Keegan Bradley is still getting used to his new title as U.S. Ryder Cup captain. He still feels like a player who should be competing to win and thinking about playing in the matches.
He certainly looked the part Saturday in the BMW Championship, all while hearing the occasional “U-S-A! U-S-A!” cheer as he made his way across windswept Castle Pines for a wild round of 2-under 70 that gave him a one-shot lead over Adam Scott.
“To be named Ryder Cup captain and still be a full-time player is strange, said Bradley, at 38 the youngest U.S. Captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. “I don’t know anyone who knows how to handle this situation, so I’m doing the best I can. The only thing I can keep doing is playing my best golf and maybe play my way on to some of these teams.”
A victory would make him the first captain to win on the PGA Tour since Davis Love III was 51 when he won the 2015 Wyndham Championship. It also would move Bradley to No. 11 in the world ranking.
One round, but that can feel like a long way off considering the developments Saturday.
Bradley had eight birdies and still only shot 70, a round that featured three straight birdies on the front, three straight bogeys on the back and four birdies over his last five holes (the exception was a bogey on the par-3 16th). He was at 12-under 204. It was like that for just about everybody.
Adam Scott hit one tee shot out-of-bounds and another in the water after just three holes and had to rally at the end to limit the damage to a 74, leaving him only one shot behind.
“I kind of felt like I made a meal of that, and I didn’t feel like I did that much wrong - a couple of drives were just not quite right, and a three-putt, and all of a sudden I’m kind of chasing,” Scott said. “I’m in a good spot in the end of it to be one back.”
Ludvig Aberg began his day with a nose bleed in high altitude. He wiped off the blood and drained a 50-foot birdie putt at the start. The super Swede went from a four-shot deficit to a three-shot lead after just five holes. And then he made two straight bogeys, hit a tee shot in the water on the par-3 11th for a double bogey, and three holes later had an eagle. He shot 71 and two shots behind.
Aberg was tied with fellow Swede Alex Noren, was who six shots behind at one point and closed with three straight birdies, the last one from 35 feet across the 18th green for a 70.
Most telling about this wind-blown day in mile-high air was Xander Schauffele. When told Friday how unusual it was not to see his or Scottie Scheffler’s name among the top 20 on the leaderboard, Schauffele smiled and said, “Give it another day. One of us will be there.”
It turned out to be him. He started the weekend 11 shots behind. He had a 67 - despite a double bogey on his card - and goes into Sunday four shots behind. So was Denver native and former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who had a late eagle for a 69.
Still not secure for Bradley, Scott and Noren is a trip to East Lake next week for the Tour Championship. The top 30 advance to the FedEx Cup finale with at least some chance at the $25 million prize.
Those three were all outside the top 40 going to Castle Pines. Bradley was the last man to get in the 50-man field for the BMW Championship. A victory would put him at No. 4. But if falls too far behind, he could be out of the top 30.
Scott and Noren aren’t out of the woods yet, either.
All of them are thinking more about the trophies at stake Sunday - one from the BMW Championship, one from the Western Golf Association, which has been running this elite tournament for 125 years.
Scott had a three-shot lead to start the third round and it was gone quickly. He sent his opening tee shot well to the right, over threes and beyond the white out-of-bounds posts. He had to scramble for a bogey.
Two holes later, he took an aggressive line off the tee and was a few yards left of where he needed to be. He could see the ball splash in the pond from the tee, and a three-putt from 20 feet added to a double bogey. A bogey from the bunker on the next hole followed, and the Australian was reeling.
He didn’t make a birdie until the 11th hole, and he hit another tee shot out-of-bounds on the par-5 14th where he again scrambled for a bogey. All that and he still was only one behind and in the final group.
The 48 players - Hideki Matsuyama withdrew Friday, Robert MacIntyre on Saturday, both citing lower back issues - combined to make 22 double bogeys, two triple bogeys and one quadruple bogey in gusts that never really relented.
