FedExCup Fall – Event No. 7
Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Port Royal Golf Course
Southampton, Bermuda
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Butterfield Bermuda Championship tips
Win Tickets
Justin Lower (25/1): Looking for his first win on TOUR, only one of the five previous winners broke their maiden at Port Royal. Lower’s recent heat and course form pushed him to the top of my list. The co-leader after 54 holes in Cabo San Lucas last week, the 35-year-old ranked in the top 10 in Fairways, Greens in Regulation, and Putting. Earning a share of second place racked up his third top-10 payday this season on foreign soil (T3 Vidanta Vallarta; T4 Corales Puntacana). The Ohio native, making his fourth consecutive start in Bermuda, has never missed the cut. In 12 rounds, he posted 11 loops in the 60s and owns a 67.75 scoring average. Cashing T17 on debut in 2021, he added T8 in 2022 and T20 in 2023 for an aggregate of 39-under-par. Camilo Villegas, the 2023 champion, also finished as a co-runner-up at the World Wide Technology Championship before his victory.
Nico Echavarria (35/1): The champion three weeks ago in Japan at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP decided he was too hot to forego the rest of the FedExCup Fall. After the bye week, he returned with the rest of the TOUR to Cabo San Lucas and added another top-10 payday (T6). The 2023 Puerto Rico Open champion won for the first time navigating similar gusty conditions forecast for this week. The strength of his game is finding fairways (31st) and Greens in Regulation (33rd). With confidence at a sky-high level, the 30-year-old also has no problem making birdies (28th).
Top 10 Tickets
Lucas Glover (13/5): Four of the five previous winners were over the age of 32. The six-time winner on TOUR is the highest-ranked player in the Official World Golf Rankings entered. The forecast suggests the wind will blow all weekend so I will hitch my wagon to a proven tee-to-green player experienced feast or famine on the Port Royal layout. Half of his eight rounds are 67 or better but the other half are 70 or worse, including three rounds above par. After collecting checks of T24-T3-T3-T13 in his last four starts, I’ll gladly wade in.
Patrick Rodgers (7/2): Returning to Southampton for the first time since cashing T3 and solo fourth in 2022 and 2021, the Stanford man will not miss another chance to pad his bank account in the Atlantic Ocean. Sitting at No. 55 in the FedExCup Fall, he is comfortably in the Aon Next 10 and can turn his attention to winning in his 280th start on TOUR. The familiarity of the venue, plus he’s on form, cashing in 11 of his last 12 starts, including T24 in Cabo San Lucas, suggests he is ready to contend, and win.
Top 20 Tickets
Ryan McCormick (6/1): Veteran investors notice that the rank-and-file blow hot for patches each year. The New Jersey native withdrew from the Black Desert Championship after missing the cut in his five previous events. Flipping the switch the following week in Las Vegas, the 33-year-old rookie found something in the desert dirt of TPC Summerlin and posted T16, his first top 25 since T4 at the Myrtle Beach Classic in early May. After not making the trip to Japan, he continued his solid play at the World Wide Technology Championship. Cashing T24, he posted back-to-back top-25 paydays for the first time this season. Get hot, stay hot!
Alex Smalley (9/5): I find it impossible to ignore that the former Duke Blue Devil has never posted a round worse than 70 in three visits to Bermuda. The 12 rounds on his record show 11 have posted 69 or better, but he’s never cashed a check in the top 10. Over the last three years, the 28-year-old posted an aggregate of 33-under with finishes of T30, T11, and T12. Playing the weekend over in four consecutive events entering the week, his best result, T5 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, was also on Bermudagrass.
Port Royal Golf Course
One of only three courses on the PGA TOUR schedule that does not reach 7,000 yards, Port Royal is the shortest of the trio and remains the exact yardage and Par for the sixth consecutive year.
The standard Par-71 includes a pair of Par-3 holes on each of the nine holes, including two stretching 235 yards on the loop back to the clubhouse. The front nine duo, playing 148 and 213 yards, provides a warm-up before the meatier challenges. As a group, they rank annually in the top third of Par-3 groupings on TOUR.
The massive Bermuda greens provide ample room for recovery shots that do not find the tight fairways. Four of the five winners ranked in the top 15 GIR, and all five registered in the top 11 in Putting. Port Royal is the first event on Bermudagrass greens since the Sanderson Farms Championship at the end of September.
When the wind lies down, birdies will fill the scorecards. In 2022, Seamus Power set the tournament record for birdies with 28. Inaugural winner Brendon Todd and 2023 champion Camilo Villegas both circled 27.
Only the 2020 event played over par (71.151).
