“I never went into a tournament or round of golf thinking I had to beat a certain player. I had to beat the golf course. If I prepared myself for a major, went in focused, and then beat the golf course, the rest took care of itself,” Jack Nicklaus once said, and he wasn’t wrong. More often than not, courses, not rivals, have dictated who rises and who crumbles. And every so often, a venue comes along that pushes players to their breaking point. For Andrew Novak, that breaking point came at Caves Valley.

Throughout his season, Novak gave a pretty impressive performance. A runner-up at the RBC Heritage and third-place finishes at both the Farmers Insurance Open and the Valero Texas Open hinted at his momentous stride on the PGA Tour. But when he landed on the Caves Valley Golf Club for the BMW Championship, the tour’s playoff season event, he fell flat on his face. By the week’s end, Novak found himself at a spot he wouldn’t have thought of at the start of the year: 48th. The course stripped every bit of confidence he’d once built.

This frustration was evident when someone on X said, “Caves every year,” to which Novak gave just a two-word response, “Pls no.” When fans saw a picturesque course with a visually striking layout, Novak saw a challenge he couldn’t overcome. Since its renovations, the course has turned into one of the most punishing layouts, especially on the playoff schedule. Stretched to 7,601 yards and reset as a par-70, the course is unforgiving. Two former par-5s, which played as marathon par-4s, or the monstrous 600-yard par-5 16th, lined with bunkers the size of swimming pools, all point towards it. Narrower fairways, thicker rough, and slicker greens courtesy of a new Precision-Aire system made the setup firm, fast, and brutally unforgiving. Even big hitters like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler called the course “a very tough green to go for off the tee” and “really challenging” respectively.

For Novak, it couldn’t have been a worse match. Statistically, he sat in the middle of the Tour average off the tee—298 yards—with just 57% of fairways found. At Caves, those numbers basically meant he was playing defense. Add to that his struggles with long-iron approaches (137th in Strokes Gained: Approach) and a low greens-in-regulation rate of 63%, and the course turned into a nightmare. His final scores are proof of that. His total was 300, which put him at +20 for the tournament. Novak’s round-by-round scores were: Round 1 – 72, Round 2 – 76, Round 3 – 77, and Round 4 – 75.

And when fans asked if he didn’t enjoy the course, Novak was quick to reply with, “Pretty sure it was mutual based on my scores.“ Although he had a tragic finish at the BMW Championship, he has enough points to remain within the top 30 and qualify for the Tour Championship.  But he wasn’t alone in his struggles. Caves Valley chewed up plenty of big names and another player’s victory.

Robert MacIntyre was another victim of the Valley

Robert MacIntyre was perhaps the clearest example of how brutal Caves Valley can be. Coming off a stellar 2025 season with two wins from last year, already under his belt, he looked unstoppable for much of the BMW Championship. A bogey-free 64 in the second round gave a glimpse of his control and confidence, and by the end of Saturday, he was leading the field. He was ready to add another title to his breakout year.

But Sunday told a different story. Under the heat of the Caves Valley’s punishing step, MacIntyre faltered. He opened with two bogeys in his first five holes and never regained momentum, grinding his way to a three-over 73. It dropped him to second behind Scottie Scheffler, reminding us that even the hottest players can be humbled. His struggles mirrored those of other players like Rory McIlroy, who admitted his “awful” opening round was the product of poor driving made worse by the layout’s unrelenting demands. “I got off to a bad start. Sort of pieced it together a little bit in the middle of the round and clawed it back to even par. But drove the ball terribly,” said McIlroy.

In the end, it was not about rivals or rankings – the course itself was the fiercest opponent of the BMW Championship.