2022 BMW Championship leaderboard: Keegan Bradley leads after Round 1 with plenty of big hitters near top

Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler are all lurking at the second event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs

The BMW Championship got off to a fantastic start Thursday as the best players in the world worked their way up the leaderboard and perhaps the top golfer in the world kicked away a shot at the first-round lead (more on that later). Keegan Bradley is the leader after firing a 7-under 64 over the first 18 holes and is looking for his second BMW Championship victory in the last five years.

Bradley may have a lot of big-name company at the top of the leaderboard over the next 54 holes. Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth all had nice days and are all in a good position to win what could be a second great playoff event this week.

Wilmington Country Club was, as predicted, a bomber's paradise. Bradley is happy about that because it's one of the strongest parts of his game and the top of the leaderboard is littered with the biggest hitters in the sport. Though we can debate whether that's a good thing for PGA Tour setups, what we can't really question is that it's a reality this week which has implications for how the rest of the tournament will play out.