Keegan

Bradley

Bradley missed the cut last week at the U.S. Open but got back on track in a big way today. “I just played so awful last week and I was able to get out of there and I got here early and flew my coach, Darren Mahan, our here and we got some great work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Really helped.” Bradley opened on the 10th tee this morning and rattled off five straight birdies out of the gate. You could tell things were really going his way when he slammed home a 75-footer for birdie at the 17th. He cooled his pace with a 2-under 33 on the final nine. If this lead holds it will be his 10th career first-round lead or co-lead. It’s been a mixed bag in those fast starts, turning three of them into top-10 finishes but landing outside of the top 40 in three, as well. Bradley was T2 after R1 of the 2015 Travelers and went on to finish T39 last week.

Bradley was steady from tee-to-green (6 fairways, 1 GIR) but really excelled with the flat stick. He gained 3.5 strokes putting, third best in the field at press time. “I was hitting a lot of great iron shots, and I putted great today. It’s so fun, especially in majors to putt that way and feel like you’re going to make a ton of putts. I mean, the greens are absolutely perfect. It’s really fun to play golf around here at Oak Hill in front of these fans.” Bradley has plenty of fan support this week, with his connections to the Northeast and he delivered quite a show on day one. The 36-year-old opened his PGA Championship career with a win (2011) and T3 (2012) but more recently had finished outside of the top 25 in eight of his last nine tries.

Bradley was drawing some eyeballs this week, largely due to his stellar first-round performances at Innisbrook. He turned one of those fast starts into a runner-up finish (2021). He was arriving off a missed cut at THE PLAYERS but did have top 20s in three of his last five starts. Gamers should remove him from all weekly lineups.

Bradley put on a clinic today as he gained 5.1 strokes tee-to-green and another 3 strokes putting. His round was matched by only one other golfer today, the eventual winner Max Homa. The next closest was Jason Day at -4 while only 11 golfers posted an under-par score in the final round. “I love this course, I love coming here. Like when I think of the PGA TOUR, I think of Torrey Pines. My first time I saw Tiger I was on that putting green and I just love this tournament.” Bradley now has three top 5s in his last six starts at the Farmers. He jumps from sixth to third in the early FedExCup standings.

Bradley started the final round in Japan one shot behind Rickie Fowler, but he moved out in front with birdies on two of his first six holes at Narashino CC. Things tightened up when Bradley dropped shots on Nos. 14 and 16, but a birdie on No. 17 gave him a two-shot cushion playing the final hole. A tap-in par gave him an emotional one-shot win over Fowler and Andrew Putnam, his first win on Tour since the 2018 BMW Championship and just his second since 2012. “This is so special,” he said. “This is what I want to do. I want to win tournaments, I want to play in Ryder Cups, I want to be in the conversation. And this is a good start.” Bradley entered the week ranked 44th in the world and is expected to climb into the top 25 for the first time since 2014 following his fifth career win.

Bradley now has three straight rounds of 66 or better as he looks for his first win since the 2018 BMW Championship and what would be just his second win in a decade. He has made just three bogeys through 54 holes, and his blemish on the opening hole Saturday which he credited to a “bizarre shot” proved only to be a speed bump as he added five birdies over his final 14 holes. At 13 under, Bradley is alone in second place and one shot behind Rickie Fowler heading into the final round. Bradley played with Tiger Woods in the final group in 2019, when Woods won in Narita to tie the PGA Tour’s all-time wins record, and he’s eager to write his own chapter of tournament history despite his relatively lean run of trophies over the last 10 years.

Bradley followed an opening 66 with a 5-under 65, a round that he described as “perfect” to reporters at Narashino CC. “It’s one of the best rounds I’ve played this year, this whole year,” he said. “I had a lot of fun out there and it was just very stress-free.” The former PGA winner was bogey-free Friday, closing out his round with three birdies over his final four holes to get to 9 under and within one shot of co-leaders Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam. Bradley has had some success in this event, finishing T-13 in 2019 and T-7 last year, and four of his 10 career rounds in Narita have now gone for 66 or better. He also finished T-5 at the Sanderson Farms in his most recent start, so this is a situation where a talented player has found his confidence as he looks for his first win since 2018 and just his second on Tour in the last 10 years.

Bradley swallowed bogeys on three of the first seven holes today before blitzing the final 10 holes with five birdies. He was 2.3 shots worse than the field on his outward nine but gained 2.9 strokes with his back-nine 32. It wasn’t the Sunday finish he hoped for but he did rank 4th in strokes gained off-the-tee this week and 3rd in putting. This will go in the books as his 31st career top-5 finish on the PGA TOUR and second at the Country Club of Jackson (T4 at the 2020-21 edition).

Bradley had struggled to keep the bogeys off his scorecard through two rounds at the Country Club of Jackson, entering the weekend at 3 under and seven shots off the lead. But he managed a clean sheet during the third round, adding eight birdies highlighted by a run of five straight to open the back nine. The 64 lifted Bradley to 11 under for the week and a tie for sixth, a 40-spot improvement. He’s now just four shots behind Mark Hubbard as he looks for what would be his first win since the 2018 BMW Championship and just his second in the last 10 years. Bradley is often held back by a balky putter but he picked up +3.744 strokes on the greens Saturday, as all eight of his made birdie putts came from inside 15 feet.

Bradley was dialed in from the start as he gained strokes on nine of his first 11 drives. He ranked 6th in strokes gained off-the-tee by the time he turned in his card. “I think any time you play a course where hitting a lot of drivers is going to be good for me, I feel like that’s one of the things I do best.” More importantly, that steady striking gave him lots of scoring chances and he capitalized with the flat stick. Before his day was over he poured in seven putts from outside of eight feet, including a pair of birdie bombs from outside of 30 feet. Bradley walked off the course ranked 1st in strokes gained putting (+4.012). He started the week at 44th in the FedExCup race but could be needing to find a flight to Atlanta if he can stay hot with the putter. If this lead holds then it’d be his ninth time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR and the first since the 2021 Valspar Championship.