No — the BMW Championship does not have a cut. All 50 players who qualify for the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs play the full 72 holes at Bellerive Country Club, and every one of them earns a share of the $20 million purse, from $3.6 million for the winner down to a guaranteed $66,000 for last place.
The no-cut format is baked into what the tournament is: a playoff event whose field is already the most exclusive of the season. Only the top 50 in FedEx Cup points get in — there’s nothing left to trim after 36 holes, because qualifying was the cut. That’s been true since the BMW became a playoff event in 2007, though the field itself has shrunk over time, from 70 players in the early years to 50 since the 2023 restructure.
The chart below covers how the format works, why the Tour designed it this way, and how the BMW compares to the other playoff legs. Take a look, then we’ll get into what replaced the cut as the week’s pressure point.
GOLF RULES
Does the BMW Championship Have a Cut?
No — all 50 players go 72 holes, and all 50 get paid
FIELD
Top 50
In FedEx Cup points
GUARANTEE
$66,000
Minimum check
REAL CUT LINE
Top 30
Advance to East Lake
The format
How the no-cut BMW works
| Question | Answer |
|---|
| Is there a 36-hole cut? | No — all 50 players complete four rounds |
| Does everyone get paid? | Yes — last place earns $66,000 of the $20 million purse |
| How do you get in? | Finish top 50 in FedEx Cup points after the FedEx St. Jude Championship — qualification is the cut |
| Has the BMW ever had a cut? | Not as a playoff event (2007-present); its predecessor, the Western Open, had a standard cut |
| What about withdrawals? | A player who withdraws mid-event is paid per Tour policy but can’t earn points; no alternate replaces him mid-week |
| Field size history | 70 players (2007-2022) — reduced to 50 beginning in 2023 |
The three playoff legs
Shrinking fields, no cuts anywhere
| 2026 playoff event | Field | Cut? | What’s decided |
|---|
| FedEx St. Jude Championship (Memphis, Aug. 13-16) | Top 70 | No cut | Top 50 advance to the BMW |
| BMW Championship (Bellerive, Aug. 20-23) | Top 50 | No cut | Top 30 advance to East Lake |
| Tour Championship (East Lake, Aug. 26-30) | Top 30 | No cut | FedEx Cup champion; $40M purse, $10M to the winner |
Why the Tour built it this way
The reasoning behind no-cut playoffs
| Why no cut | The logic |
|---|
| The field is the cut | Reaching the top 50 required a full season; trimming again after two rounds would punish qualification itself |
| TV certainty | Every star who starts Thursday plays the weekend — no risk of the points leader vanishing before Saturday |
| Points integrity | With Tour Championship spots decided by four full rounds, every player gets the same 72 holes to make his case |
| Sponsor value | BMW and the Western Golf Association get four days of the Tour’s top 50 — the guarantee is the product |
NO-CUT FACTS
The Western Open had one
The BMW’s predecessor ran cuts for a century; the cut disappeared in 2007 when the event became a playoff leg with a pre-qualified field.
Signature events copied it
The Tour’s elevated signature events adopted small no-cut or limited-cut fields in 2024 — the playoff formula spreading to the regular season.
No cut doesn’t mean no stakes
Since 2023, twenty of the 50 players each year are eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday — the cut just moved from Friday night to the final leaderboard.
Why the BMW Championship has no cut and what’s really on the line.
What Replaced the Cut
The Friday guillotine is gone, but Bellerive’s Sunday has its own: the top-30 line for the Tour Championship. Twenty players will finish this week’s leaderboard eliminated from the playoffs, and for the bubble — this year that’s the likes of Kurt Kitayama, Bud Cauley, and Rickie Fowler clinging to spots 28-30, with Gary Woodland first man out — every shot from Thursday on carries cut-like consequences. The format simply relocated the drama from halfway through the tournament to the very end of it, which is exactly what a television playoff is supposed to do.
The Bottom Line
The BMW Championship has no cut: the top-50 field is itself the product of a season-long qualification, all 50 play 72 holes, and all 50 are paid from the $20 million purse. The real elimination happens Sunday, when only 30 advance to East Lake. For that qualification math, see how many golfers advance to the Tour Championship; for every check, the full payout table; and for the money overview, the 2026 purse breakdown.
