OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The 49-man field at the 2025 BMW Championship was greeted by a much friendlier course at Caves Valley Golf Club on Friday as the rain that caused a two-hour delay to open play created softer greens and fairways that allowed for some low scores. Robert MacIntyre came into Friday’s second round with a three-shot advantage, and the 29-year-old Scotsman picked up where he left off six more birdies to post a bogey-free 64, reaching 14 under for the tournament and pushing his lead to five shots over Scottie Scheffler going into the weekend.
MacIntyre leads the field in strokes gained putting and on approach after the first two rounds, which is an incredible feat given the field is comprised of the best players in the world. While his first round was fueled by a red-hot putter — rolling in nearly 200 feet of putts Thursday — it was the iron play that pushed him to a 64 on Friday as he was dialed with the approach game to take some of the stress off his flat stick.
MacIntyre noted that the key to his strong week putting so far has been giving himself chances from the correct areas of the green on the fast greens at Caves Valley.
“You’ve just got to be on the right side of the holes. Everyone will say it: If you’re on the wrong side of the holes, it’s going to be carnage out here,” he explained. “I feel like this week I’ve really done a good job of getting it underneath the hole to be able to be aggressive with an uphill putt. The hardest putts are the ones probably 5, 6, 7, 8 feet down the hill where you’re just breathing on it, touching it to get it going and you just stand there and watch it bob and weave its way down the hill and fearing where it’s going to end.”
MacIntyre will face a different test of his game Saturday as he’ll be joined by Scheffler in the final pairing after Scheffler did his best to keep pace with a Friday 65. That moved him into solo second at 9 under, still five back of MacIntyre. The world No. 1 got off to a hot start once again with three birdies in his first five holes, adding two more on Nos. 11 and 12 before calling it a day. Like MacIntyre, he went bogey-free Friday but couldn’t replicate his fiery close from Thursday and made six straight pars to conclude his round.
While Scheffler would have loved to get closer to MacIntyre on that concluding stretch, his effort was still enough to earn a spot in the final pairing where he’ll get to apply some direct pressure to the leader. Scheffler’s main weapon this week has been his driver; he’s second in driving distance at 329 yards and third in accuracy, hitting 22 of 28 fairways through two rounds. His ball striking has been pedestrian (18th in the field), but if he can start dialing in the irons and wedges to his normal standard, he will certainly make MacIntyre sweat a bit down the stretch.
The leader
1. Robert MacIntyre (-14): It would be dfficult to draw up a better start to a tournament than a 62-64 in which both rounds were at least tied for the low mark of the day. MacIntyre has created a five-shot cushion and looks comfortable with all aspects of his game right now. We’ll see how he handles a third-round pairing with Scheffler, but nothing about the way MacIntyre is playing right now suggests he’s going to give the field chasing him much. Anyone that is looking to catch MacIntyre is going to have to play some spectacular golf to prevent him from hoisting the BMW Championship trophy at the end of the weekend.
Contenders
2. Scottie Scheffler (-9)
3. Ludvig Åberg (-8)
4. Hideki Matsuyama (-7)
T5. Tommy Fleetwood, Michael Kim, Maverick McNealy (-6)
T8. Harry Hall, Sam Burns, Viktor Hovland (-5)
11. Rory McIlroy (-4)
Scheffler is simply relentless in his execution, and he seemed to get even more comfortable with playing Caves Valley on Friday. It feels like he’s going to keep putting up rounds in the mid-60s and force MacIntyre to keep his scoring pace up to stay ahead.
Åberg and Matsuyama got into the mix with matching 64s thanks to a couple red-hot back nine 31s to dart up the leaderboard into the top five. Neither player has been up to his preferred standard for much of this season, but both have a chance to close out this tournament strong heading into the Tour Championship.
McNealy also shot a 64 to make a big move on Friday, and he did so with Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley watching closely as his playing partner. He’s not only looking to try and climb into the top 10 in the FedEx Cup standings but hoping to make a strong closing argument for one of the six captain’s picks for Bethpage Black.
Fleetwood came into the day in second place and got off to a terrific start with a front-nine 32, but three bogeys in his final five holes took the wind out of his sails and made his job much more difficult going into the weekend in his continued quest for a win. McIlroy, meanwhile, made an early double bogey on the par-3 third, but he got it going on the back, including making the only eagle of the day by any player on any hole on the par-5 16th to move just outside the top 10 going into the weekend.
2025 BMW Championship updated odds, picks
- Robert MacIntyre (6/5)
- Scottie Scheffler (7/5)
- Ludvig Åberg (10-1)
- Hideki Matsuyama (28-1)
- Tommy Fleetwood (30-1)
It’s pretty wild that MacIntyre is almost at coin-flip odds with Scheffler given he has a five-shot lead. It’s worth buying him at this price, even if Scheffler is Scheffler. Should Åberg continue to carry his Friday form through the weekend, he’s a legit threat even as he’s six shots back. There’s definitely value there at 10-1.
