Breakfast Ball #34: Bradley is the King of Castle Pines

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Keegan Bradley wins the BMW Championship as the Last Man in the Field

Keegan Bradley won his 7th PGA Tour title with a one stroke victory in the BMW Championship ahead of Ludvig Åberg, Sam Burns, and Adam Scott. Bradley qualified for the event as the last man in the field in 50th place in the FedEx Cup standings. This win now propels him to 4th as we go into the final stage of the playoffs next week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The tournament was played at Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado, 6,200 feet above sea level. Due to the thin air, some players were able to hit over 400 yard drives (including this 418 yard 3-wood from Ludvig Åberg) and the course needed to be the longest ever on the PGA Tour at 8,130 yards. Despite this likely favoring the longer hitters, those players struggled to adjust to the altitude. Scottie Scheffler was below average in strokes gained off the tee for the first time since May 2022, and Rory McIlroy was fighting his driver all week. McIlroy’s driver lost the fight, starting the weekend with a trip to the lake and finishing it by snapping in half on the 9th tee box.

Bradley was consistent off the tee all week and despite losing strokes to the field in putting, he was first in strokes gained tee to green. This win bolsters his chances of being selected for the U.S. team at the upcoming President’s Cup, where he will also serve as a captain's assistant in preparation for his 2025 Ryder Cup captaincy. Bradley has expressed interest in playing as captain at Bethpage Black, but only if he qualifies on points. This victory provides a strong platform for him to achieve that goal.

Other Results:

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tommy Fleetwood moved from 31st to 22nd in the FedEx Cup standings with a T5 finish, qualifying him for the Tour Championship next week

• 🇸🇪 Alex Noren was in contention for most of the weekend, entering Sunday two shots off the lead. Unfortunately, he couldn’t capitalize on his performance, and three bogeys on the final three holes left him outside the top 30 in 37th

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matt Fitzpatrick (T28), 🇧🇪 Thomas Detry (T31), and 🇩🇪 Stephan Jaeger (T39) could not do enough to break into the top 30 and ended their PGA Tour seasons in Colorado

Is the Tour Championship Fit for Purpose? The Format for the Final PGA Tour Event is in Question

Scottie Scheffler has won six times on tour this year, along with 11 top 5s and 16 top 20 finishes in 17 starts. He has 6,615 FedEx Cup points, more than double every player on tour except those in second and third. What does that get him in the event that decides who wins the season-long PGA Tour title and $25 million? A two stroke lead.

The Tour Championship will begin in Atlanta this Thursday with the FedEx Cup on the line. The players will not start the tournament on an even playing field, but rather with a score based on their FedEx Cup position.

This format was introduced in 2019 to ensure that the winner of the Tour Championship would also be the FedEx Cup champion. It was intended to give players who have battled through 18-19 events all year the head start they need to win the tournament. Similar to the NFL and the MLS, an entire season’s work comes down to one event. While end-of-season events should indeed have a significant impact, this format seems ill-suited for golf, where a single hole can erase your lead earned over the prior ~1300 holes in a season.

Since the FedEx Cup playoffs were introduced in 2007, only three players who finished the regular season in the number one position have gone on to win the overall title, with Jordan Spieth being the last to do so in 2015. While the playoffs are the most significant events of the year on tour (apart from the majors, of course), it's clear that this isn't the ideal way to determine a season-long champion. If Scottie Scheffler gets injured during the first round this week, he will automatically finish 30th in the standings. That is simply not right.

Other News and Results:

• 🇫🇷 Frederic LaCroix won the Danish Golf Championship on the DP World Tour for his first professional win in five years and his first on the DPWT

  • Rounds of 67, 71, 67, and 65 gave the frenchman a four stroke victory as he became the second French player in two weeks to win on the DPWT

  • It has been a successful year for French golf, as Victor Perez came close to victory at the Olympics and Matthieu Pavon won the PGA Tour

• 🫠 Matt Fitzpatrick ran into trouble in the final day of the BMW Championship as he found a crack in the face of his driver. However, officials refused to let him replace it as the damage was not “significant enough”

  • It was a bizarre ruling, and another example of rules in golf that just don’t make sense for players or fans. Fitzpatrick had to use his 3 wood for the rest of the round

• 😬 Bob MacIntyre had to withdraw from the BMW Championship prior to the third round due to a back injury, and is in a race to recover for the Tour Championship this week

Coming up this week on Tour

• The PGA Tour’s playoffs will end at the Tour Championship as the FedEx Cup champion will be crowned

• European Ryder Cup team qualification points will be on offer for the first time at the British Masters on the DP World Tour

  • Tyrrell Hatton will be in the field as he aims to maintain his DP World Tour membership to be eligible for selection for the Ryder Cup team

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!