Golf

2024 BMW Championship: Keegan Bradley Goes From Last Man to Winner

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Sep 02, 2024 / 2391 Views

Evan Walker

The glorious uncertainties of sport were on full view at the 2024 BMW Championship, the second event of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs, as Keegan Bradley emerged a beneficiary and winner by one shot on Sunday, August 25, at the Castle Pines Golf Club.

The 38-year-old finished the opening week of the Playoffs unsure of what the future held. His status on Tour for 2025 was secure, but the Playoffs are reserved for the best, and Bradley felt devastated after the tie for the 59th spot at the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Almost certain he had missed out on the 50-man, USD 20 million BMW Championship, Bradley packed and booked his flight home in Jupiter, Florida. But there was a part of him that refused to give up hope.

After a walk at the driving range following his final round at the FedEx St Jude Championship, watching the players who held the key to his progress in the Playoffs, Bradley returned to his hotel room. His phone and iPad were activated to check the live scores, and refreshed at a pace that at one point Bradley had to give the gadgets rest.

“I was in a state of shock that I wasn’t going to be able to play in my favourite tournaments (BMW Championship and the finale Tour Championship) that I’ve played in every year of my PGA Tour career,” reminisced Bradley.

Keegan Bradley and his epic triumph from last man to winner at 2024 BMW Championship

Turning despair into hope

The frenetic exercise of keeping faith bore fruit as the FedEx St Jude Championship closed in a way that the shuffle in the leaderboard saw Keegan Bradley slip in as the 50th and last player in the field for the 2024 BMW Championship.

“Looking at the leaderboard late in the day, and I was like, I’m going to make it, and it was just surreal. I rushed to the airport and came here,” said Bradley sitting in the interview room as the PGA Tour’s latest winner on Sunday.

Going forward, Bradley has plenty on the plate as assistant captain in the US Team for the Presidents Cup next month, and US Ryder Cup captain in the contest next year. But the urge to win again, especially after coming really close twice earlier in the season, kept him yearning for that extra mile as a player.

For one who has been a pro since 2008, and with six wins on Tour going into the BMW Championship, Bradley was aware of what it took for deliverance. “Winning on the PGA Tour is so difficult… I’m really proud of the way I hung in there [on Sunday]. It was really tough but I played great.”

Eureka moment

Since the 2023 Travelers Championship, his sixth win on the PGA Tour, the top-10s dried up for Bradley till the Sony Open in January, where he lost a three-way playoff to the late Grayson Murray. Meandering through the season, the Charles Schwab and the runner-up finish was one more beacon of hope, but thereafter Bradley hit another trough.

What followed gave no insight into what lay in store at Castle Pines. A grateful Bradley, happy not to miss out progressing in the Playoffs, too didn’t have an inkling that he would walk away a winner.

But he did find something during the pro-am at the start of the week, which did his confidence a world of good. “I hit this 6-iron (on the 3rd hole). It was blowing harder than it blew all week, and I just absolutely flushed it, and it flew exactly the way I wanted it to…To be honest, from that point on, I didn’t really mis-hit a shot for four days, which doesn’t happen a lot. I didn’t putt that great this week, and I just struck the ball perfectly,” he said.

Through the week, Keegan Bradley either went to bed with the lead or hovered close, and going into Sunday with a one-shot cushion, the sense of calm, which defined him in this outing at the 2024 BMW Championship, was a feeling even he wasn’t accustomed to.

Sense of calm

It was here that his experience of being a pro for 16 years worked when the gun was on him towards close on Sunday — the bogey on the 15th which levelled out the opening hole birdie, and the see-saw birdie-bogey finish to eke out the one-shot win over the chasing pack of Sam Burns, Ludvig Aberg and Adam Scott.

“I’ve been in these situations, and I’ve come from behind and won, I’ve been ahead and won, and I just kept telling myself that I’ve been in these situations before and I’ve won and done it. [Sunday] was one of those days.”

In the space of a week, Bradley leapfrogged from No 50 to 4th on the FedExCup, and will comPete the finale Tour Championship as a serious contender for the sixth time in his career. At 38, Bradley has three wins in as many years, and that’s a matter of immense pride.

“Three calendar years with a win is really amazing. I take a lot of pride in that, and I take a lot of pride in the quality of the tournaments that I do win as they’re some of the best fields in the world.”

Like on Sunday, being asked in interviews on what it felt to be a winner at this age, Bradley’s reply was, “I still feel like I’m in the prime of my career. There’re lot of parts to my game that are the best it’s ever been, and I feel like I’ve got years ahead of me and I can still keep playing at a high level for a while.”

Point made

At 44, Adam Scott was another one out to prove a point. Last year, he failed to make the Playoffs for the first time in his career, and as a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, the stat was an aberration.

Chasing his first win since the 2020 Genesis Invitational, Scott has reached the Tour Championship for the 10th time since the FedExCup era started in 2007, and the T2, his second runner-up in the last four starts, lifted him from No 41 to 14 on the FedExCup.

Atop the leaderboard through the week, the disappointment of not completing the job was apparent, but Scott, like Bradley, is grateful to make the Business end at the Tour Championship, where on offer is 2500 FedExCup points for the winner, compared to 2000 at the 2024 BMW Championship.

“I’m pretty happy to be going to East Lake (Tour Championship) because that wasn’t on the cards a couple weeks ago…It’ll be fun to go and have a couple good rounds and kind of my way up the leaderboard at East Lake.

“The last four events my Game has turned around and looked solid, and all of a sudden, I’ve gone from a very frustrating year to now feeling pretty pleased with myself. It’ll be fun to go and run the tables next week,” said Scott.

Charge of young guns

Sam Burns is yet to find the form that had him win thrice in the 2022-23 season, but his first runner-up finish of the season after Sunday’s lowest round of 7-under 65, and the climb of nine spots on the FedExCup to 9th is a feel-good factor.

The gap between Burns and leader Scottie Scheffler on the FedExCup is yawning, but teeing off at East Lake knowing he’s inched closer to the World No 1 a wee bit is a boost.

“Scottie doesn’t need any more help than how good he already is. But it’ll definitely be nice to be closer than what I was entering the week,” said Burns.

In a short span since he burst on to the PGA Tour last year, and won as a rookie, Ludvig Aberg has given proof of his talent several times.

The week gone by was another opportunity the 24-year-old Swede made use of to good effect. Tying for second with Burns and Scott, Aberg finished runner-up for the third time this season.

Following the leaders closely all through, and the aggression he displayed to convert the chase into a win, what would have been his second triumph after the 2023 RSM Classic, are key takeaways.

“Coming into this week, I was not swinging very well, so it was nice to be able to put four rounds together, kind of put myself in position to try to win the Golf tournament,” said Aberg.

He goes into the Tour Championship ranked 5th, and for one who always looked forward to the Playoffs for a long time, had them circled on his calendar, to be where he finds himself is a huge part of the learning curve.

(Main and featured images: 2024 BMW Championship/ Instagram)