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Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Patrick Cantlay carded a final round 2-under to earn a one-shot victory in the BMW Championship and move up to No. 2 in the FedExCup Playoffs standings. Scottie Scheffler leads the field entering the Tour Championship. Cantlay made four birdies and two bogies over his final 18 holes Sunday at Wilmington Country Club.
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His four-round score of 14-under par was one stroke better than Scott Stallings and three better than Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who tied for third.
"I'm in a really good spot," Cantlay told reporters, when asked about his standing in the Tour Championship. "It will be a different type of challenge, being behind Scottie."
First-round leader Keegan Bradley tied for 58th and will miss the cut for the 30-player Tour Championship field next week at East Lake Golf Club at Atlanta.
Second-round leader Adam Scott tied for fifth and will claim the 29th spot for the Tour Championship.
Cantlay, who was tied for sixth after 36 holes, fired a 6-under 65 in Saturday's third round to take the lead into Sunday. Schauffele and Stallings were one stroke back when they teed off Sunday in Wilmington.
Schauffele shot par over his final 18 holes. Stallings matched Cantlay's final-round 69.
Cantlay, Scheffler and Schauffele were tied with two holes left to play on Sunday. Cantlay, the defending BMW champion, birdied No. 17 for a one-stroke lead. He made par on No. 18. Stallings made par over his final two holes, while Scheffler made par on No. 17 and a bogey on No. 18.
Cantlay, who earned a $2.7 million first-place prize, also received 2,000 points in the standings to move up from seventh place. He will start the Tour Championship at 8-under par. Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, moved from second to first and will start the finale at 10-under par.
Will Zalatoris, who won the St. Jude Championship -- the first leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, withdrew due to a back injury Saturday in Wilmington. He remains third in the standings and will start at 7-under this week in Atlanta.
Schauffele and Sam Burns, who rank fourth and fifth in the standings, will start at 6-under and 5-under, respectively, in the 30-player Tour Championship field at East Lake Golf Club.
Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Sepp Straka and Sungjae Im, the respective Nos. 6 through 10 players in the field, will start at 4-under. The Nos. 11 through 15 players will start at 3-under.
The players ranked from No. 16 through 20 will start at 2-under, while Nos. 21 through 25 will start at 1-under. The final five players in the Tour Championship field will start the finale at even par.
The Tour Championship will run from Thursday through Sunday at East Lake. Coverage will air on NBC and Golf Channel. The winner of the FedExCup Playoffs finale will receive $18 million.
Cantlay, the defending champion, will attempt to become the first player to win consecutive Tour Championship titles. Tiger Woods and McIlroy are the only golfers who own two Tour Championship titles since 2007, the start of golf's playoff format.
"It's a difficult goal to achieve, because it's not just one tournament," Cantlay said, when asked about the difficulty of consecutive Tour Championship wins. "You have to put yourself in position the whole year and then that week you have to perform as well."
