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

The post Keegan Bradley, Cam Young, Sahith Theegala latest to join the new Tiger-Rory league appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With one round to play at the Fortinet Championship, Sahith Theegala said: “I feel like I’m just scrambling my butt off a little bit.” It was more of the same on Sunday en route the 25-year-old’s first career PGA Tour win. Holding on to a five-shot lead at one point at Silverado Resort’s North Course, Theegala kept the momentum going with a big up-and-down from 36 yards for par on the par-4 13th hole. He followed it with a huge right-to-left sweeper from 20 feet for a birdie on 14 that left little doubt who was going to win in California.

Although Theegala never let up on Sunday — he made seven birdies while posting a closing four-under 68 for a two-shot win — there was no denying his short game and work with the putter kept things from going awry during the week. He got up and down 14 of 18 times with his Ping Glide wedges to rank third for the week in scrambling.

Although Theegala uses the Glide 4.0 for his 50- and 54-degree wedges, he sticks with the older Glide 2.0 TS (thin sole) for the lob wedge. “I’ve always preferred less bounce and a thinner sole on the lob wedge,” he told Golf Digest in 2021. “It’s pretty much the only club I use around the greens, even on a long pitch. I’ll just turn it in and hit a hook spinner. I don’t mess with the grinds. I love the way it sits on the ground. I feel like I can really get under the ball.”

He also was good at getting the ball in the hole, too. After ranking 118th in strokes gained/putting last year, he finished second in that category this week, picking up more than nine shots on the field. Theegala’s putter is a Ping TR 1966 Anser 2 model at 37 inches in length and 3 degrees of loft.

Also of note: Theegala switched irons this week to Ping’s Blueprint S model with True Temper Project X shafts.

Theegala averaged 302.8 yards off the tee with his Ping G430 LST driver, which is the low-spin version in the G430 line. “I’ve always fought spin a little with my driver,” Theegala said. “In fact, it was the worst club in my bag until the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school. Then I got fitted with the right head, shaft, length and it was game-changing. I’ve always hit down on the driver, so spin has been an issue, but LST is a low-spin driver so things are really good now.”

Even better with PGA Tour win No. 1 under his belt.

What Sahith Theegala had in the bag at the 2023 Fortinet Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G430 LST (Project X HZRDUS TX), 10.5 degrees
5-wood: Ping G430 Max, 18 degrees
Irons (3): Ping i210; (4-PW): Ping Blueprint S
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 54 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (58 degrees)
Putter: Ping TR 1966 Anser 2

The post What’s In My Bag: The clubs Sahith Theegala used to win the 2023 Fortinet Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Dave Shedloski

For Sahith Theegala, playing in the Fortinet Championship was a no-brainer, mostly for golf reasons but especially because the California native could enjoy the week with family and friends.

And, boy, did he enjoy the week.

With a group of more than 30 boisterous supporters following his every shot and quite a bit of internal motivation further carrying him along, the second-year PGA Tour player was an unstoppable force on Sunday. His breakthrough maiden victory never seemed in doubt as he raced out to a sizable lead and went on to defeat SH Kim by two strokes at Silverado Resort in Napa, California. A closing four-unde 68 gave him a 21-under 267 total, tying Stewart Cink’s record score on the Silverado’s North Course.

“It doesn’t feel real. It’s probably not going to set in for a while, but man it was a lot of good golf, and it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” said the native of Orange, California, whose enjoyment was enhanced by the presence of his parents, his girlfriend and many others. “I had so many family and friends cheering me on, and just the support I have is mind-blowing. I go to bed at night these last few days and, like, I can’t believe how many people are cheering for me, but this feeling is incredible.”

From the standpoint of his status on the PGA Tour, Theegala didn’t need to show up at the first event of the new FedEx Fall series. After advancing to the BMW Championship during the FedEx Cup Playoffs in August, he already had secured full status for 2024, not to mention spots in all of the tour’s big-money signature events. But there was no way he was going to pass on a tournament in his native California. With an affinity for Silverado Resort and an itch to compete after a seeming eternity of time off for the self-professed golf “addict” — in this case, three whole weeks — he just had to tee it up.

