So the six-time PGA Tour winner already has some practical experience with what the USGA and R&A might be getting ready to do. Citing industry sources, Golf Digest reported Friday that golf’s governing bodies are expected to announce next week a rule change that would universally roll back golf ball distances. The expected rule change comes after a three-year “Notice and Comment” period with equipment manufacturers and other golf organisations, including the PGA Tour.

It is expected that a new standard for testing the conformity of golf balls would be introduced for elite players and competitions in 2028 and then for recreational players in 2030.

“Srixon made whatever the USGA was saying, and it was 40, 50 yards [shorter] with my driver,” Bradley, 37, said Saturday at the Hero World Challenge. “I was a club or two shorter. I think that the USGA … everything that they do is reactionary. They don’t think of a solution. They just think we’re going to affect a hundred percent of the population that plays golf. For the amateur world to hit the ball shorter is monstrous. I can’t think of anything more stupid than that. I don’t think it’s very smart at all, especially when golf’s growing in popularity literally coming out of COVID.”

Among players who were asked about the potential rule change at the Hero World Challenge, no one thought a universal roll back was a good idea. And only tournament host Tiger Woods thinks it would be the right thing to do in the professional game. He and World No. 2 Rory McIlroy have been the biggest proponents of reigning in the ball at the elite level.

“We’ve been hammering the ball needs to slow down,” Woods, 47, said after a third-round one-under 71 at Albany, “but it has kept speeding up my entire time on tour and here we are. I’ve always been for bifurcation. I’ve always said that. Just like wood bats and metal bats [in baseball].”

On Sunday morning, Rory McIlroy took to X (formerly Twitter) with a passionate case for the rollback and against its critics.

I don’t understand the anger about the golf ball roll back. It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability. It will also help bring back certain skills in the pro game that have been eradicated over the past 2 decades.…

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) December 3, 2023

Former U.S. Open champion Justin Rose was surprised to hear that the governing bodies were considering an across-the-board change for amateurs as well as professionals.

“I think the way I saw it going was the tour doing one thing [with a model local rule] and maybe major championships doing another. And that puts a lot of pressure on the tour,” Rose, 43, of England, said. “Now if recreational golf is rolling back, too, it doesn’t make sense for the tour to stay where we were. Because I think if the amateurs were going to continue to stay where they were, the tour, were going to say, ‘OK, we’re going to stay where we are because we want the fan to be able to relate to the tour player.’ That made sense to me. And then obviously if there was a ball for a major championship then so be it, we’d have to learn how to adapt. So that’s the way I would’ve hedged it going. Now it’s even a weirder situation. The amateurs are playing the ball that’s slower than what we’re playing on tour. That doesn’t feel right either.”

Rickie Fowler is not a fan of the ruling bodies making any change to the ball at any level. “There are other ways of going about this,” he said, adding that they are “20 years too late” on the issue.

But he is especially opposed to a shorter ball for recreational players. “To take the game and knock it back when it’s in the best position it’s ever been in, I don’t want to see it as the golf ball being necessarily the right move,” Fowler added. “I don’t see how when we’re at the best place the game has ever been. ‘Oh, you love the game? Yeah. Hey, thanks for joining us over COVID. Now we’re going to make you hit it 20 yards shorter. Have fun.’ I understand both sides. But looking at it as far as the game and everyone talks about growing the game, I think it’s going to be a huge step back.”

Bradley, who already had to adjust his game to a change in equipment rules several years ago when the governing bodies prohibiting an anchored putting stroke, wonders how he and his peers will be forced to adjust their games further.

“I don’t know what the ramifications are going to be with the ball—what they’re going to do, what direction they going to go,” he said. “It would have to be a complete overhaul of the equipment that I use, the shafts that I use. Yeah, I mean the amount of change that’s happened just in the course of my career is insane.

“I think we constantly get penalised for mistakes they [USGA and R&A] make. Whether if they let the ball go too far, that’s not our problem. They [are doing this] to punish not only the professional golfers, but the world of golf for something that they screwed up on. I really think it’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of.”

Image: David Cannon

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Woods, McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Tom Kim and Billy Horschel have previously committed.

