Xander Schauffele’s Caddy shares why the BMW Championship venue fits his players.
The second game of the FedEx Cup playoffs will begin this week just outside Baltimore, Maryland, outside Cave Valley Golf Club for the BMW Championship. The event has historically tended to reach various venues across Chicago, and in recent years have trended towards both the West (2024 Castle Pines) and the East (this year the Baltimore area).
Xander Schauffele enters the BMW Championship in 43rd place in the FedEx Cup standings, outside the top 30 and will compete in next week’s playoff finale at the Tour Championship. The winners of the nine PGA Tours have yet to miss that prestigious event on the PGA Tours of the past eight years. In fact, he has yet to finish the FedEx Cup playoffs outside the top 15 in the final rankings. The 31-year-old will need to punch tickets to Eastlake for at least 21 solo finishes at BMW.
In preparation for this week’s event on this week’s regular, non-staple course on TV, it’s helpful to look back at the insights that Schaufele’s longtime caddy Austin Kayser shared from the 2021 event, and how his players respond to this scenic course.
“It’s a golf course that rewards good driving and being in the best place from the tee, and that’s what he’s doing really well,” Kaiser told the Athlon at Schaufere. “He’s comfortable having his gaze at these tee boxes and navigating through those big fairway bunkers, which is important.”
Ranked 10th in Schauffele’s shots, his approach to the greens this season on the tour, and how much Birdie Fest 2021 was (Patrick Cantlay won by 27 under).
“These are pretty big greens, but you still need to hit small targets. I think his iron play can really help him score around here.
Schauffele was tied up to 7th and 49th after opening a 5-under 67 in 2021.
Related: Xander Schauffele adopts a non-traditional strategy for Fedex St. Jude Championship’s Course
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on August 13, 2025 and first appeared.
