PGA leaderboard: McIlroy shares early BMW Championship lead
Rory McIlroy shares the early lead at the 2026 BMW Championship after a bogey-free, six-under 64 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, tying four others atop the PGA leaderboard heading into Friday’s second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Round 2 is underway with no cut, and highlights keep updating as the 50-man field battles for East Lake spots.
Key Takeaways
- McIlroy’s opening 64 put him in a five-way share of the lead with Wyndham Clark, J.J. Spaun, Gary Woodland, and Chris Gotterup.
- The BMW Championship is the second FedEx Cup Playoffs event, contested Aug. 20–23 at Bellerive with a $20 million purse and no Friday cut.
- Defending champion Scottie Scheffler entered as the 3-1 favorite after an eight-stroke St. Jude win, while McIlroy seeks a rebound from a poor Memphis week.
- Round 2 airs on ESPN (10 a.m.–12 p.m. ET) and Golf Channel (3–7 p.m. ET), with PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ from 10 a.m. ET.
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Who is on top of the PGA leaderboard after Round 1?
McIlroy flipped the script after finishing near the bottom at the St. Jude Championship, the playoffs’ opening event. At Bellerive he made zero bogeys, went four under over his final six holes, and posted a six-under 64.
Four players matched that score: Clark, Spaun, Woodland, and Gotterup. That cluster sits atop the early PGA leaderboard as Friday’s second round unfolds. PGA Tour highlight clips also tracked birdie moments from Scheffler, Sam Burns, Ludvig Åberg, Sungjae Im, and Sepp Straka during Round 2 action.
Why does this BMW Championship week matter in the FedEx Cup?
After St. Jude trimmed the field from 70 to 50, only this BMW stop and the Tour Championship remain. Twenty-two of the 50 players—including Scheffler and McIlroy—have already locked Tour Championship berths, per CBS Sports citing Data Golf; Viktor Hovland sits as the last man at No. 22 with a 100% chance.
Bubble pressure is real for players from Adam Scott (No. 27) through Robert MacIntyre (No. 36), who need strong Sunday finishes to crack the top 30. Sungjae Im was the lone player to play into this field last weekend and sits near former BMW winners Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay on the season-long board.
Bellerive, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. par-70 listed at 7,448 yards, is hosting its first professional event since the 2018 PGA Championship. Scheffler is the defending BMW champion after outlasting MacIntyre a year ago at Caves Valley and remains world No. 1 at 3-1 on DraftKings odds.
How can you follow Round 2 and the live highlights?
McIlroy teed off Round 2 at 10:47 a.m. ET with Xander Schauffele; Scheffler went out at 12:07 p.m. ET with Matt Fitzpatrick. Official video highlights and news updates are posted on the PGA Tour BMW Championship highlights page.
TV coverage Friday runs on ESPN from 10 a.m. to noon ET, then Golf Channel from 3 to 7 p.m. ET. Streaming includes PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ from 10 a.m. ET, plus featured groups, featured holes, and a “Marquee Group: Quiet Please” feed without announcers.
With Round 2 in progress and roles already reversed from Memphis—McIlroy surging while Scheffler’s early form drew fade headlines—the PGA leaderboard at Bellerive remains the clearest snapshot of who is seizing FedEx Cup momentum this weekend.