The 19 players committed include 11 of the top 20 players in the world, who have won 30 major championships, 202 PGA Tour titles and 118 victories worldwide.

??????? ?? ???: ?????? ???????

6⃣-time @PGATOUR winner @Keegan_Bradley is set to compete in the inaugural season of TGL presented by @SoFi. ?

More: https://t.co/IL97i2ZPtM pic.twitter.com/95ZHTuQm8k

— TGL (@TGL) October 11, 2023

Bradley, the 2011 PGA champion, won twice during the 2022-23 PGA Tour season to increase his career victories to six. Young was the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year in 2022 and played on the victorious US Presidents Cup team. He has six runner-up finishes on tour. Theegala just collected his first PGA Tour title at the Fortinet Championship last month in California.

“As a sports fan, I think TGL is going to appeal to a lot of people who simply love to watch sports in general and not just golf,” Bradley said.

Said Theegala: “This is truly an honor to be a part of TGL alongside many players who I have looked up to during my career. TGL has a different energy than traditional golf and provides us as players with a chance to bring in new fans and engage a younger audience, which is very exciting.”

Teams from Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and New York have already been announced, with two more teams remaining to round out the six. The league, billed to fuse technology with live action in a match-play format, will start on January 9 from an arena in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Main image: Orlando Ramirez

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In trying to make sense of his Ryder Cup snub, Keegan Bradley described himself as an “outsider”. One of US captain Zach Johnson’s assistants, Fred Couples, implied Bradley might be on to something on his radio show.

First, though, Couples denied that there was any such thing as an “outside”, before later admitting that Bradley not being as close with some of the younger players on the team may have (slightly) factored into his non-selection.

“There’s no ‘outside’,” Couples said. “I saw Keegan Bradley’s statement. I left him off the team (as 2011 Presidents Cup captain) when he won a PGA. It’s the harshest thing you can do to a guy.

“I feel like it’s the players’ team, but you can’t have guys telling the captain: ‘Here’s who I want, should be on it,’ unless you’re a Jordan Spieth or a Scottie Scheffler, or a [Patrick] Cantlay.”

Bradley, 37, is only three years older than Rickie Fowler, one of Johnson’s six captain’s picks. But Fowler, Spieth and, perhaps the most controversial captain’s selection, Justin Thomas, are all very close friends. And then there is Sam Burns, who grabbed the final spot on the team and is expected to be paired with his close friend, Scottie Scheffler.

Couples suggested that all the captain’s picks were made with pairings in mind.

“Now they’re picking other guys that may not have the record of Keegan, but they pair them up perfectly,” he said.

“I like Keegan. He’s an older guy, and he’s not in tight with them. If that had 20 per cent to do with it, I won’t argue that.”

Automatically qualifying would have been the way to avoid all these what-ifs for Bradley, but that doesn’t make them any less painful to think about. While he’s certainly not old, he’s not getting any younger, and his fine play over the last two seasons, which included impressive wins at the 2022 Zozo Championship and the 2023 Travelers Championship, did seem like enough to earn Bradley a third-career Ryder Cup appearance.

Unfortunately for Bradley, simply playing better isn’t the only thing factored into captain’s selections any more. With that in mind, don’t be surprised to see Bradley getting extra cozy with some of the younger players over the next few years with an eye on the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

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You can argue over who should have made the US Ryder Cup team for days, but there’s no debating the golfer who took his rejection hardest on Tuesday. That would be Keegan Bradley, who sadly was on the wrong end of captain Zach Johnson’s phone call.

In a conversation with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Bradley said he was “super bummed out” over the news. He also expressed disappointment that being a self-described “outsider” in the sport seemed to hurt his chances as players who had much weaker seasons, most notably Justin Thomas, made the squad instead.

“I feel like moving forward I’m going to have to automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup,” Bradley told Lewis of not receiving a captain’s pick despite winning twice in 2022-2023, including beating an elite field at the Travelers Championship in June. A win that after, he admitted, one of his first thoughts was how much it should help him make the team.

