Keegan Bradley (-12) Wins BMW Championship I CBS Sports

We know altitude has its effects on distance, but what does it do to time? Keegan Bradley turning back the clock for the second time in as many seasons with a win at the BMW, the now seven time winner on tour entered the week as the final player in this 50 man field. He now heads to the tour Championship, slotted fourth in the Fedex Cup standings math in the form of Mile High Magic Bradley, a winner again. Just when you think you got it figured out, another unforeseen result Rick Gammon and Kyle Porter jumping on board to help us make sense of it all. Fellas, great to see you as always. And Keegan Bradley back in the winner's circle for a second consecutive season. This is all underlined by obviously his Ryder Cup captainship, but he's always been an emotion player and we've talked plenty about this. Do you think the pride in that Captainship KP has allowed him to tap into a different level of play on course? Yeah, I think it's given him an identity a little bit of like, okay, this is this is sort of who I am at this stage in, in my career. And I think it's given him a desire to go out and, and, and, you know, maybe earn his way onto that team as a playing captain. And it's, it's really interesting, Joe, because I think the emotion that you mentioned is really something that stands out. This week because Rick and I were talking on Thursday night after the first round, like, oh yeah, we've seen this from Keegan before. To maintain a lead like that to go to go all four days, lead early and then end up winning the golf tournament. That's a very difficult thing to do, especially for a player that's as emotional and as volatile sometimes. As of a putter and short game player as Keegan Bradley is. So I think that part of it is incredibly impressive. And Rick now he's got more wins. The last PGA tour seasons, the last two PGA tour seasons than Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler combined. And those guys were all Ryder Cuppers. Obviously last year on that team that he was not on, which is a pretty, pretty crazy stat going into the final week of the Fedex Cup playoffs next week. This is going to be so sick. The next year is going to be awesome. I mean, I think that when you look at what Keegan has has gotten, I think he's gotten a little bit of a second wind with with that Ryder Cup captaincy. Right. And the way that the whole thing, especially with, with the snub from, from Rome, kind of played itself out in a very public manner and everybody in the world of golf saw him take that phone call from Zach Johnson on the Netflix series. And see how painful it was for him, and he's gotten a ton of support along the way. He's 38 years old. He's not supposed to be in the prime of his career, but he's playing some really good golf right now. And this is really just the beginning. You know, he has with this victory, earned himself a lot of points and a lot of situations. That's going to set himself up for a really good 2025. And we're going to hear his name a lot. The year of Keegan Bradley is supposed to start in January. We're off to it a couple of months early her. Certainly tapped back into that competitive reign. No doubt Bradley. But this is not just a question of next summer at Bethpage, but also next month in Montreal. What is Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk do with Keegan moving forward here? And could you see any politics at play with Bradley jumping that captainship line for the Ryder Cup in front of Furyk? Some of his contemporaries. How do you parse what this means for these weeks to come immediately for Bradley? Well, I it's going to be really interesting. I think outside of any anything where Keegan says, listen, I know I'm 11th, 12th, whatever he ends up being at the end of this week and on into the Tour Championship, I'm going to sit this one out, fellas, because I need to gather some. I need to do some reconnaissance work for Bethpage. Right. That's this is a different role for me. I need to figure out how that plays out as a vice captain and not as a player. But barring that, Rick, I don't I don't know how they how they wouldn't take him. You take everything that came into play last year where he got snubbed and the U.S. got housed in Rome. You look at the guys that are that I just mentioned, guys like Spieth and JT, guys that just are not playing that well, and Keegan is out there winning the BMW. I you know, he plays. He plays his way. We're going to talk about this probably on the first cut podcast. He plays his way into again 11th or 12th going into the Tour Championship, the end of the Fedex Cup playoffs. He might win the Fedex Cup playoffs, which is insane. That's an insane thing to say considering he barely got into the BMW Championship. So with all the momentum and especially with how it went down last year, it would almost be too big of a mark on that sort of U.S. National team to not take him. It would be it would it would just it would leave a bad taste in everybody's mouth going into that Ryder Cup year next year, if you snub Keegan Bradley again, just burn the whole thing down. I mean, he absolutely needs to be on this team. First off, he's playing great