He also was highly motivated after missing the Tour Championship by one spot in the FedEx Cup points standings, coming up nine points shy of 30th place after a bogey on the 72nd hole at Olympia Fields.

Theegala has come close before to grabbing his first PGA Tour win, but finally had his breakthrough at Napa. Jed Jacobsohn

Of course, the family angle can’t be discounted. His father Muralidhar had a birthday earlier in the week, and one of Sahith’s best friends hails from Napa.

Put that all together and is it really surprising that Theegala became the 12th first-time winner on the PGA Tour this season?

After beginning the final round with a two-stroke lead over three players, including two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas, Theegala, who put new irons in his bag this week, immediately opened with a birdie from six feet to move three ahead, and he never let his advantage slip below that figure until a bogey on the par-five finishing hole.

A decorated collegiate player at Pepperdine, who in 2020 swept the three most prestigious player-of-the-year awards in Division I, Theegala broke his maiden in his 74th career start and converted a 54-hole lead for the first time in three tries. As a playoff participant, he will not get FedEx points for the victory, but he does earn $1.512 million, a two-year tour exemption, and World Ranking points. He began the week 37th in the Official World Golf Ranking and is projected to jump to 27th.

Kim, who shared the lead with Theegala through 36 holes, shot 68 to finish second, while Cam Davis birdied the last for 70 and solo third at 271. Eric Cole attempting to strengthen his bid for the Arnold Palmer Award, finished another stroke back in fourth place after 70. Thomas, the somewhat controversial wild-card pick for Zach Johnson’s US Ryder Cup team, struggled early, hit only four fairways and settled for a 72 to finish fifth at 273.

World No. 7 Max Homa, the two-time defending champion, ended up T-7 at 13-under 275.

Homa, and everyone else in the field, had to feel like they were interlopers at Silverado with the Theegala faithful expending as much or more energy cheering outside the ropes as Sahith was giving inside them. And the young man noticed.

“Yeah, they meant everything. Just like the way I am, I kind of keep my head down and keep going and stay focused, but I secretly just loving the cheering,” he said. “It gets me fired up. And just knowing that I have that support no matter the good golf or the bad golf, they just have my back and I hope they know that I have their back, too.

“I can’t even express how I feel. It’s a team win. It’s not just a win for me, it’s a win for the whole family and everyone. Definitely going to celebrate.”

As if they hadn’t been doing that all week.

The post Sahith Theegala’s gallery was loud — and proud — as the rising PGA Tour star grabs win No. 1 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The answer was simple, even if the question wasn’t necessarily welcomed.

Sahith Theegala is tied for the lead with SH Kim after the second round of the Fortinet Championship, shooting a 64 Friday at Silverado that included a bunker hole-out for eagle. He finished the season 31st in the FedEx Cup standings, just one spot out of qualifying for the Tour Championship at East Lake. Although that still irks him, he wrapped up status for 2024 which includes spots in all the tour’s biggest events.

When asked why he’s playing this week, Theegala, one of the more thoughtful interviews on the PGA Tour, responded by saying, “I don’t think that’s a great question.”

To him, the answer was way too obvious.

“I love California events and West Coast swing events,” he said. “I love Poa annua. I love this golf course. This was one of my first sponsor invites I got [in 2020], and one of my best friends lives in Napa. It’s just a great event for all my family and friends to come out to.”

Is that all?

“It’s still a PGA Tour event with all the perks and these guys are so good … I understand a lot of guys are not playing with the new structure, which is great.

“I’m such an addict, it’s tough for me to sit around and do nothing, too. I felt like three weeks was ample break. I was fired up missing East Lake by one, so just kind of wanted to play a tournament ASAP.”

The 25-year-old Californian who now lives in Houston said that he plans on playing three times in the autumn, will take time off during the holidays then will come out guns blazing early next year. He didn’t touch a club one during the first half of his three-week breaks and only started to knock off some rust five days before heading to the Fortinet early to spend time with his parents and celebrate his father’s birthday.

“I would say just kind of keeping the competitive juices flowing,” Theegala said about his goal for the week. “My whole life I really haven’t gone that long without playing a tournament other than the injury I had and I never wanted to make months off.”

