Keegan Bradley hits a shot during 2023 FedEx St Jude. Andy Lyons

Keegan Bradley enters this week’s BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in 11th place in the FedEx Cup standings and 11th in the US Ryder Cup standings. The latter depends on improving in the former. But guess which one means more to him. A lot more.

“I think about the Ryder Cup every second I’m awake basically,” Bradley said at Olympia Fields, where the second stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour begins Thursday. “My biggest thing right now is trying not to think about it while I’m playing because it’s important to me.

“The one spot I want to be on is on that Ryder Cup team. Wherever that is on the FedExCup, I’ll take it. It’s probably going to have to be higher than where I am now.”

Six automatic qualifiers for the US team will be determined at the end of this week. US captain Zach Johnson will add his six wild-card selections on August 29, two days after the Tour Championship. The six-time tour winner desperately hopes to make it on points and has no intention of lobbying Johnson for a spot.

“I think when you get in this position you’ve got to play well,” said the former PGA champion. “Zach and the captains aren’t going to … they’re not going to pick a player based on their pitch to be there.”

Bradley, 37, said he hungers to be on a winning team after playing for the US in losses in 2012 and 2014. The Vermont native went 3-1-0 in his debut at nearby Medinah Country Club, but his loss to Rory McIlroy in the third singles match on Sunday was part of a US meltdown as the European team rallied from a 10-6 deficit.

The winner of the Travelers Championship in June and the Zozo Championship in October, Bradley admits that he might be trying too hard to make the US team. He missed the cut at the Open Championship and finished 34th at last week’s FedEx St Jude Championship. It seems he can’t help himself.

“It’s the thing that I hate most about golf is the harder you try, the worse you play,” he said. “You talk about football players or basketball players, and that kid is just tough, he tries harder and he pushes. When your team is down, we’re going to put a little more effort in. In golf, you have to do pretty much the exact opposite. You’re always playing for something a little bit more, Ryder Cup or whatever it is, and my job this week is to go out and just play this tournament, and I know what’s going to be on my mind. It’s just reality.

“I’ll do my best to stick to my process, but it’ll be on my mind. I’ll be thinking of it.”

The post Keegan Bradley leaves no doubt about how much he wants to play in Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The PGA Tour has announced it will extend its exempt player membership into next season, meaning there will be no relegation or loss of status to those falling outside the FedEx Cup Top 125 at the end of the 2019-’20 campaign.

The decision comes after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled or postponed 13 events on the Tour calendar. In a statement, the Tour said the move was made following talks with the Tour’s Policy Board and the Player Advisory Council. Players in the tournament winners, career money and life member categories will retain their status for the 2020-’21 season as well.

The upshot means the elimination of Korn Ferry graduates for 2020-’21. In its statement, the Tour says it is established performance benefits to those that finish in the top 10 of the Korn Ferry points list at the end of the year, which includes eligibility for opposite-field events. The battlefield promotion, for those that win three times in a year on the Korn Ferry circuit, will remain.

Other news items include the reduction of field spots available from Monday qualifying for the rest of 2020. Under the current system, four players can gain entry to a tournament via Monday qualifying. That number will be cut to two. Additionally, the Tour said there will be some tournaments where Monday qualifying may be eliminated all together if a safe location cannot be found.

The Tour has also elevated the 2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. An alternate event the past two seasons, the event has been moved to the fall, and as it shares no date with a WGC tournament, the Corales Puntacana will award a full 500 FedEx Cup points to its champion.

The post PGA Tour extends player membership to next season; no Korn Ferry Tour graduates for 2020-’21 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.