By Tony Webeck

Cameron Smith remains in contention for the $US15 million FedEx Cup but will start the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship finale five strokes back after Patrick Cantlay won a dramatic BMW Championship in Maryland.

After dodging a number of near misses from Bryson DeChambeau, Cantlay’s putt from 20 feet at the sixth playoff hole – and DeChambeau’s subsequent miss –sees the American begin the Tour Championship at 10-under par, two clear of Northern Trust champion Tony Finau and three clear of DeChambeau.

Smith will start the first round at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta at 5-under par and in fifth position, the only Aussie in the field of 30 after Cam Davis, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones all failed to progress.

Davis began the final round at Caves Valley Golf Club in 22nd position and needing to improve his standing further to climb into the top 30, a round of 3-under 69 resulting in a drop to 29th and a final FedEx Cup position of 37th.

A final round of 69 saw Leishman fall to 42nd in the FedEx Cup while Jones ended his best year since 2015 in 47th position, the highlight being his victory at the Honda Classic.

Beginning the week third in the FedEx Cup standings, Smith was sound but struggled to keep up with the cracking pace set by the tournament front-runners.

A second round of even par 72 saw Smith lose considerable ground, ground he was unable to make up over the weekend despite going 7-under for his final 36 holes to earn a share of 34th.

The pursuit of a PGA Tour card continued at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with West Australian Curtis Luck moving inside the top 25 courtesy of a tie for 16th at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Ohio.

Two shots off the lead at the halfway mark, Luck bounced back from a 73 on Saturday to shoot 66 on Sunday and move inside the top 25 who will be awarded PGA Tour cards following this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

Brett Drewitt has already safely secured his return to the PGA Tour next season while Aaron Baddeley will start the Tour Championship in 31st position as he seeks to maintain his PGA Tour status, the pair both finishing in a tie for 22nd at the Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course.

West Australian Whitney Hillier extended her recent run of good form on the Ladies European Tour with a top-10 finish at the Skafto Open in Sweden.

Runner-up in a recent Rose Ladies Series event and tied for 15th at the Women’s Scottish Open, Hillier began the tournament with a 3-over par round of 72 but had just one bogey in her final 36 holes, rounds of 65-65 moving her up into a tie for eighth.

Queenslander Anthony Quayle secured his second top-15 finish in his past three starts on the Japan Golf Tour with a tie for 13th at the Sansan KBC Augusta tournament, Stephen Leaney was the best of the Aussies in a tie for seventh at the Champions Tour’s Ally Challenge and Robyn Choi was the only Australian to make the cut at the Symetra Tour’s Circling Raven Championship as she continues her pursuit of a LPGA Tour card.

Results

PGA Tour

BMW Championship

Caves Valley Golf Club, Baltimore, Maryland

Winner Patrick Cantlay  66-63-66-66—261         $US1.71m

T29      Cam Davis         73-67-67-69—276         $61,750

T34      Cameron Smith 68-72-69-68—277         $50,113

T38      Matt Jones        69-70-71-68—278         $38,000

51        Marc Leishman 69-76-68-69—282         $23,370

European Tour

Omega European Masters

Crans-sur-Sierre GC, Crans Montana, Switzerland

Winner Rasmus Hojgaard          68-66-70-63—267         €315,330

T21      Min Woo Lee    66-67-74-67—274         €21,061

T40      Bryden Macpherson      69-68-68-72—277         €11,539

T56      Wade Ormsby   69-69-74-69—281         €6,824

T65      Maverick Antcliff           69-68-79-68—284         €5,437

MC       Scott Hend        70-71—141

MC       Jake McLeod     66-75—141

Japan Golf Tour

Sansan KBC Augusta

Keya Golf Club, Fukuoka

Winner Scott Vincent    64-70-69-68—271         ¥20m

T13      Anthony Quayle            70-69-70-70—279         ¥1,544,444

T37      Scott Strange    72-65-72-75—284         ¥460,000

MC       David Bransdon 69-74—143

MC       Todd Sinnott     73-70—143

MC       Andrew Evans   73-71—144

MC       Dylan Perry       77-75—152

Ladies European Tour

Didriksons Skafto Open

Skafto Golf Club, Sweden

Winner Pauline Roussin Bouchard         68-60-68—196  €33,000

T8        Whitney Hillier  72-65-65—202  €6,490

T10      Stephanie Kyriacou       71-66-66—203  €5,170

MC       Kristalle Blum   73-74—147

MC       Amy Walsh       77-72—149

MC       Victoria Fricot   79-78—157

Korn Ferry Tour

Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship

OSU Golf Club (Scarlet Cse), Columbus, Ohio

Winner Adam Svensson 67-68-65-67—267         $US180,000

T16      Curtis Luck        66-67-73-66—272         $16,500

T22      Brett Drewitt    69-65-71-69—274         $9,836

T22      Aaron Baddeley 68-69-67-70—274         $9,836

T34      Rhein Gibson    66-67-73-71—277         $5,587

T58      Lucas Herbert   69-70-69-74—282         $4,110

MC       Danny Lee        71-69—140

MC       Greg Chalmers  74-68—142

Challenge Tour

B-NL Challenge Trophy

The Dutch, Spijk, Netherlands

Winner Alfredo Garcia-Heredia  67-69-69-68—273         €40,000

Won in a playoff

T45      Josh Geary        67-72-69-77—285         €1,275

T49      Blake Windred  69-74-70-73—286         €1,055

MC       Dimitrios Papadatos      72-72—144

MC       Daniel Hillier     70-79—149

Symetra Tour

Circling Raven Championship

Circling Raven Golf Club, Worley, Idaho

Winner

T62      Robyn Choi       69-73-73—215 

MC       Stephanie Na    71-72—143

MC       Soo Jin Lee        71-74—145

MC       Julienne Soo     71-74—145

MC       Julianne Alvarez            70-75—145

Champions Tour

The Ally Challenge

Warwick Hills G&CC, Grand Blanc, Michigan

Winner Joe Durant        65-66-68—199  $US300,000

3          Steven Alker     69-65-67—201  $144,000

T7        Stephen Leaney 70-65-68—203  $68,000

T10      Rod Pampling   70-69-67—206  $44,400

T46      Robert Allenby  70-75-68—213  $6,800

T52      David McKenzie 73-71-70—214  $4,950

T64      John Senden     71-73-73—217  $2,600

LPGA Tour

Senior LPGA Championship

French Lick Resort, French Lick, Indiana

Winner Trish Johnson    67-73-69—209  $US105,000

T40      Jan Stephenson 79-74-79—232  $3,638