golf. And you've got a couple of guys like Max Homa and Justin Thomas who are certainly nowhere near their form. You've got Jordan Spieth, who's likely headed for surgery before the Presidents Cup. So we've got a lot of doubt already on this. United States team. You throw Keegan Bradley on there and you let him fire up this this locker room every single day of the week. And I know he's got prep to do I know he's got prep for 2025. But he can spare a week in Montreal. And there will be no better prep than going on the road and beating the international squad. Add that one to your resume. Keegan needs to be there and he needs to be playing. I know they're not direct parallels. These two team events, but certainly proximity to team golf couldn't be a bad thing, something to be gleaned for the future Ryder Cup captain and maybe Presidents Cup participant before we move forward to Atlanta, guys, we were looking at 8000 plus yards and still thought that this maybe could turn into a birdie fest. Obviously, those 8000, adjusted for altitude or inflation depending on where you're sitting. But Rick, when you look at what this presented at Castle Pines, this instructive in any way of maybe some of the setups in the future. This was a very entertaining golf tournament that bore out an interesting leaderboard in the way that that leaderboard stacked up. I give Castle Pines an A plus. This was a phenomenal venue and it just creates so much doubt in players minds. And they hate that. Yes, of course there is the elevation. So you're doing the adjusted math. And we saw guys like Adam Scott really struggle on Sunday to figure out those numbers. It seemed like he was flying it over the green or playing too long. Nearly every hole on the back nine. And that's just one factor, gentlemen, because if you do hit a bad shot, there is enough OB, there is enough water, there is enough danger out there to be really penal. It's not just hitting it out of thick rough if you miss a green or if you miss a fairway, there are some big numbers out there and we're seeing par fives that are giving up a lot of eagles. And also handing out a lot of double bogeys. It's just something that we don't see on the PGA tour very often. So this this gets the highest marks possible from me. I'm stoked that it was such a such a great week. Inviting to the eye for viewership as well. Guys this is a situation moving forward where we're always hard on certain names that don't make it into this final field at East Lake, but you got 67 million golfers worldwide, 30 spots in the players lot in Atlanta. Biggest disappointment to miss out here on the tour Championship in your eyes is who? Well, I'm going to go with Corey Conners. You know Corey Conners is somebody that he's one of the better ball strikers in the world. He's he's somebody that was playing very good golf toward the end of this year and just didn't bring it in the playoffs. And this is sort of part of my critique. A bigger like the Corey Conners bigger picture. And that is that he doesn't seem to show up when it matters most at the biggest events, the major championships, how many times, Rick, have we seen him lead after a the first round of a PGA or something like that? And then he just kind of wilts over the over the last three rounds. So I thought this was a big disappointment. It's not the biggest name. It's not the biggest star or anything like that. But in a President's Cup year when you've got some of your, you know, some of your better play, you're playing as well as you have over the last couple of years to just kind of fade away and not make it to, to the Tour Championship. Given that he was right around that 30 number going in to this BMW Championship I thought was a big disappointment. I opted to go with Max Homa here, and I think that Max Homa is a star. I think he is one of the top 30 players in the world, and I think the game of golf is better when Max Homa is in fields and playing for trophies and just the way that it that it all ended. The last couple of months have been very ugly, very noncompetitive from Homa. He's completely lost the driver. He's clearly stuck in between a lot of different swing thoughts and swing lanes at the moment that are piling up some really bad results. And after basically every year of his career getting better and finding improvement, 2020 for the season is not going to end well for him. So it's just disappointing when our stars don't make it to the biggest stage, especially somebody like Max Homa, who has been so great, who is so likable and who really should be there at East Lake every single year. Interesting conversation with our friends on No Laying up a week ago. Max seems to be thinking about thinking quite a bit, and he will miss out here on the tour Championship. Just the top 30. Moving on. We will move on as well and set the stage for Atlanta as we take a look at the starting positions for the Fedex Cup finale, Scottie Scheffler in this six win season has earned him two strokes clear of his nearest contemporary in Xander Schauffele. The two majors, the six wins. Maybe we sort out a player of the year trophy here at East Lake. Hideki Matsuyama slotted third. Keegan Bradley Following this win at the BMW, jumping