The post Fortinet leader Sahith Theegala has status wrapped up for next year. His reason for playing in Napa is simple appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Sahith Theegala doesn’t have to look for work any time soon, but should professional golf not work out, the 25-year-old could have a fine second career in Instagram/TikTok trick-shot artistry.

We already know Theegala knows how to shank the ball on command, and we heard plenty of legendary tales from his days at Pepperdine. But now he’s showing off his skills in real deal tournaments, when the degree of difficulty is dialled up to 11.

At the 11th hole on Saturday at Quail Hollow, Theegala’s errant tee shot ended up in some pine straw left of the fairway, his ball coming to rest directly right of a tree. If he attempted to hit it righty, his options were to go backwards or to possibly break his club on the follow through.

Theegala opted to play hero ball instead, going deep into his bag by turning the club over and taking a full swing lefty. Judging by the result, it’s a shot he’s undoubtedly practised countless times before just in case the mood was right:

Going lefty?!

Creativity paid off for @SRTheegala on this one @WellsFargoGolf ? pic.twitter.com/iMfeEqSLx2

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 6, 2023

Considering how he followed through, where the ball landed and how it reacted, it looks like he actually hooked this ball around the trees. Reminder: this is not his dominant side. Insane behaviour.

The bold play came close to seriously paying off for Theegala, who pitched his third to 13 feet for a look at par. He just missed, settling for one of the more creative and impressive bogeys you’ll see on tour all year.

The post Watch as Sahith Theegala goes lefty, pulls off sickest recovery shot of the year at Quail Hollow appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Of course, he’s saying this while standing just outside the scoring area at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort, the $15 million limited-field event reserved for PGA Tour winners and those who finished among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings the previous year. He qualified by the latter criteria but almost achieved the former. Regardless, he’s on Maui, so a certain amount of attention is inevitable.

“I guess it’s nice,” he finally said, “that some people think I’m going to have some success in this game. But I have a long way to go and a lot to learn.”

After a stellar All-American career at Pepperdine University that included becoming just the fifth player to sweep the top awards in 2020 — the Haskins Award, the Jack Nicklaus Award and the Ben Hogan Award — Theegala has proven a fast learner by qualifying in his rookie year for the Tour Championship, where he finished 28th. Appearing in a hefty 32 events, the California native led the tour in birdies and rounds in the 60s and nearly won his first title at the Travelers Championship.

Actually, he should have won the Travelers, ending up second behind Xander Schauffele after making a double bogey at the 72nd hole.

Remember, still a lot to learn.

He recorded another runner-up finish in November at the RSM Classic, the final event of the autumn portion of the current season and then ended 2022 by teaming with Tom Hoge to claim in unofficial win in the QBE Shootout.

Theegala had to make an 18-footer on the final hole to eke out a one-stroke victory.

“It was nice to come through like that because you always want to make a putt for a win, especially when you’re feeling those nerves and you have a teammate counting on you, too,” Theegala, 25, said. “Yeah, it wasn’t an official win or an individual title, but it still felt good. It gave me a little taste of what that feels like and then it just makes you hunger to do it again.”

“It was a pretty relaxed week to start off with and then we started playing well and it was like, shoot, better grind a little bit here all of a sudden,” Hoge said. “It’s fun to have some heat on you down the stretch and have something that matters and pull off a few shots if you need to. That’s what we did and then he came up big on the last hole.”

The winner last year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Hoge came away impressed by the quality of game his teammate possesses.

“Hey, he made my job pretty easy. Pretty much every aspect of his game’s impressive,” Hoge said. “I think, especially, to see the creativity he has around the greens, he has some pretty cool shots and certainly not just your standard technique, just one kind of shot. He mixes it up a little bit, so he’s got that creativity that’s fun to watch and is going to serve him pretty well.”

Theegala took nearly three weeks off coming into this event to clear his mind and refresh, so he wasn’t bothered by a sputtering second-round two-under 71 on Friday on the Plantation Course that left him T-18 at eight-under 138. He enters the year with a clear picture of his goals, but that picture doesn’t necessarily include winning or qualifying for the US Ryder Cup team or anything having to do with results. Which speaks to his maturity. He’s all about the journey to improve.