But if all that didn’t make golf fans feel bad enough for Bradley on Tuesday, the Instagram post he shared on Wednesday will. Have a look at this photo of Bradley’s bag from the 2012 Ryder Cup and the sentimental message he wrote about it:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Keegan Bradley (@keeganbradley1)

Wow. That’s downright heartbreaking. Although it also leads to an obvious question: Does that mean Bradley has had dirty clothes zippered up in a bag for more than a decade? Hopefully not.

But back to the main point at hand, this guy lives for the Ryder Cup since making his debut in the biennial event in 2012. Bradley also made the team in 2014 — as well as the 2013 Presidents Cup team — but hasn’t represented the US since. And at 37, he’s well aware there’s a chance it won’t happen again.

But as you can see, Bradley is still fully behind the red, white and blue.

“I’m proud of the effort I put in to make this amazing team over a decade later,” Bradley wrote. “But it wasn’t meant to be. All of the support has been amazing, but it’s time now to get behind this US team. I’m gonna be watching and pulling as hard as I can for them! GOUSA”

And go Keegan. It’s never too early to start working toward 2025 at Bethpage Black.

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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.”

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Fred Couples seemingly doesn’t care for the hoopla — or the secrecy surrounding it for that matter. Not when you consider he appeared to have just announced the US team’s plans regarding some of the on-the-bubble boys on his aptly named “The Fred Couples Show” earlier this week.

???? #RYDERCUP — Assistant Captain Fred Couples casually confirmed on @SiriusXMPGATOUR the 3 players he believes are locks to make the ?? team: “I’ll say Max Homa’s gonna be in Italy, without getting anyone in trouble…. Cam Young will be in Italy….“Jordan Spieth?” …Will be… pic.twitter.com/AWXnt3RIEi

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 27, 2023

It’s not as if Couples is only loosely connected to the team and thus his guessing is more hearsay than reality. The man is a Team USA assistant captain. Seems like the definition of an insider, no? So hearing the following comments naturally gets your attention.

“Max Homa’s going to be in Italy, without getting anyone in trouble,” Couples noted during the programme. “Cam Young will be in Italy. Jordan Spieth will be in Italy.”

So matter-of-factly. Does showmanship mean nothing anymore?

When pushed by co-host George Downing if Keegan Bradley will make the Ryder Cup cut, that’s where Couples had to slow down. “I’m stopping,” he said at this point.

As of today, the top six Americans on the points list who would automatically qualify for Rome are Scottie Scheffler (who the PGA of America announced Wednesday is a mathematical lock to make the top six), Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. Homa, Young and Spieth are seven through nine in the standings, so these aren’t the most daring of choices, but it’s still shocking to announce locks this early. Harman recently jumped up 17 spots with his Open victory.

If this line-up stands, that would leave three spots open for the likes of Thomas, Bradley, Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler and Sam Burns. JT struggled with his game of late, missing the cut at three of four majors and posting scores in the 80s at both Los Angeles Country Club and Royal Liverpool. He’s looking for some late-season magic at this week’s 3M Open to return to form.

“I’m glad he’s playing this week,” Couples said. “The whole world knows that JT’s gotta go to, is it Minnesota, and then Greensboro? He’s gotta go to those places and play well.”

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Sunday wasn’t so much a win for Keegan Bradley at the Travelers Championship as it was the culmination of a life-long pursuit. Yet the dream had barely set in on the 18th hole before Bradley turned his attention to another dream, one he considers unfinished business.

With his second victory of the 2022-23 season, Bradley is now squarely in the mix for the United States Ryder Cup team, ranked seventh in the American standings with less than two months to go before automatic qualification ends. Bradley has played on two American Ryder Cup teams and quickly became a crowd favourite at the event, not afraid to reciprocate the emotion and vigour of those outside the ropes. “That’s one of the reasons why I love the Ryder Cup, because you let it all out at all times,” Bradley said on Sunday.

However, Bradley has not been a part of the Ryder Cup since 2014. Asked if he’s had a moment to think what his Travelers victory will do for his chances to make the American team, Bradley nodded his head in approval.

