As Keegan Bradley waited to tap-in for his first win on the PGA Tour in a span of 1,498 days and 100 starts, his eyes grew glassy and he did his best to keep his composure, but it was a hopeless task.
“I’ve been crying since I finished,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time I cried. I talked to my wife on the phone a second ago, FaceTime. I can’t keep it together, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t without its shaky moments, but Bradley did just enough to take the lead during the early goings of the final round and held on to notch his fifth career Tour title at the Zozo Championship.
The 36-year-old former PGA Championship winner shot 2-under 68 on Sunday at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan, a stroke better than Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam.
All of Bradley’s wins have been of the come-from-behind variety. He began the day a stroke behind Fowler before moving to top of the leaderboard by canning a downhill 40-foot birdie putt at the par-3 fifth and adding another birdie at the par-5 sixth. He stretched the lead to two when he drained a 25-foot birdie putt at 11 and pumped his right fist.
You earned it, @Keegan_Bradley.
Enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/gLQXPHzXSd
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 16, 2022
“I putted spectacularly all week. I wish there were stats so I could see what they were,” said Bradley, noting that the typical Strokes Gained: putting stats weren’t tracked this week. (He ranked an impressive T-3 in putts when hitting the green in regulation with 93.)
He looked in control until he made a sloppy bogey at the par-5 14th. Though he saved par at 15 with a 10-foot putt and clenched his fist, Bradley was leaking oil and one hole later he coughed up the solo lead with his second bogey in his last three holes.
“Sixteen was bizarre, I’ve never done that, I don’t think, ever, I shanked one out of the bunker. But I stayed really calm,” Bradley said. “Of my five (wins), I haven’t really won that many leading the entire day like I did today and I really learned a lot and I think I can take a lot of that going forward the rest of the year.”
Bradley also dug into his memory bank and recalled playing with Tiger Woods when the 15-time major winner won the 2019 Zozo Championship for his 82nd and most recent victory, which tied Sam Snead for first on the Tour’s all-time win list.
“Anytime you play with Tiger it’s really great, but to watch him win up close was spectacular and I learned a lot,” Bradley said. “I was thinking about it the whole day today, just kind of remembering Tiger and how he walked a little slower than I noticed in the past, and I tried to do that. To have that same exact pin on 18 and be able to win, man, what a special day.”
Putnam, who closed in 68, was tied for the lead at 14 under until he made bogey at 17 and Bradley made a 20-foot birdie to give himself a cushion heading to the last.
“That birdie on 17 is one of the best birdies of my life and one that when I think back on this tournament, that’s the pivotal hole,” he said. “I kind of realized if I make this putt, I’ve got a two-shot lead going down 18, which I thought, ‘Boy, that would be nice to have two there,’ and I just buried it. It’s just a perfect putt, meant to be and I’m proud of the way I handled that hole.”
He signed for a 72-hole total of 15-under 265.
Clutch on the 17th 🔥@Keegan_Bradley birdies to take a 2-shot lead at 15-under. pic.twitter.com/wNSv3j1uVM
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 16, 2022
Bradley, who struggled for a few years when anchoring a putter was banned by the USGA in 2016, entered the week at No. 44 in the world, but he hadn’t visited the winner’s circle since the 2018 BMW Championship. Fowler was attempting to end his own winless stretch. It wasn’t to be for Fowler, who last hoisted a trophy at the 2019 WM Phoenix Open and recently reunited with swing instructor Butch Harmon. Fowler, however, never looked comfortable with his swing in the final round and closed in even-par 70.
The adrenaline rush of victory still was coursing through Bradley’s veins as he started to look ahead to what this win could mean for him in the future. “I feel like I should be contending for tournaments, I want to be contending to play on Ryder Cup, Presidents Cups teams, majors,” he said. “You know, this is going to go a long way.”
Here are some more highlights from the final round of the 2022 Zozo Championship.
Rickie close but no (victory) cigar
Fowler’s winless drought will continue but his prolonged slump appears to be over. Fowler has recorded two top-10 finishes in three starts in the 2022-23 season – the other being a T-6 at the Fortinet Championship – since reuniting with former swing instructor Butch Harmon, making equipment changes and a caddie change too. (He had only three top 10’s in the previous 30 months.)