“I’m just trying to get better and put myself in positions to compete,” he said. “I’m not even too worried about winning. I just feel like as long as I keep progressing how I have in the last couple years and just like focus on that, that’s how all the good things have come so far, so, why switch up anything, you know?

“I feel like the strengths of my game can get way better,” he continued. “Weaknesses in my game obviously can always get better, but I’m not too worried about any one aspect. I feel like I have made an insane amount of progress the last year, but at the same time, against the level of talent on the tour, I also know I have a long way to go. And that’s fine.”

Ranked 43rd in the world, Theegala circled back to his original assertion that he doesn’t feel worthy of special attention or focus. Then again, he doesn’t really care, either.

“I’m not one to be on my phone a lot or pay attention to what’s said. I guess it’s nice that people have some expectations for me,” he said. “I don’t really have a lot of expectations for myself. My only expectation last year was to keep my card. I don’t want to fall into that trap. My expectation for this year is to keep moving forward, keep doing the things well that result in good scoring, and then see how I measure up against these guys. That’s all I’m trying to do.”

The post Sahith Theegla showed his talent with an eye-opening rookie year, but a first official win is the next big step appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 25-year-old former national college player of the year at Pepperdine assured himself of that early in the year as he contended late into Sunday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, finishing T-3. Another near miss at the Travelers Championship in June (T-2) propelled him into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, where he was one of just two rookies to advance to the Tour Championship in August.

Theegala continued his solid play when the 2022-23 season began in September, rattling off three top-six finishes this fall to put himself in 13th place on the FedEx Cup points list as the tour entered its winter break. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t exceed my own expectations,” Theegala said.

For 2023, we’re guessing the goal with be a little more lofty, as in winning on the PGA Tour. Particularly after getting his first taste of a tour victory on Sunday at the QBE Shootout, where he partnered with Tom Hoge to claim the title in the unofficial tour stop.

The final round at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, didn’t exactly get off to the start Theegala was hoping. On the first swing of the first hole, the Chico Hills, Calif., native tweaked a muscle on his left side.

“It’s funny,” Theegala said. “I was just telling my mum at breakfast, knocked on wood, how healthy I’ve been for the last four, five years, and testament to my trainer, Iiterally have played every tournament seemingly 100 per cent.”

Tom Hoge and Sahith Theegala became the first QBE rookies to claim the title since 2011. David Cannon

So it was that Theegala leaned on his partner for much of the front nine as the pair played best ball. And Hoge obliged, making birdies on the first, fourth and eighth.

As Theegala loosened up, he got into the act, too, making a long birdie putt on the ninth hole to tie the duo of Charley Hoffman and Ryan Palmer, the overnight leaders. Over the final nine holes, Hoge and Theegala made six more birdies en route to a closing 62 to pass, hold off and then final beat Hoffman and Palmer by one stroke with a 34-under total.

“It was an interesting day because I don’t think either one of us played our best for 18 holes, but we kind of timed it right,” said Hoge, 33, who earned his first PGA Tour title in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “I got off to some good starts to both nines and then Sahith kind of brought me home. You know, kind of the ham and egg worked really well for us and holed the timely putts when we needed to, for sure.

While Hoge and Theegala were playing in the event for the first time — and became the first rookie winners since 2011 — Hoffman, 45, and Palmer, 46, were QBE veterans. This was Hoffman’s ninth start and Palmer is his sixth different partner. The duo set the 36-hole scoring record, with an opening-round 56 in scramble format and a second-round 62 in modified alternate shot. But on Sunday as they tried ot become the fifth wire-to-wire winner’s in tournament history, they did what you just can’t do in this tournament — make a bogey — that killed their momentum.

But if it looked like the veterans were fading, Palmer turned things around with a lucky (?) birdie chip in on 17. Palmer was left of the green on the par-5 hole in two then flufed a chip, the ball not reaching the putting surface and rolling back to Palmer’s feet. The do-over found the hole and tied he and Hoffman back up with Hoge and Theegala going to the 18th.