“Yeah, I mean, it is the first thing I said to my wife walking up to sign my card: This is a pretty big step towards doing that,” Bradley said about making the team. “I’m 37 years old. I hope to play in multiple more. I don’t know how many more with everybody so good and the younger kids, just the team is incredible.

“I still got a lot to show the captain. I would love to go to Rome and be a part of that team.”

Despite ranking seventh in the current standings, a lot remains in Bradley’s path. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are outside automatic qualifying, and both are considered near-locks to make the team. Same with Collin Morikawa. Rickie Fowler is making a viable case for inclusion. Cameron Young, Tony Finau, Sam Burns, Harris English and Dustin Johnson are other formidable candidates with recent Team USA experience.

Conversely, the projected team is short on veterans (at least in terms of age) and the status of LIV Golf members for the United States still remains unclear. Should they not be allowed—thus knocking off Brooks Koepka from automatic qualification—Bradley could find himself representing the red, white and blue.

Bradley has scored four points in seven Ryder Cup matches. He was also a part of the winning Presidents Cup team in 2013.

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In a week infatuated with low scores, Bradley’s was the lowest, his 257 total besting Zac Blair and Brian Harman by three to win the 2023 Travelers Championship.

“My goodness, it’s been unbelievable,” Bradley said. “I’m so lucky and thankful to be from this New England area. I just can’t believe it. This seems like a dream.”

What Bradley did to TPC River Highlands and his competition can be told in statistics or sights, but given the voices—so strong in number and volume—that followed and carried him through Cromwell, perhaps Bradley’s day is best told by the soundtrack he produced. Starting at the first.

“DO IT FOR NEW ENGLAND!”

Bradley was born in Vermont, went to school in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York, and calls Florida home. So why was this tour stop in Connecticut a home game for the former PGA champ? Because New England is not composed of six states but one soul, and that is something that follows no matter when you go.

This crowd also knows what this tournament means to Bradley. The Greater Hartford Open was the first tour event Bradley attended as a kid; on Saturday evening he recalled how he was so excited to follow David Duval that he camped out at the old range to make sure he could see the then-World No. 1 warm-up. Aside from the majors, Bradley said, the Travelers is the trophy he wanted most.

“It’s an event my first handful of years on tour I really struggled at because the pressure of wanting to play well for wow family and the local community was too much,” Bradley said. “I had to learn how to do it.”

So when Bradley made his way from the range to the first tee on a golf cart Sunday afternoon the fans let him know he wouldn’t be alone, showering him with cries of “New England!” and “The local hero!” And while there was plenty of applause at first for the likes of Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and Scottie Scheffler, the loudest welcome was saved for Bradley. Chez Reavie, paired with Bradley and ostensibly the only player in Bradley’s way, was second to the tee and the volume went from 10 to 2. The crowd was still cordial, but the message was clear: Reavie had to win in front of a gallery that didn’t want to see him do it.

“YOU GOTTA LOCK IT UP!”

Bradley started strong, two pars and two birdies, to stretch his lead to three. But starting hasn’t been the issue for Bradley. He’s held the 54-hole lead four times in his career, and in all four times, he left without the victory. Sundays have been especially brutal this season: Despite ranking 32nd in total scoring average, Bradley has gone south on the final day, ranking 123rd in Round 4 scoring.

Maybe that’s why, after a small fist pump from Bradley and the howl of cheers after his birdie at the fourth, a voice cut through the ovation, telling Bradley to “Keep the pedal down” because “You gotta lock it up!”

“ROLL … THE … ROCK!”

Putting. That’s what has kept Bradley from rediscovering the heights he reached a decade ago, with golf’s anchor ban doing a number on his short game. But he’s recently found success on greens thanks to a longer, counterbalanced grip on an Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter, a trend Bradley says he started and has found acolytes in Rickie Fowler and U.S. Open champ Wyndham Clark.

Bradley, up five on Reavie after seven holes, made his first mistake by short siding himself at the par-3 eighth, and could only get his second to 12 feet. Normally, that is a distance that would give Bradley the shakes. This Bradley, however, poured it in with conviction, the ball going 360 degrees around the cup before dropping. The man could not be stopped.

