After teeing off on the 11th hole in the opening round of the BMW Championship, Denny McCarthy walked to a nearby cooler to grab a water. He grabbed another, and another, and kept going for about 10 seconds.
Except those bottles weren’t for him. He tossed them to the small crowd right outside the ropes, a group that weathered a rain delay of more than two hours to watch the Rockville native.
That was a familiar sight for McCarthy throughout the tournament. Though he finished tied for 28th in the field of 50, he had crowds following him every day. He took notice every day.
“It was really hot this week, and the support I had, the amount of people I had coming out and sticking it out with me in the heat, I don’t know if I would come out and walk four rounds in this heat and watch someone play golf, so the amount of people that came out to do that for me was really special,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy missed out on playing in the BMW Championship when it last took place at Caves Valley Golf Club in 2021. The 32-year-old, who played in college at Virginia and was a two-time All-American, anticipated the crowd being behind him and gave them a good showing during the first two days.
The top 30 players in the FedEx Cup point standings at the conclusion of the BMW Championship qualify for the Tour Championship, held annually at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta.
McCarthy entered the BMW Championship on the outside looking in. He opened the tournament with an even-par performance in the first round that featured four birdies. His penultimate one of the day came right after the weather delay.
McCarthy looked relaxed, having conversations with fans along with providing cold waters. One patron asked McCarthy how the greens were after the delay. On his stroll to the fairway, he told the fan he didn’t know because he hadn’t hit on it yet. He went one-under the rest of round one.
The second round was an even better showing (one-under), with a pair of birdies in the final three holes keeping him in contention for a spot in the top 30.
“Even when I was kind of making some little par putts, I got a nice boost from the crowd, just enough to keep me going today,” McCarthy said.
However, McCarthy was ultimately unable to qualify for the Tour Championship. He began his Saturday round with a bogey on the first hole and a double bogey on the second, going from one-under to three-over. A pair of birdies along with consistent pars kept him one-over through 14.
Then, disaster struck for McCarthy. A double-bogey on the par-four 15th and a triple-bogey on the par-five 16th after inflated his score to five-over. His Saturday score of 76 was six-over on the day and his worst round since June’s U.S. Open.
McCarthy was two-under on Sunday to close out his BMW Championship.
“It’s always fun to play in front of a home crowd,” McCarthy said. “It wasn’t the result I was looking for this week. I felt like I played better golf than what the score shows.”
McCarthy didn’t perform his best in home state. It was a worse result than his last PGA event in Maryland, a top-30 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship in Potomac three years ago.
But McCarthy still found positives when his time at the BMW Championship ended. He was even-par or better in three of the four rounds and had clear support on all four days of the tournament. That was “really special” for him.
“It was a really good experience,” McCarthy said. “Anytime you can play in front of a home crowd, it’s a lot of fun.”
Photo Credit: Jenny Butler