“It’s crazy the luck you need every now and then and the bounces,” Palmer said. “After that, of course I started thinking ‘OK, we’re going to have a chance to win for sure now.’ ”

All four players found the fairway on the par-4 home hole and had birdie looks inside 20 feet after their approach shots. Theegala went first and proceeded to roll his ball in the hole, putting the pressure on his opponents. Hoffman and Palmer couldn’t follow up.

“It’s pretty special. It’s nice to get a little taste of competition and taste of victory because it’s so hard out here,” said Theegala said. “So many great players. So it’s nice to get a little taste of that.”

A taste that no doubt will be leaving him wanting more.

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The post A preview of 2023? Sahith Theegala sure hopes so after pulling off the QBE Shootout title with Tom Hoge appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Putnam, who at 13-under is one stroke off the co-lead of Ben Martin and Patrick Rodgers, is 33 and graduated from the cliffs of Malibu, California, in 2011. His has been a journeyman’s career at this point, with his lone PGA Tour victory having come in the 2018 Barracuda Championship. Theegala, also 13-under, is a 24-year-old who was the swept the 2020 NCAA postseason awards at Pepperdine and made a sizeable splash on the big tour in his rookie season. Yet he’s still looking for a maiden win after already posting seven tops-10 in the last 15 months.

There is also another Pepperdine connection that makes their final-round pairing at Sea Island Golf Club just a little bit juicier. Theegala’s caddie is Carl Smith, a former Pepperdine player and assistant coach who took up looping on the PGA Tour in 2015. Before that, he’d followed much of Theegala’s youth career and was a key, along with head coach Michael Beard, in convincing Sahith to choose Pepperdine.

But — and here’s where it gets intriguing — at the time Theegala turned pro, Smith was caddying for … Putnam, his former Waves teammate. When the time came for Sahith to go to Korn Ferry Tour Q-School, Smith talked to Putnam about looping for Theegala that week, and Putnam did the gentlemanly thing and obliged.

It ultimately backfired on him when Theegala earned his PGA Tour card.

“[Smith] told he wasn’t going to bounce to [Theegala’s] bag,” Putnam recalled on Saturday. “They made it through and then he ended up firing me.”

That’s a tough deal, though Putnam contends that he’s understanding of it.

“It was all good,” he said, “because Carl recruited Sahith, and he had always wanted a young rookie who he could show the ropes, and I was OK with it.”

Putnam was asked how he thinks Smith has helped Theegala.

“I think more than anything, probably just making him comfortable out here,” he said. “When you’ve got a good friend on your bag, I think that just makes it easier just to get adjusted to being on the PGA Tour when you’re playing with all these bigger names and people you watch on TV. I know having a good friend on my bag early on was helpful and having my brother [Michael Putnam] ahead of me was extremely helpful. I’m sure Carl, he’s a very even-keel-type presence, so that’s probably helped Sahith to get off to such a good start.”

For his part, Theegala called Putnam “one of the nicest guys on tour”.

“He’s helped me a little bit last year just kind of coming on the scene. His demeanour is incredible on the course. He’s so even-keeled. But I feel like he kind of fools a lot of people in that he’s a killer. His iron game is absurd.”

Putnam and his current caddie, Jordan Guilford, have been doing just fine in this early portion of the season. They’re 8-for-8 in cuts made and, with a second-round 62, Putnam contended deep into the Zozo Championship before tying for second.

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Cameron Young, the only other rookie to have made the Tour Championship at East Lake, has one hand firmly on the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Award. Posting five runner-up finishes in your debut season, including at the Open Championship at St Andrews, will do that. Theegala knows it would take a miracle to bring himself back into the discussion.

“Maybe if I shoot three consecutive 63s and won the Tour Championship,” Theegala said after a 71 that left him at one-over par, seven back of Young (67). “But if not, he’s absolutely deserving of the rookie of the year.”

Theegala’s season has been impressive; his five top-10s include a share of second at the Travelers and a tie for third at the WM Phoenix Open, where he led on Sunday through 17 holes. But he knows it doesn’t come close to matching Young’s five runners-up and two third-place results. The New York native eagled the 72nd hole at St Andrews to finish one shot behind Open champion Cameron Smith, while he was one back of a playoff at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, where Justin Thomas defeated Will Zalatoris.