“I was playing great,” Bradley said. “I didn’t look a little many leaderboards because I knew I sort of had control of the tournament if I just played my best. With Chez, who was kind of right behind me who was a little bit back, I knew that I sort of had control.”

Patrick Smith

“HE’S PUTTING ON A CLINIC!”

Was he ever. Bradley hit his approach from 260 yards at the par-5 sixth to 20 feet, his tee shot at the par-3 11th to five feet, and his second at the par-4 12th to eight feet. On the week Bradley led the field in SG/approach, gaining a whopping eight strokes on the field. Turns out putting is pretty easy when you don’t have to putt that far from the hole.

The birdie at the 12th seemingly put the tournament on ice. “Seemingly” is the operative word, however.

“PLUG THE LEAK!”

Bradley went 66 holes with just one bogey. He proceeded to make three in his next four, and in ugly fashion. He hit his drive at the 13th in the water. His ball was in a pitchmark by the 14th green and he failed to get up and down. His tee shot barely found land at the 16th and his attempt for par didn’t come close.

The five-shot lead was down to three over the likes of Blair, Harman and Patrick Cantlay, and a birdie-birdie finish by Cantlay could make things tight. Bradley looked wobbly as he walked to the 17th tee like he knew things weren’t going his way and was unsure how to get right. There were only a few fans scattered around that part of the property, but the ones who were there provided the encouragement Bradley desperately needed. “You’re still good!” shouted one fan. “Let’s go plug the leak!” Bradley did, finding the tight fairway at the 17th. Cantlay didn’t birdie the 17th and made a mess of the final hole. Bradley, after an hour holding his breath, could exhale.

“It was what was going to win or lose me the tournament, so I remember when I won the PGA I made a triple on 15 and then my tee shot on 16 was a regular tee shot, but, again, I always used to say that was the best shot I’ve ever hit and not one that anyone would remember,” Bradley said. “That 17th hole is for sure up there because you have to take an aggressive line. And I did an interview with Chamblee and he said it played as the second hardest hole on the course, or maybe the first, 44 balls in the water today. What a great shot, one of the best I’ve ever hit in my life.”

“KEE-GAN BRAD-LEY! KEE-GAN BRAD-LEY!”

Bradley is naturally fidgety, forever looking like a kid told not to run by the swimming pool. Yet as he walked up the 18th hole with thousands chanting his name, that frenetic spirit was contagious, Bradley madly pumping his fist in the air as the gallery serenaded him with his name.

“You know, I had a bunch of people say they’ve never heard the 18th hole sound like that. It was just so fun to have a three-shot lead where I could enjoy it and mess up a little bit and still win,” Bradley said. “I could let my guard down a little bit.”

Those roars died down momentarily so Bradley and Reavie could finish out, and once they did the roars returned.

“KEE-GAN! KEE-GAN!”

Whenever a player wins—especially when the tournament is big, which the Travelers now is as a designated event—there’s a want to put said win in context or perspective. The victory is now Bradley’s second of the year, putting him squarely in contention for a Ryder Cup spot and inside the top five of the FedEx Cup rankings. At 37 he’s in the best shape of his career thanks to a radical diet that shed 30 lbs., afforded for more flexibility and refilled his proverbial tank. If he’s truly discovered something with his putting perhaps Bradley can be the player we thought he’d be following his stellar run a decade ago.

That is all well and good, and time will tell if it becomes true. Conversely, what happened this week was more than just a victory. It was the culmination of a life-long pursuit, which is why Bradley was brought to tears when he looked at the scoreboard and the scoreboard nodded back, knowing the dream he always wanted had finally come true.

As soon as his ball disappeared Bradley’s arms went up. Those arms were soon filled by his wife and children, and you didn’t need to be a lip-reader to understand “I love you” was bouncing back and forth.

As they made their way up the 18th green, a fan yelled “Can you believe it?” just feet away from Keegan’s face. Keegan had his mouth open but just shook his head. Probably for the best; the roars were too loud, and some things are best left unsaid.

