Keegan Bradley wins BMW for first title since captaincy nod

Keegan Bradley may have been the last man in the field this week at the BMW Championship, but he ended No. 1.

No, the No. 1 spot in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the season’s final event next week at the Tour Championship still belongs to Scottie Scheffler, but Bradley is heading to East Lake too after winning the BMW Championship, his first PGA Tour title since last season’s Travelers Championship. He’ll head to Atlanta in 4th in the season-long standings which means he’ll start the Tour Championship at six under, four back of Scheffler.

“I’m in a bit of a state of shock because there was a time a week ago about this time that I didn’t think I was going to be coming here,” he said. “I had to have a lot of magical things happen for me to just play in this tournament, and when I got here, I was so grateful just to be here. I played with a real sense of calm all week, which is not the norm for me.”

But much has changed for Bradley in between his two most recent wins, which give him seven now for his career.

Despite two victories during the 2022-23 season, Bradley was controversially left off the U.S. Ryder Cup team by captain Zach Johnson for last year’s matches in Rome. The U.S. team, despite having three of last year’s major winners and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, was soundly defeated by Team Europe.

Then a shock came this summer when Bradley, at just 38 years old and still seemingly in the prime of his career, was named captain for the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

The stunning announcement and Bradley’s continued solid play on the PGA Tour has led to questions about whether Bradley would end up as a playing captain at Bethpage. He committed to only being on the team if he automatically qualified and not picking himself if he didn’t.

“I would love to be a playing captain,” Bradley said. “No one has really had the opportunity that I’ve had. I think you could have given Phil or Tiger a chance to be captain at my age and they would have played on the teams. But it’s never really had a chance to happen.

“It’s going to be really hard for me to make that team, but if I make the team, I’ll play. I don’t see myself being a captain’s pick. But I’ll be proud to just be the captain.”

Now he’s also in contention for a captain’s pick for next month’s Presidents Cup.

“I think being the Ryder Cup captain has put me into this category of sort of player when they haven’t really had a Ryder Cup captain that’s been playing full-time on the Tour,” he said. “One of my goals was to make that Presidents Cup team. So we’ll see. I hope I didn’t throw a huge wrench in everybody’s plans, but I’m proud to be in consideration.”

This week in Colorado was Bradley’s first chance at tournament contention since being named captain in July and he proved he might not need a captain’s selection to make next year’s squad.

He opened with a bogey-free 66 at Castle Pines Golf Club on Thursday to take the lead, his 11th time leading after 18 holes in his career, but he was 0-for-the previous 10 tries. He seemed to be fading midway through the back nine Saturday, but rallied with four birdies in the last five holes to take a one-shot lead over Adam Scott heading into the final round.

His margin was erased when Scott eagled the opening hole, topping Bradley’s birdie, but the American proceeded to par the next 13 holes. By then Scott had fallen back and Bradley had a one-shot lead even as he played his approach long of the 15th green and made bogey.

Then Bradley delivered the clincher on the 17th hole. From 227 yards on the short par-5 at altitude, he launched an iron sky-high into the air and landed it just short of the front of the green and watched as it released to just 16 feet. He left the eagle putt tantalizingly short, but the birdie was enough cushion to allow him to three-putt the last for a final-round 72 and a one-shot victory at 12 under over Scott, Ludvig Aberg and Sam Burns, who finished hours before the final group.

Bradley walked up to the 72nd green to chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

“Oh, man, I was shaking over that last putt,” he said. “I was ready for those cheers. We did it. It was a battle all day.”

It’s Bradley’s second time winning the penultimate FedEx Cup Playoff event after winning in 2018 at Aronimink. That was his first title in six years and he didn’t win again for more than four years before triumphing at the Zozo Championship in the fall of 2022. He’s now won three tournaments since 2022.

He’s also just the third player to win a PGA Tour event after being named Ryder Cup captain in the last 60 years joining Jack Nicklaus and Davis Love III.