“I don’t think people understand how incredible his season has been. He has seven top-3s as a rookie, and four or five of them were at massive tournaments,” Theegala said.

Sahith Theegala. Michael Reaves

Young’s favourite runner-up may surprise you, though. Most would assume driving the 18th at St Andrews and draining the eagle putt for a second would take the cake. But it was the T-2 at Sanderson Farms during the Fall Series that stands out. It catapulted the Korn Ferry Tour graduate up the re-rankings.

“Honestly, I go back to Sanderson Farms, the first time I finished second,” Young said. “At that point, that finish I think was way bigger than it’s given credit for because it reshuffled me a lot higher and I got into a lot of events I might not have otherwise. Like Riviera, where I had another good finish (another T-2).”

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There were 28 rookies on the PGA Tour this season and the Palmer Award for the best performer will be determined in voting that ends next week by members who made at least 15 starts.

Young said it would be particularly special given he went to Wake Forest — the same college of the award’s namesake, Palmer.

“Yeah, that would be obviously a really nice honour,” he said. “I think we had a great rookie class this year. To come out on top of that would be great, especially given my ties to Wake Forest with Arnold Palmer also being a big part of that programme. I mean, it’s something that we didn’t really think about much early, but as the season has gone on, it’s something that I’ve known in the back of my head would be nice to accomplish.”

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Thursday provided a good start. A seven-under-par 64 (his sixth straight opening round in the 60s at the BMW) was fuelled by a front-nine 29 that saw Bradley roll in a 13-footer for birdie at the first and proceed to keep pouring them in. Seven more birdies (he made one bogey) followed, including bombs from 31 feet at the sixth and 39 feet at the ninth. Bradley, who came into the week 90th in strokes gained/putting, paced the field in that stat, picking up nearly four shots on the field. Not bad for a guy that was supposed to be a victim of the ban on anchoring. But when you make a season-high 149 feet of putts, well, there you go.

Bradley didn’t rely solely on flat stick wizardry, though. Looking more like the player that has six top-10 finishes on the year including a fifth at the Players and a T-7 at the US Open, Bradley hit 10 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens, making for a relatively stress-free round on a day when he should have been feeling some heat to play well.

As is his way, though, Bradley preferred to stay focused on the present rather than looking ahead.

“I made a nice putt on the first hole and just kept it going,” said Bradley, who’s last win was the 2018 BMW. “I never look to see what I have to do, because whether I play in this tournament or Sony or any tournament, I always want to do the best I can, whether it’s 35th instead of 36th or first, whatever it is. I never feel like [looking ahead] helps me, I feel like it hurts me, actually.”

For one day, at least, that strategy worked. Come Sunday, that might not be so easy for a guy needing to move up 14 spots to play next week in Atlanta.

McIlroy continues early BMW horsepower despite hiccup

Rory McIlroy. Andy Lyons

We’d haul out the old saw about there being ‘horses for courses’ as it relates to Rory McIlroy and his penchant for getting off to fast starts at the BMW Championship, but the tournament has moved around so many dang times since McIlroy first played it in 2010 that we’d just look silly.

Instead, whether it’s Cog Hill, Crooked Stick (where he won in 2012), Conway Farms, Cherry Hills, Aronimink, well, you get the idea. When it comes to this event, McIlroy acts as if he’s America’s Guest, playing each venue as if he’s on a first-name basis with each blade of grass. In 11 prior first rounds at the BMW McIlroy’s stroke average was 68.91. Take out two duds in 2010 and 2013 and it lowers to a gaudy 67.11.

That trend line continued on Thursday at Wilmington Country Club where McIlroy shot a three-under 68 despite one major hiccup. As usual, the driver was a weapon. Despite a little wildness off the tee, McIlroy hit seven tee shots more than 330 yards, including two bombs in excess of 380. Although the course is a first-time PGA Tour venue, McIlroy got a few extra looks at the set-up prior to Thursday and liked what he saw of the sprawling, but fairly open, layout.

After missing the cut in the first FedEx event in Memphis, McIlroy opted to head to Delaware rather than join his family who were in upstate New York. “I got here Friday night after the missed cut, and I’ve been here, so I’ve been on the course every day since Saturday,” he said. “But it’s been good. It’s nice to get back out and prepare and get to know a new golf course, get a little bit of a head start on everyone else.”