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Every golfer knows that one of the most difficult things to do is back up a stupid-low round with another good one. That’s certainly held true at the Travelers Championship, where Patrick Cantlay shot 60 in the second round in 2011 and followed it with a 72. Mackenzie Hughes did only slightly better in 2020 when he opened with a 60 and backed it up with a 68. (OK, a 72 and a 68 is hardly a chop-fest, but for tour pros its close enough).

Denny McCarthy, however, avoided the dreaded post-60 eff-up. On Friday, McCarthy bushed off a “sloppy bogey” at the second hole and no birdies over the first seven to rattle off six over his final 11 holes to shoot 65 and set the tournament 36-hole scoring record at 15 under par (matched later in the day by Keegan Bradley).

“It was a little slow out of the gates,” said McCarthy. “We did a really good job of just settling into the round. I wasn’t hitting any bad, loose shots. Just wasn’t going my way like it was yesterday early on.”

It went exactly his way like Thursday on the back nine, however. McCarthy matched his 30 on the second nine from the day before with birdies on 13, 14 and 15, bookended by birdies on 10 (thanks to a 42-foot putt falling) and 18. It was a fitting display of golf considering McCarthy’s fondness for the incoming nine at TPC River Highlands.

Denny McCarthy walks on the first hole in the second round of the Travelers Championship. Rob Carr

“It’s probably my favorite nine holes on tour because there is such a variety of holes, and it’s fun and entertaining for us players and the fans,” McCarthy said. “You get a short par-3 on 11; 12 is a cool little hole; 13 is a gettable par 5. There is a lot of risk in those holes, too. And, obviously ,15, the drivable one. It’s just a fun nine holes to play. I look forward to it every time I get there.”

Along with a penchant for playing the back nine well, history seems to be in McCarthy’s favor as well. A non-winner so far on the PGA Tour, the Travelers has produced 18 first-time winners in its history, while his 15-under-par total through 36 holes would be enough have been the winning 72-hole total in half of the previous 10 Travelers.

McCarthy, who lost this year’s Memorial in a playoff with Viktor Hovland when a par on the 72nd hole would have won it, knows not to look ahead.

“Yeah, it’s nice, but golf tournaments aren’t 36 holes, unfortunately, so I know there is still a lot of golf left,” he said.

Bradley’s flat stick is on fire

Bradley tied McCarthy’s tournament-record 125 total for the first 36 holes by dropping a nifty 63 in the second round. The fact he leaned on his putter to do it, however, might be a surprise.

Since the USGA banned anchoring in 2016, Bradley, who won the 2011 PGA Championship using an anchored stroke, has struggled on the greens. And that might be saying it kindly.

In 2018 Bradley ranked 174th in strokes gained /putting and was modestly worse in each of the next three seasons, basically dropping a half-shot to the field on the greens in each round. Spotting the field a couple of blows over 72 holes doesn’t often equate to success on the PGA Tour.

In late 2021, Bradley made the move to the AimPoint method of green reading (effectively using your feet to feel the slope, then using your fingers to measure how much break there is) and switching to an Odyssey Versa Jailbird mallet putter. Last season, Bradley finally got on the plus side of the ledger in putting and this season he ranked T-42 coming into the Travelers, gaining a third of a stroke per round on the field.

“I had some pretty dark days with the putter,” Bradley told Golf Channel after the round. “I couldn’t figure out the switch from the belly putter. It was more difficult than I was expecting. It turned out it was pretty simple with AimPoint and [better] alignment. It’s so much more fun to make putts.

Friday merged solid ball striking (17 of 18 greens in regulation, but only 34th in strokes gained/approach) with putting only the bishop from “Caddyshack” could appreciate, rolling in more than 170 feet of putts, including a 58-footer at the third and a 34-footer at the 12th for birdies.

Such success led Bradley to pay homage to his putter by handing it to his caddie as if he were presenting a gourmet meal—level with two hands on it. “You have to pay your respects the putter,” Bradley explained. “She was hot today.”

Hot, but, like the bishop, not everything went down. Had Bradley made one more birdie he would have accomplished something done only once on the PGA Tour since 1983—shooting 62-62 to start a tournament. David Toms accomplished that at the 2011 Colonial, but Bradley couldn’t get a 16-footer to go at 17 or a 13-footer to fall at the last.

