Biltmore Championship Asheville 2026 preview picks analysis

The PGA Tour’s Fall Season kicks off with a brand new tournament, the Biltmore Championship Asheville at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove. And while the likes of Scottie Scheffler will be at home counting his money, a host of golfers still have much to play for in the coming weeks, with only the top 100 guaranteed to keep their cards.

This explains why England’s Marco Penge is playing here rather than in the prestigious BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. He said: "I would love to be at Wentworth but I have given myself work to do if I am to keep my card in the USA. It’s a very different experience - players tend to keep to themselves whereas on the DP World Tour we all mix more.

"But this is where the best players are and it is where I want to be."

Penge won three times on the DP World Tour in 2025 to gain his PGA Tour card. He has a game that is made for America but struggled with fitness and health issues and took a break from the sport. A return to Europe allowed him to spend time with friends and family and recharge his batteries and he should have won the recent British Masters at The Belfry. So he will have high hopes.

Three-time DP World Tour winner Billy Horschel was also meant to be playing at Wentworth but languishes in 100th place in the FedEx standings and will instead be playing here this week. The American has regularly headed over to England at this stage of the season and has claimed the DP World Tour's flagship event twice so far in his career - in 2021 and 2024.

However, a heavily disrupted 2025 season due to injury has led to a bitterly disappointing 2026 campaign on the PGA Tour. Horschel managed a best result of T12th at the Wyndham Championship but posted only three further individual top-20s in his 23 starts.

He said: "I'm going to miss Wentworth. I'm going to miss seeing all the guys on the DP World Tour. I'm going to miss, you know, people say 'come on you Irons' to me. It's something that I truly do love and I think everyone sees the the smile I have on my face when I play there every year.

"So, I'm wishing everyone a great event this year and I look forward to seeing everyone in the years to come. Thank you, guys, for your support and have a great week at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth."

J.T. Poston and Jacob Bridgeman were early commitments.

"Both players earned victories on the PGA Tour this season and have already secured their status at the highest level of the game, making their decision to compete here especially meaningful. Their commitment speaks not only to the strength of our championship, but also to their support for Western North Carolina and this community," said PGA Tour Event Director Nate Goldsnider.

Poston is a Western Carolina University graduate, which makes this the closest thing he has to a home game, and he confirmed his commitment in August. His year turned on a single week. He went through his first 13 starts without a top 20 finish, then won the Memorial Tournament, losing a four-shot Sunday lead before a birdie at the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Ryan Gerard, and winning it. That was worth $4 million and 700 FedExCup points, and it moved him from 94th in the world to 39th.

Bridgeman won the 2026 Genesis Invitational at Riviera by a shot over Rory McIlroy and Kurt Kitayama for his first PGA Tour title, with Tiger Woods handing him the trophy. He backed it up by making the Tour Championship and tying for fourth at East Lake at 11 under.

Both men are already exempt, so neither needs a single point this fall. They committed to this first-year event because it is their part of the country, and that is worth noting when reading a board that will otherwise be full of players grinding for a job.

Several Presidents Cup players are using this week to tune up, including Bridgman, and surprise captain’s pick Jackson Koivun, who was announced as one of six players selected as a captain’s pick by Brandt Snedeker for the United States Team in the 2026 Presidents Cup, which will be held next week at Medinah Country Club in Chicago. At 21 years old, Koivun will become the second-youngest American to make a Presidents Cup team behind Jordan Spieth, who made his debut in 2013 as a 20-year-old.

Jackson Koivun

In his rookie season on the PGA Tour, Koivun earned his first PGA Tour title in his 13th career start and third as a professional, winning the 3M Open by three strokes over world no. 1 Scottie Scheffler, while setting the 72-hole tournament scoring record. With the win, Koivun became the youngest American player to win by multiple strokes on Tour since 1932.

Koivun turned professional in June after becoming the third player to earn PGA Tour membership through the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, joining Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent and Florida State’s Luke Clanton. Despite only playing in seven events this year, Koivun finished the regular season at No. 70 in the FedExCup standings, becoming the first PGA Tour University Accelerated graduate to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs in the same season he accepted membership.

Koivun competed for three seasons at Auburn University, becoming one of the most decorated players in program history. He led Auburn to national titles at the 2024 and 2026 NCAA Championships and swept the three national player of the year awards in both 2024 and 2026 (Ben Hogan Award, Jack Nicklaus Award, Fred Haskins Award). A three-time SEC Player of the Year (2024, 2025, 2026), Koivun broke school records for career wins (11), career scoring average (68.89) and single-season scoring average (68.20 as a junior in 2025-26).

It will be the first time in 84 years that the PGA Tour will be hosted in Asheville, following Asheville's Land of the Sky Open, which was first contested in the early 1920s. The Asheville Open was an official Tour tournament from 1939 to 1942, with World Golf Hall of Famer Ben Hogan winning the final three beginning in 1940.

Goldsnider said that committing to a four-year contract to host the event in Asheville was an easy sell, and that working with the community has been a breeze. The Arden course was ideal for the event, as it offers the space and amenities needed to host a tournament of this size.

The Biltmore Championship is the first of eight FedExCup Fall events, a run that closes with the RSM Classic at Sea Island in late November. The purse is $5 million and the winner takes 500 FedExCup points along with the trophy.

The stakes are the reason this stretch matters more than the calendar slot suggests. Players who finished inside the top 50 after the Tour Championship already have their status locked, and the points they earn this fall do not accumulate. Everyone else is playing for something concrete. Finishing inside the top 100 of the final standings secures exempt status for next season. Nos. 101 through 125 get conditional status, which is a materially worse job. Outside that, the route back is Q-School. At the top of the fall list, Nos. 51 to 60 play their way into the first two signature events of next season.

That splits the likely field into two very different groups. Nos. 51 through 70 have already clinched top 100 eligibility and are chasing signature-event access. Nos. 71 and beyond are chasing the card itself. Looking at where the standings sat when the season ended, that second group includes some heavy names: Keegan Bradley was 74th, Davis Thompson 77th, Jason Day 82nd and Denny McCarthy 86th, while Keith Mitchell, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa and Harris English sat 51st through 54th at the front of the signature-event chase.

The Course:

The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, designed by Jack Nicklaus, opened in 2005. and is more than 2,000 get above sea level. It sits on about 1,000 acres in a valley bordered by Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway, with the surrounding ridges forming a natural amphitheatre. The front nine runs across open, rolling former farmland. The back nine turns into the woods, threading cascading streams and stands of mountain laurel. It is a par 71 measuring 7,240 yards.

Prize Money:

Total prize money is $5m and the winner takes 500 FedExCup points.

How to Watch:

Thursday, September 17, Sky Sports Golf, 6pm; Friday, September 18, Sky Sports Golf, 6pm; Saturday, September 19, Sky Sports Golf, 6pm; Sunday, September 20, Sky Sports Golf, 6pm.