The BMW Championship has crowned 19 winners since it took its current name in 2007, and the list reads like a modern golf hall of fame: Tiger Woods won the first one (and the first FedEx Cup with it), Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson each collected it during peak stretches, Patrick Cantlay went back-to-back, and Scottie Scheffler arrives at Bellerive this week as defending champion after running down Robert MacIntyre at Caves Valley in 2025.
The lineage is far older than the name. The BMW is the direct continuation of the Western Open, first played in 1899 — the third-oldest trophy in American golf — run then and now by the Western Golf Association, with proceeds funding the Evans Scholars caddie scholarship program. When the FedEx Cup launched in 2007, the Western Open became the BMW Championship and its home shifted from a fixed Chicago-area rotation to a traveling national one.
Every BMW-era winner is in the chart below, along with the venues and the era’s records. Take a look, then we’ll get into the wins that defined the event.
GOLF HISTORY
BMW Championship Winners by Year
Every champion since 2007 — and the 1899 lineage behind the name
DEFENDING
Scheffler
2025, Caves Valley
MOST TITLES
2
Four players tied
LINEAGE
1899
Via the Western Open
Every BMW Championship winner
2007 to 2025
| Year | Winner | Venue | Note |
|---|
| 2025 | Scottie Scheffler | Caves Valley GC, Owings Mills, Md. | Ran down Robert MacIntyre on Sunday for the title |
| 2024 | Keegan Bradley | Castle Pines GC, Castle Rock, Colo. | Won at the Tour’s highest-elevation venue |
| 2023 | Viktor Hovland | Olympia Fields CC, Olympia Fields, Ill. | Closing 61 to run away with it |
| 2022 | Patrick Cantlay | Wilmington CC, Wilmington, Del. | Back-to-back BMW titles |
| 2021 | Patrick Cantlay | Caves Valley GC, Owings Mills, Md. | Beat DeChambeau in a 6-hole playoff — the ‘Patty Ice’ duel |
| 2020 | Jon Rahm | Olympia Fields CC, Olympia Fields, Ill. | Holed a 66-footer to beat Dustin Johnson in a playoff |
| 2019 | Justin Thomas | Medinah CC, Medinah, Ill. | |
| 2018 | Keegan Bradley | Aronimink GC, Newtown Square, Pa. | Playoff win over Justin Rose |
| 2017 | Marc Leishman | Conway Farms GC, Lake Forest, Ill. | |
| 2016 | Dustin Johnson | Crooked Stick GC, Carmel, Ind. | His second BMW title |
| 2015 | Jason Day | Conway Farms GC, Lake Forest, Ill. | Capped his summer of dominance |
| 2014 | Billy Horschel | Cherry Hills CC, Cherry Hills Village, Colo. | Springboard to his FedEx Cup title |
| 2013 | Zach Johnson | Conway Farms GC, Lake Forest, Ill. | The week Jim Furyk shot 59 |
| 2012 | Rory McIlroy | Crooked Stick GC, Carmel, Ind. | Third win in four starts that stretch |
| 2011 | Justin Rose | Cog Hill G&CC, Lemont, Ill. | |
| 2010 | Dustin Johnson | Cog Hill G&CC, Lemont, Ill. | |
| 2009 | Tiger Woods | Cog Hill G&CC, Lemont, Ill. | His second BMW title in three years |
| 2008 | Camilo Villegas | Bellerive CC, St. Louis, Mo. | The last BMW at Bellerive — until 2026 |
| 2007 | Tiger Woods | Cog Hill G&CC, Lemont, Ill. | Won the first BMW Championship and the first FedEx Cup |
Per PGA Tour records; the event continues the Western Open’s lineage.
BMW-era records
The marks that stand out
| Record | Holder |
|---|
| Most BMW titles | Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Keegan Bradley — 2 each |
| Only back-to-back winner | Patrick Cantlay (2021-22) |
| Most famous finish | Cantlay over DeChambeau, 2021 — a six-hole playoff at Caves Valley that named ‘Patty Ice’ |
| Lowest closing round to win | Viktor Hovland’s Sunday 61 at Olympia Fields, 2023 |
| Longest-tenured host | Cog Hill (Lemont, Ill.) — four BMWs from 2007-2011, plus decades of Western Opens |
| The Bellerive connection | Camilo Villegas won the only previous BMW at Bellerive (2008); the event returns there in 2026 |
From Western Open to BMW
The event’s evolution
| Era | The tournament |
|---|
| 1899-2006 | The Western Open — 104 editions of the third-oldest event in American golf, won by Hagen, Sarazen, Snead, Palmer, Nicklaus, and Woods |
| 2007 | Renamed the BMW Championship; becomes the FedEx Cup Playoffs’ penultimate leg with a no-cut elite field |
| 2007-2022 | Top-70 field; rotates nationally (Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware) |
| 2023-present | Field trimmed to the top 50; purse rises to $20 million; winner earns 750 points |
| 2026 | Returns to Bellerive CC in St. Louis, Aug. 20-23 — its first BMW since 2008 |
WINNERS FACTS
The trophy funds caddies
The Western Golf Association directs BMW proceeds to the Evans Scholars Foundation, which has sent thousands of caddies to college on full scholarships — the event’s century-old purpose.
Tiger’s double first
Woods won the inaugural 2007 BMW by two and, a week later, the first FedEx Cup — the only player to win the renamed event and the inaugural Cup in the same season.
A launching pad
Five of the last six BMW winners went on to finish top-5 in that year’s FedEx Cup — winning the penultimate leg is the best predictor of an East Lake payday.
Champions and signature moments from BMW Championship history.
The Wins That Defined the Event
Three finishes carry the BMW’s identity. Cantlay-DeChambeau 2021 is the flagship: six extra holes at Caves Valley, Cantlay draining everything, and a nickname — Patty Ice — born on national television. Rahm’s 66-foot playoff bomb on Olympia Fields’ 18th in 2020, answered seconds after Dustin Johnson had holed his own 43-footer to force the playoff, is the single greatest putt exchange in playoff-era golf. And Hovland’s closing 61 in 2023 remains the round of the modern BMW — a two-shot deficit turned into a runaway in eighteen holes. Scheffler’s 2025 pursuit of MacIntyre fits the pattern: this tournament, sitting one week before the money, keeps producing finishes the finale can’t match.
The Bottom Line
Nineteen BMW Championships have produced a winners’ list stretching from Tiger Woods in 2007 to Scottie Scheffler in 2025, layered on a Western Open lineage dating to 1899 — with the 2026 edition back at Bellerive, where only Camilo Villegas has lifted this trophy. For this week’s stakes, see the 2026 purse and full payouts, and for what the winner locks up beyond the check, the road to East Lake.