Thomas’ best round of the year: progress or a tease?

Max Homa and Justin Thomas had to use their umbrellas at one point in the second round. Patrick Smith

Justin Thomas’ game has been in a funk. How big of one? Consider no top-10s since the WM Phoenix Open in early February. Consider eight consecutive rounds over par coming into the Travelers. Consider a second-round 81 at last week’s U.S. Open, leading to his second straight missed cut.

An opening even-par 70 this week seemed to merely continue the troubling trend, but Thomas found some of the game on Friday by firing a six-under-par 64—his lowest round the year, besting his final-round 65 at the Waste Management.

Thomas flashed his strong tee-to-green game by leading the field in strokes gained in that category in Round 2, knocking many approaches close. On the greens, he benefited from a 53-footer for birdie at the par-4 fourth that got some positive momentum going.

However, JT had to be frustrated by his finish. Standing at eight under on his round going to 17, he went long on his approach on 17, then found the fairway bunker off the tee on 18, both miscues leading to bogeys.

So is Thomas back or just teasing us. The weekend at TPC River Highlands could answer that question.

Connecticut club pro makes the weekend in his backyard

Andrew Svoboda isn’t just any club professional. The head pro at Great River Golf Club in Milford, Conn., a short jump up the Merritt Parkway to I-91 and TPC River Highlands, not only is comfortable playing PGA Tour events, but doing well in them.

Svoboda shot 65 Friday and finds himself T-22 heading into the weekend. The round could have been better, save for a tee shot that found the left rough on the side of a hill on 17 that led to him dunking his second in the water. Svoboda, however, rebounded to make bogey.

Such steeliness is borne out of 79 previous PGA Tour starts, including three top-10s with a runner-up at the 2014 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, helping him to a season where he won $1.17 million.

Since 2015, however, Svoboda—a legend in the PGA’s Met Section—has just three PGA Tour starts, making this week a special one in front of the home fans and family, including his sister and niece and a bunch of Great River members.

“It’s just kind of cool to be part of that,” Svoboda said. “I’m a new head pro there. I’ve been working there for like three months. So, yeah, there was a little bit of pressure with all the members watching.”

And pressure to continue doing well. Asked how much time he had to be club pro if he kept doing well at tournaments, Svoboda didn’t blink.

“Yeah, well, unless I get a top-10 this week I’ll be back being club pro next week.”

The post Denny McCarthy goes low again, Keegan Bradley’s putter is on fire, and Justin Thomas teases with a strong round appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The video of Keegan and Miguel getting into it a minute ago "You don't tell my caddie to shut up" pic.twitter.com/TSXUpUPpYZ

— Adam Scott (@AScottPGA) May 2, 2015

So even as Bradley rallied from 3-down late to Denny McCarthy on the strength of two birdies and an eagle over the final four holes, the five-time winner was left in a very familiar — and unsatisfactory — position: Without a win.

Incredibly, this has now been the case in all 10 matches Bradley has played in Texas. He has made it to the 18th hole at Austin Country Club in every match. And he has walked off that green without a victory every time. Bizarre.

In seven of those matches, including his opening-round tilt in Group 3, Bradley has earned a tie. In three, a loss. And again, zero wins. In 10 tries. Despite going the distance every time. It has to be one of the craziest match-play stats and one of the wildest streaks in golf history. (Funny enough, that infamous match against Jimenez ended on 18 in a loss as well, albeit at TPC Harding Park.)

As our Shane Ryan pointed out a few years back, Bradley’s lack of success in match play goes beyond his lack of wins at Austin Country Club. After experiencing early success in the format at the 2012 Ryder Cup — with Phil Mickelson as his partner — the wins have been few and far between no matter the venue.

That being said, Wednesday’s tie must at least feel like a win for Bradley considering the finish. And a tie on Day 1 of round-robin group play keeps you in the hunt. Bradley will play Scott Stallings on Thursday and Rory McIlroy on Friday. If he’s going to break this crazy streak, though, he’s going to probably have to walk off 18 with the lead in at least one of those matches.

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