Viktor Hovland sets course record with 61 to win BMW Championship - ESPN

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. — Viktor Hovland delivered the best round of his career at the right time, making birdie on all but two holes on the back nine Sunday for a 9-under 61 to break the course record at Olympia Fields and storm past Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick to win the BMW Championship.

What looked to be a two-man race between Scheffler and Fitzpatrick turned into a one-man show by Hovland. He headed to the back nine 4 shots behind. In the end, Scheffler and Fitzpatrick had to hole out from the fairway to catch him.

Both closed with a 66, a score that normally would be enough to win on a day like this. They had to settle for runner-up to Hovland, who won for the second time this year and never looked better doing it.

Hovland had only one putt longer than 15 feet on the back nine. He closed with birdies on the 17th and 18th, the two hardest holes, finishing with an approach over the bunker to 6 feet on the 18th for one last birdie.

«That has to be the best round I've ever played,» Hovland said. «Given the circumstances — a playoff event, this golf course — the way I played the last holes was pretty special.»

Turns out the drama came from everywhere else.

Jordan Spieth bogeyed his last two holes for a 71 and was on the verge of falling out of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup who make it to East Lake next week for the Tour Championship. But then Denny McCarthy made three bogeys over his last seven holes to fall out.

The cruelest of all was Sahith Theegala. He ran off three straight birdies through the 17th hole and was projected to be in the top 30. But he took bogey on the last hole, while Patrick Cantlay in his group made birdie. They tied for 15th, and that bogey-birdie combination was enough to end Theegala's