“We’re building momentum and building more confidence,” Fowler said after shooting 70 on Sunday. “I feel like in the last few years there would be times where kind of take a step forward and just was never really able to build more momentum than for one week at a time.”
Fowler entered the final round with a one-stroke lead, but made bogey at the first and never looked comfortable with his swing. He trailed Bradley by two through six holes of the final round and while he hung in there to the end, it was evident he lacked the same confidence in his swing that had him ranked first in the field in birdies with 19 through three rounds. Fowler managed only one birdie in his first 17 holes on Sunday (at No. 7) before sinking a birdie at the last.
Throughout the round, Fowler lost several shots to the right. “It’s a hint of a lack of belief that you have the club in the right spot and you can deliver it correctly,” said Golf Channel analyst Craig Perks.
On the bright side, Fowler secured his best finish since a T-3 at the CJ Cup a year ago and already has earned more FedEx Cup points this season through three starts than he did in the entire 2021-22 regular season. But he fell to two of nine converting solo or co-leads after 54 holes and 1 of 11 with the 36-hole lead. It marked the 15th time Fowler has settled for runner-up in 299 Tour starts.
“Kind of bittersweet,” Fowler said. “I hit some darn good putts that it was like there was a cover over the hole. Gave it our all, left it all out there. Big congrats to Keegan, he made the putts, I didn’t. He earned it. But definitely excited about having a couple good finishes to start the season and a lot of good stuff coming.”
Putnam battles to the end
All the talk revolved around the winless droughts of Fowler and Bradley, but Andrew Putnam actually had the longest drought of them all, dating to the 2018 Barracuda Championship.
He gave himself a chance to the bitter end, shooting 2-under 68 on Sunday. Putnam made birdies on two of the first three holes of the final round to make it known he’d be part of the trophy hunt but the putter went cold as he made 13 straight pars.
Still, Putnam was tied for the lead with Bradley when he stepped to the 17th tee. He hit his drive into the right rough. One of the shortest drivers of the ball on Tour, Putnam (188th in driving distance last season) had 195 yards left for his second shot and misfired and made bogey. The T-2 is Putnam’s best finish since he was runner-up at the 2021 Barracuda Championship.
“It was a battle,” Putnam said. “I didn’t feel like my irons were quite as sharp as they needed to be to win, but it was close.”
Grillo's great finish
Emiliano Grillo has found a new level of consistency. Thanks to a superb weekend (65-64), he finished fourth at the Zozo and recorded his fourth top-5 finish in his last nine starts.
“Started with a bogey on the first hole (No. 10 on Thursday) and then everything was like kind of uphill,” he said.
Grillo improved his score every round from 70 to 68 to 65 and made seven birdies on Sunday en route to posting 64.
“It was a combination of everything,” he explained as well as a few putts finally dropping.
Grillo, who never broke par in the tournament last year, didn’t sugarcoat his feelings about Narashino Country Club.
“Don’t like it, to be honest,” he said. “But yeah, it’s a tournament you have to play. It’s lot of points and not so many players, so obviously I feel like I want to keep playing it here, I don’t know if that’s going to be the case, but it’s been a great week.”
No sophomore slump for Sahith Theegala
After a rookie season in which he did just about everything but win, Theegala has picked up right where he left off. He earned his second top-10 finish in three starts, closing in 3-under 67 to finish T-5 at the Zozo Championship.
“It’s just really cool to see like how far my game has come,” Theegala said. “Even when I don’t have everything clicking, can still put together a really good week, because this is obviously a really good week. Yeah, really proud of the last three rounds. It’s really good momentum going forward, too. It just like keeps me like kind of knowing that I’m going about the process the right way.”
After shooting 63, the low round of the day on Saturday, Theegala started five strokes back and took himself out of the running for the title with bogeys at Nos. 2 and 3. He birdied the final two holes to finish the week at 12-under 268. He’s scheduled to play next week at the CJ Cup in South Carolina.
