CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Keegan Bradley went from the final man within the BMW Championship to a winner Sunday, closing with an even-par 72 for a one-shot victory that opened up all types of potentialities he by no means imagined doable per week in the past.
Bradley pulled away from mistake-prone Adam Scott early on the again 9 and delivered a clutch shot into the par-5 seventeenth that every one however sealed the seventh victory of his PGA Tour profession, and probably the most unlikely.
He was biting his nails per week in the past, needing assist simply to complete at No. 50 within the FedExCup and qualify for the second postseason occasion. After which he managed the mile-high air, the wind and the Sunday strain to win at Fortress Pines.
“It simply exhibits why you’ve bought to grind it out since you by no means know the way quick it might probably swap,” Bradley mentioned on the 18th inexperienced, the place he stood alongside his father. Mark Bradley, a longtime membership skilled, had by no means seen his 38-year-old son win in individual.
Right here’s the place gamers will start the Tour Championship with the staggered scoring format.
The victory moved Bradley from No. 50 to No. 4 within the FedExCup, sending him to the Tour Championship the place he’ll begin 4 pictures behind Scottie Scheffler in a 72-hole chase for the $25 million prize.
There’s additionally one other cup in play. Bradley, the primary Ryder Cup captain to win a PGA Tour occasion since Davis Love III 9 years in the past, moved to No. 10 within the Presidents Cup standings. The highest six after the BMW Championship robotically certified, and Jim Furyk will get six captain’s picks. Bradley will certainly be within the dialog after profitable for the third straight 12 months.
Bradley heard loads of “U-S-A! “U-S-A!” chants as he went alongside the again 9 at Fortress Pines, the loudest approaching the 18th when hundreds of spectators had been allowed to encircle the inexperienced for the ultimate contact of a giant week.
Scott, a runner-up on the Scottish Open final month, was tied for the lead till beginning the again 9 with three mushy bogeys, two of them with a wedge in his hand from the green. He birdied the closing par 5s, however misplaced a giant likelihood when he overshot the fifteenth inexperienced from 101 yards.
He closed with a 72, although it additionally moved him into the highest 30 who qualifying for East Lake.
Sam Burns completed with a Sunday-best 65, together with a bogey on the par-5 14th, and shared second place with Scott and Ludvig Åberg of Sweden, who let one other good likelihood get away with too many Sunday errors.
Åberg was 12 beneath on the par 5s going into the ultimate spherical, and he performed them at even par. He closed with a 71.
Justin Thomas one way or the other made it to East Lake for the Tour Championship, regardless that he was already dwelling in Florida in the identical nail-biting spot as Bradley was per week in the past.
Thomas completed early on Sunday after which noticed others open the door for a spot at East Lake.
Thomas wanted loads of assist to get the thirtieth spot, and it got here from former Open champion Brian Harman and Alex Noren. Harman wanted a par on the final gap to remain within the prime 30 and made double bogey.
Noren, who has by no means made it to East Lake, was poised to complete within the prime 30 when he holed a 25-foot par putt on the thirteenth gap and made birdie on the 14th. However he completed with three straight bogeys, probably the most damaging on the par-5 seventeenth, the best gap at Fortress Pines. He needed to lay up from a drive within the tough and hit wedge right into a bunker. He shot 75.
The seventeenth is the place Bradley, who completed at 12-under 276, all however sealed it.
Burns had posted at 277. Åberg and Scott remained closed. Bradley hit a 5-iron between two bunkers to a again left pin on a agency inexperienced to 16 ft, the closest shot of the day. He missed the eagle likelihood, nevertheless it gave him a two-shot lead going to the 18th.
And whereas he missed a 4-foot par putt that solely decided the margin, he reacted with power that has come to be anticipated from the 38-year-old New Englander. He thrust his arm within the air and soaked up the “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants.
Bradley earned $4 million for his second title within the BMW Championship, additionally profitable at Aronimink in 2018 when he was the No. 52 seed in what was then a 70-man discipline.
Bradley and Scott joined Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Chris Kirk (69) who moved into the highest 30 to qualifying for the Tour Championship. They bumped out Harman, Jason Day, Davis Thompson and Denny McCarthy.
