.
Theegala finished 67th last week in Memphis and has only one top-20 finish in his past 10 starts. Overall, he also ranks outside the top-100 in bogey avoidance this year, a stat that correlates with the struggles he’s had tee-to-green. I expect the length of this venue to give him problems, and the recent concerns about his current ball-striking is enough to have me side with the More Than on bogeys or worse.
Adam Scott Less Than 69.0 Strokes
Scott has both recent form and Bellerive history working in his favor. He finished third at the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive, so he’s one of the few players in this 50-man field with a high-end result at the course. He also arrives off a T-12 at the FedEx St. Jude and a T-9 at The Open.
More importantly, Scott ranks 12th in SG: Approach this season and 41st in GIR, a strong statistical profile for a long Bellerive setup where quality iron play should be important. He’s also already produced several low rounds recently, including a closing 66 at The Open, making the Less Than an intriguing Pick6 selection, which I would consider a very high total for someone who has shown solid form over multiple starts now.
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