Sitting -6 and just 1 back, Rory McIlroy triple-bogeys the 15th to fall 4 off of the lead. pic.twitter.com/JQPnfxV5Zh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2022

Although McIlroy will take the score, it could have been even better. A towering 3-wood from 266 yards on the par-5 third stopped eight feet from the hole but the eagle putt didn’t fall. At the short par-4 11th he wasted a mammoth 365-yard tee shot by looking like a weekend schlub and dumping the approach in the front bunker (he did not look like a weekend schlub in getting up and down from said bunker). Then there was the dunked tee shot (after a bit of a wait and an in-between club choice) into the water on the par-3 15th that wrecked a clean card, leading to a terrible triple.

.@McIlroyRory cuts the corner ?

(Presented by @CDW) pic.twitter.com/boWzQMYWAG

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2022

“Yeah, just that one tee shot on 15,” McIlroy said after the round. “I felt like I had probably half a club too much, so I was trying to hit like a cut in there over the water, and I just double-crossed it and then compounded that by the three-putt. … [I was between a] 5- and 6-iron. I tried to hit like a high, soft, cut 5 and just double-crossed it. … I’ve just got to reset tonight and forget about that swing on 15 and go again tomorrow.”

Scott keeps movin’ on up

Adam Scott. Rob Carr

If Adam Scott is off to LIV Golf as has been rumoured, he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get there. Standing 80th in the FedEx Cup ranks starting last week, a T-5 jumped him to 45th and into the field for the BMW Championship. Now, after a first-round 66, it appears as if the Aussie might hang around another week if he can continue his good play.

History says Scott should probably book a ticket to Atlanta. One of only two players (Matt Kuchar is the other) to qualify for all 16 FedEx Cup Playoffs, Scott has made the Tour Championship eight times in the FedEx Cup era. And if he makes the 30-player field, the 42-year-old Scott doesn’t plan on just enjoying being there.

“One of the beauties of the playoffs is that there is enough volatility that you can have a couple good weeks and get yourself right in the mix,” Scott said. “No matter where, if I was at East Lake starting 10 back or five back or six back, I’d be there thinking I’ve got a chance to win the whole lot.”

Certainly it’s a lot easier to think that way coming off a round where Scott hit 15 greens despite only finding the fairway 28.57 percent of the time (four of 14). A hot putter, however, made up for any stray shots as Scott picked up 3.657 strokes on the field on the greens.

Playing with Keegan Bradley, who shot a seven-under 64, Scott did not deny the pairing had a positive effect on his play.

“I think I was drafting off him,” he said. “He shot six-under on the front and was running. Sometimes it’s good to see that and you can draft off each other, but also just to know that it’s really out there. When you get off to a slower start sometimes, you can make the course harder than it really is, and Keegan made it look easy today, so I tried to take advantage of that, as well.”

Enough to get to East Lake? “I think that’s a fun thing to think about,” said Scott, who won there in 2006, the year before the playoffs began. “But in three more days.”

Bubble Boys lose ground

Kevin Kisner. Andy Lyons

With four players outside the top 30 projected inside it after the first round of the BMW Championship, it was critical for the “bubble boys” to be on top of their respective games to maintain their position.

Um, yeah. That didn’t really happen.

In the projected rankings, Davis Riley dropped from 26 to 37 after a 77 (only two scores were higher). Sahith Theegala went from 27 to 38. Kevin Kisner’s 71 left him at 39th after starting at 28. Corey Conners needed two birdies on the back nine to only drop a spot from 29 to 30. The man on the bubble, JJ Spaun, rallied with four birdies over his last eight holes to only drop to 31. Aaron Wise fell from 31 to 36 and Maverick McNealy went from 32 to 40th.

Since the points structure changed in 2009, no fewer than two players and no more than four have moved from outside the top 30 to advance to the Tour Championship from the BMW. However, with four players projected to move into the top 30, including three currently in the top 10 on the leaderboard, this group clearly has some work to do.

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The post PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs: Keegan Bradley’s resurgence, Rory McIlroy’s hiccup, Adam Scott’s quest at BMW Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.