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England's Casey aiming for another return to BMW Championship

The busiest Chicago golf season in at least 20 years is approaching its climax. The BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms in Lake Forest next month and the Western Golf Association asked England's Paul Casey to be the focal point to preview the FedEx Cup Playoff event.

As usual, the field at Conway Farms will have 70 players and they won't be determined until after the first two FedEx Cup tournaments. The series begins Thursday with The Northern Trust as the top 125 in the season-long FedEx point race compete.

Three golfers with with Chicago connections - Kevin Streelman, D.A. Points and Luke Donald - will have to play well to stay in the competition after the first tournament. Streelman is No. 83, Points 104 and Donald 107. The top 100 after the New York event advance to the Dell Technology Championship Sept. 1-4 at TPC Boston. The top 70 after Boston will play at Conway Farms from Sept. 14-17.

The 30-player Tour Championship ends the series at East Lake in Atlanta Sept. 21-24.

While Casey isn't guaranteed a spot at Conway Farms, there's a good chance he'll be there. His game has thrived in both the playoffs and the BMW Championship. Last year he finished in the top five in all four FedEx tourneys and he was runner-up to Dustin Johnson twice in BMW Championships - at Cog Hill in 2010 and at Crooked Stick last year.

"If you could make sure that (Johnson) is not in the field, that would be great," deadpanned Casey. "But I'm really excited. This (FedEx Playoffs) has built through the years. It's a great time of the season to get hot, and I typically do."

Each of the four events offers a purse of $8,750,000, and there's a $10 million bonus to the overall champion.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs started in 2007 and the BMW Championship is an outgrowth of the Western Golf Association's Western Open. While it took a while for the series to catch on, Casey rates the four-tournament climax to the season in importance behind the four major championships and The Players Championship.

"It is now something which is really etched in our minds all season long and is very, very exciting for us," Casey said.

And it'll stay around for a while, since FedEx recently renewed its financial support.

"That's massive," said Casey. "It shows what place it has within the golfing community with the professionals."

The BMW Championship is just as important to the Western Golf Association, which uses the event to fund its Evans Scholarship program. When the BMW was at Conway Farms in 2015, it raised $2 million for the charity.

This year's tourney ends Conway Farm's three-year run as host. Medinah will be the site in 2019 after Aronimink, in the Philadelphia area, in 2018.

Vince Pellegrino, the WGA's senior vice president for tournaments, announced some new features for this year's BMW Championship. Reserved seating will be available beside the 18th green for the first time. Visitors also can participate in the Top Golf Crush experience, the first time it's been held at a PGA Tour event. Fans can compete for prizes in a five-ball challenge on the Conway practice range during the championship.

Here and there:

• The 95th playing of the Illinois PGA Championship concludes on Wednesday on Medinah's No. 1 course.

• Doug Ghim received a consolation prize after his loss to Doc Redman in the dramatic U.S. Amateur final on Sunday. The Arlington Heights resident was named to the U.S. Walker Cup team, which will take on a European contingent at Los Angeles Country Club next month. Illini golfer Dylan Meyer is the third alternate for the 10-man U.S. squad.

• The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct the 25th Illinois State Mid-Amateur Championship Monday and Tuesday at Exmoor in Highland Park.

• For more golf news, visit lenziehmongolf.com.

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