A New Chapter in the Blue Ridge Mountains
The inaugural Biltmore Championship Asheville tees off September 17-20 at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, marking the first PGA Tour event in the area since 1942. The tournament offers a $5 million purse and opens the FedExCup Fall, with eight events remaining for players to finish inside the top 100 in FedExCup points to secure Tour cards for 2027, while players ranked 101st through 125th earn conditional status.
Seven Presidents Cup players are in the field, including Jackson Koivun and Jacob Bridgeman for the U.S. side, along with International Team members Nico Echavarria, Ryo Hisatsune, Corey Conners, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Nick Taylor. Notable players around the FedExCup bubble include Tony Finau (No. 98), Billy Horschel (No. 100) and Lucas Glover (No. 101), making this far more than a quiet fall event.
The Cliffs at Walnut Cove: An Unknown Variable
The tournament will be played at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design that opened in 2005 as a par 71 course playing 7,249 yards and sitting in a valley at roughly 2,100 to 2,250 feet in elevation. The Jack Nicklaus design is routed through a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains, bordered by the Pisgah National Forest and featuring rolling slopes surrounded by mountain ridges that create natural amphitheatres.
The layout changes considerably from front nine to back, with the opening nine crossing former farmland over gentle, rolling terrain while the back nine becomes more wooded and follows mountain streams through native vegetation, with several forced carries. The course combines Bentgrass greens, tees and fairways with Kentucky bluegrass roughs. Interestingly enough, look for the par 3s to tell the story this week as there are five of them on the scorecard.
The inaugural playing lands at the Jack Nicklaus designed Cliffs at Walnut Cove, a mountain course with zero competitive scoring data attached to it, which means nobody in the field walks in with a real course history edge. With no prior scoring history, ball striking and course management will separate contenders from the rest of the field.
Players to Watch
Jacob Bridgeman enters as the top-ranked golfer in the field. Bridgeman won the Genesis Invitational back in February in stunning fashion, building a six shot lead through 54 holes, tying the tournament's 54 hole scoring record, and becoming the first player since 1975 to win that event in his tournament debut. The South Carolina native cranked out five more top-10 paydays in 2026, including a solo ninth place at the BMW Championship followed by a T4 at the season-ending TOUR Championship.
J.T. Poston is the second-highest ranked player in the field on the OWGR, and he won the Memorial Tournament, with a special connection to the area as he went to Western Carolina, less than an hour away from The Cliffs at Walnut Cove. Poston won the Memorial Tournament in June 2026 in a playoff over Ryan Gerard. His local knowledge and recent form make him a threat.
Corey Conners brings consistent ball striking to a course that rewards precision. Conners tends to excel on unknown tracks where ballstriking shines through, and he does tend to like Nicklaus designs. As a Presidents Cup participant tuning up for next week, expect sharpness from the Canadian.
Jackson Koivun arrives as the 3M Open winner earlier this summer, helping him collect enough points to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, though he didn't finish better than T29 in his next three events, and four of his last five rounds have been 70 or higher. Still, the Auburn product earned his Presidents Cup spot and brings length and talent to his debut at Walnut Cove.
Pool Picks Strategy
On a course no one has played competitively, ball striking metrics become more predictive than recent scoring form. Prioritize players who excel in strokes gained approach and have proven adaptable to varied conditions. With five par 3s on the scorecard, iron play matters more than pure distance. Given the Presidents Cup timing, expect intensity from the seven qualified players using this as competitive preparation. Stuck between players? Our player comparison tool uses real PGA Tour strokes-gained data and weights each category by what this course rewards, then names the pick with a probability score.
Create Your Pool for the Fall Series
The FedExCup Fall offers eight tournaments of compelling golf, with card races and Presidents Cup prep creating real stakes each week. The Biltmore Championship kicks off a stretch that includes high-stakes performances from players fighting to secure their Tour futures. Ready to run a pool for this event or the fall stretch? Create your pool in under two minutes and use prize money scoring to let the Tour's own payouts determine your winners. Or explore our full tournament schedule to see what's ahead this fall.