Keegan Bradley (-12) didn’t exactly need to win this week’s BMW Championship to get into the final play off. He didn’t need it, but almost. He came to this second play off in the last place, 50th in the ranking, but right now he is the leader, after three rounds and a wonderfully absurd Saturday golf round, with only four pars signed on the card (in addition to eight birdies and six bogeys) and a record of 70 strokes, two less on the day.
Bradley has no choice but to respect him a lot. And not only for being the next (and surprising) captain of the US Ryder team. The fact is that no one ever finished believing that he could become a player of the era, a colossus of golf, not even after having won that PGA, a Major, at the dawn of his career (2011). But he has never been able to be counted out, not now, at 38. He has a lot of self-love. He has courage. He lives it like no one else. And there he is, on the verge of another great success. Tomorrow he goes out as a leader, with a one-stroke lead over Adam Scott (-11) and two over the Swedes Aberg (-10) and Noren (-10).
The veteran Australian deserves a separate chapter: he came out today as a clear leader and has had the nerve to recover a round that stank of disaster, and big ones, since he was four more in the first four holes. And he is still going to have the opportunity to win for the second time, eleven years later, a tournament of the FedEx Cup play offs. Noren and Aberg, for their part, will seek their first victory in this decisive stretch of the season… Well, actually Noren is looking for his first win on the PGA Tour, who would have thought, being a player of his stature and with 182 tournaments behind him on this circuit. Glory is so expensive in these parts. The curious thing is that Bradley, Scott and Noren came to the Castle Pines Golf Club (Colorado) outside the top thirty and right now they are in the final of next week.
Unfortunately for all of them, the four main candidates, there are two sharks that tomorrow can be something more than remote threats. One is Xander Schauffele (-7), who today has reacted after Friday’s fiasco and has done so with the second best record of the day (card of 67 strokes), so he still aspires to snatch the Number 1 ranking from a very blurred Scottie Scheffler (+1) (today, 74 strokes). Remember: he needs to win and the Texan to be fifth or worse. He still has it very difficult, but now at least it is in his hand, because it seems almost impossible that Scheffler will recover so high on Sunday. The other is Wydham Clark (-7), the local player, who is very excited in front of his audience, really very motivated, lit up, who knows if, even, he is not too much. But the fact is that he has to be counted on.
Right now there are four players who came outside the top thirty and are in the Tour Championship next week: Bradley, Scott, Noren and Fleetwood. And obviously four others who came in and are now out: McCarthy, Day, Thompson and Thomas. But the matter, for sure, is still going to turn a lot in the remaining 18 holes.