| Yards (per official scorecard): | 6,828. |
| Par: | 71 (36-35). |
| Greens: | TifEagle Bermuda; 8,000 square feet on average. |
| Stimpmeter: | 11.5 feet and up. |
| Rough: | 419 Bermudagrass at 2 inches. |
| Bunkers/Water Hazards/In-Play | 87/4/7. |
| Architect(s): | Robert Trent Jones, Sr., (1971); Roger Rulewich (2008). |
| Defending Champion: | Camilo Villegas (-24; 260). |
| Multiple Champions Entered: | None. |
| Course Record: | 61; Alex Noren (2023); Taylor Pendrith (2021). |
| Tournament Record: | 260; Villegas and Brendon Todd (2019). |
Recent PGA TOUR Winners
2023 Season Winners
| Event | Winner |
| Sentry Tournament of Champions | Jon Rahm |
| Sony Open in Hawaii | Si Woo Kim |
| The AMERICAN EXPRESS | Jon Rahm (2) |
| Farmers Insurance Open | Max Homa (2) |
| AT&T Pebble Beach | Justin Rose |
| WM Phoenix Open | Scottie Scheffler |
| The Genesis Invitational | Jon Rahm (3) |
| The Honda Classic | Chris Kirk |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational | Kurt Kitayama (first TOUR win) |
| THE PLAYERS Championship | Scottie Scheffler (2) |
| Valspar Championship | Taylor Moore (first TOUR win) |
| Corales Puntacana | Matt Wallace (first TOUR win) |
| WGC – Dell Technologies MP | Sam Burns |
| Valero Texas Open | Corey Conners |
| Masters | Jon Rahm (4) |
| RBC Heritage | Matt Fitzpatrick |
| Zurich Classic of New Orleans | Davis Riley & Nick Hardy (first TOUR win for each) |
| Mexico Open at Vidanta | Tony Finau (2) |
| Wells Fargo Championship | Wyndham Clark (first TOUR win) |
| AT&T Byron Nelson | Jason Day |
| PGA Championship | Brooks Koepka |
| Charles Schwab Challenge | Emiliano Grillo |
| Memorial | Viktor Hovland |
| RBC Canadian Open | Nick Taylor |
| U.S. Open | Wyndham Clark (2) |
| Travelers Championship | Keegan Bradley (2) |
| Rocket Mortgage Classic | Rickie Fowler |
| John Deere Classic | Sepp Straka |
| Genesis Scottish Open | Rory McIlroy (2) |
| The Open Championship | Brian Harman |
| 3M Open | Lee Hodges (first TOUR win) |
| Wyndham Championship | Lucas Glover |
| FedEx St. Jude Championship | Lucas Glover (2) |
| BMW Championship | Viktor Hovland (2) |
| TOUR Championship | Viktor Hovland (3) |
| Fortinet Championship | Sahith Theegala |
| Sanderson Farms Championship | Luke List |
| Shriners Children’s Open | Tom Kim |
| ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP | Collin Morikawa |
| World Wide Technology | Erik van Rooyen |
| Butterfield Bermuda | Camilo Villegas |
| The RSM Classic | Ludvig Aberg |
2024 Season Winners
| Event | Winner |
| The Sentry | Chris Kirk |
| Sony Open in Hawaii | Grayson Murray |
| The American Express | Nick Dunlap (a) |
| Farmers Insurance Open | Matthieu Pavon (rookie) |
| AT&T Pebble Beach | Wyndham Clark (54 holes) |
| WM Phoenix Open | Nick Taylor |
| The Genesis Invitational | Hideki Matsuyama |
| Mexico Open at Vidanta | Jake Knapp (rookie) |
| Cognizant Classic | Austin Eckroat (first time) |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational | Scottie Scheffler |
| THE PLAYERS Championship | Scottie Scheffler (2) |
| Valspar Championship | Peter Malnati |
| Texas Children’s Houston Open | Stephan Jaeger (first time) |
| Valero Texas Open | Akshay Bhatia |
| 88th Masters Tournament | Scottie Scheffler (3) |
| RBC Heritage | Scottie Scheffler (4) |
| Zurich Classic | Rory McIlroy & Shane Lowry |
| THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson | Taylor Pendrith (first time) |
| Wells Fargo Championship | Rory McIlroy (2) |
| 106th PGA Championship | Xander Schauffele |
| Charles Schwab Challenge | Davis Riley |
| RBC Canadian Open | Robert MacIntyre (first time) |
| The 49th Memorial Tournament | Scottie Scheffler (5) |
| 124th United States Open | Bryson DeChambeau |
| Travelers Championship | Scottie Scheffler (6) |
| Rocket Mortgage Classic | Cam Davis |
| John Deere Classic | Davis Thompson (first time) |
| Genesis Scottish Open | Robert MacIntyre (2) |
| 152nd Open Championship | Xander Schauffele (2) |
| 3M Open | Jhonattan Vegas |
| 2024 Paris Olympics | Scottie Scheffler (7) |
| 3M Open | Jhonattan Vegas |
| Wyndham Championship | Aaron Rai (first time) |
| FedEx St. Jude Championship | Hideki Matsuyama (2) |
| BMW Championship | Keegan Bradley |
| The TOUR Championship | Scottie Scheffler (8) |
| FedEx Cup Fall | |
| Procore Championship | Patton Kizzire |
| Sanderson Farms Championship | Kevin Yu (first time) |
| Black Desert Championship | Matt McCarty (first time) |
| Shriners Children’s Open | JT Poston |
| ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP | Nico Echavarria |
| World Wide Technology Champ | Austin Eckroat (2) |
Recent Winners – Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Italics – not entered/qualified this week.
| Year | Winner | Notes |
| 2023 | Camilo Villegas (-24) | Picked up his first win in NINE YEARS on TOUR and matched the tournament scoring record. |
| 2022 | Seamus Power (-19) | Set the tournament record by circling 28 birdies; won by a shot |
| 2021 | Lucas Herbert (-15) | Won for the first time on TOUR in just his 20th start. Only champion under 32 years of age. |
| 2020 | Brian Gay (-15) | Oldest winner at 48 years old. |
| 2019 | Brendon Todd (-24) | Won the inaugural event by four shots. |
Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Internationals have won the last three tournaments after Americans won the first two editions.
Four of the five winners were 33 or older and were previous winners on TOUR. Lucas Herbert was 25 and making just his 20th start when he won for the first time on TOUR.
Every winning total has been 15-under par or lower. Making birdies and avoiding bogeys is the classic formula to contend in a shootout.
No player has won this event more than once.
The weather will play a major role in determining the champion again this year.
On the line this week for the field of 120 is a purse of $6.9 million with the winner taking home $1.242 million plus 500 FedExCup points.
The field will be cut to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes.
After four rounds in Bermuda, the TOUR wraps up the FedExCup Fall next week at The RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia.
Glass Houses 