BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 25, 2024

Keegan Bradley

Castle Pines Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Keegan Bradley, the 2024 BMW Championship winner. Congratulations on your seventh victory on the PGA TOUR, second time winning this title. Just talk about the pressure coming down the stretch and getting this win across the line.

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, winning on the PGA TOUR is so difficult. I slept on the lead the last couple days. I did that at Hartford. I hadn't won that way since Hartford or ZOZO. So it's a lot. Especially knowing a couple bogeys here or there, I'm not even playing Atlanta. But I'm really proud of the way I hung in there today. It was really tough. I really played great.

Q. Coming in here 50th on the FedEx standings, last man in the field, now you've moved up to fourth and you have a chance to win the FedExCup. Have you comprehended that at this point?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Honestly, no. I'm in a bit of a state of shock because there was a time a week ago about this time that I didn't think I was going to be coming here. I had to have a lot of magical things happen for me to just play in this tournament, and when I got here, I was so grateful just to be here. I played with a real sense of calm all week, which is not the norm for me.

I'm really proud of the way that I played.

Q. Along those lines, seven wins and a PGA when you're a rookie and a lot of things that have happened. Have you ever had things turn to quickly in terms of where you were and now what's in front of you, and would you have thought -- whether you want to talk about it or not, you're surely in consideration for a Presidents Cup pick. How did all this happen?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah. It's so hard to -- I can't even wrap my head around it. I really was in my hotel room in Memphis, I had a flight booked home to Jupiter, bags packed, and just in a state of shock that I wasn't going to be able to play in my favorite tournaments that I've played in every year of my PGA TOUR career.

Then fast forward to this moment of now I've got to totally refocus here and try to win the FedExCup and talk to the vice captains.

I don't know where that's going to go, but I'm happy to do whatever -- play whatever role they want me to play. I think being the Ryder Cup captain has put me into this category of sort of player when they haven't really had a Ryder Cup captain that's been playing full-time on the TOUR. One of my goals was to make that Presidents Cup team. So we'll see.

I hope I didn't throw a huge wrench in everybody's plans, but I'm proud to be in consideration.

Q. 5-iron, the second shot that you hit on 17, where does that rank on your all-time best shots? Secondly, can you speak a little bit to your comfort level playing golf in the mountain west?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: That 5-iron was as pure of a golf shot as I've ever hit. I had 222 to the hole adjusted with the 10 percent, and I hit my 5-iron about 212 yards. It was a little downwind, but on the previous hole I hit 7-iron for 195 adjusted and it just went forever. I think I was a little jacked up.

So we just decided to rip that 5-iron, and I hit it -- I was aiming at the tongue of the bunker, and I hit it right there.

It's one of those moments when you realize you can hit these shots in contention when it matters most, and to be able to pull that shot off -- I mean, for me that was the shot of the tournament and a shot that I'll remember forever.

Q. And the mountain west?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, my dad was a head pro at Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis and we played at this elevation a lot. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember sort of the 10 percent. We played a 10 percent number the whole week. We got here Monday, really worked on it Monday and Tuesday. It was a perfect 10 percent the whole week. Never really hit a shot other than 17 where it was kind of a shock.

But you really have to do a lot of calculations before you hit the shot, which can be difficult.

Q. You finished runner-up at Charles Schwab earlier this year, but the last couple months there wasn't a warning this was coming. What had to happen this week to find the game?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, to be honest with you, in the pro-am on the 3rd hole, I hit this 6-iron. It was blowing harder than it blew all week, and I just absolutely flushed it, and it came out right in my window, and it just flew exactly the way I wanted it to, and it was just like -- I hit that shot, and I was like, geez, that felt really good.

To be honest with you, from that point on, I didn't really mis-hit a shot for four days, which doesn't happen a lot. I didn't putt that great this week, and I just struck the ball perfectly.

Q. Can it flip that quickly, just a shot?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah. I won Hartford last year, I missed the cut by five shots at the U.S. Open.

I really was grateful to be here. I haven't had that feeling of -- since I was a rookie, really, being so grateful to play in the Memorial or Bay Hill, tournaments I grew up watching. I came to the course here just skipping around. I just was so happy to be here, and it just helped me all week.

Q. In 2014 at Cherry Hills at the BMW it was quite a different experience for you. What are your recollections from that year and decisions you had to make?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I can't even -- I don't remember much -- is that the one I had to withdraw from? Yeah, it was a fluke ruling and I felt like I needed to do that to protect the field. It was a weird moment in my career, to be honest. I probably shouldn't have done that, looking back. I should have just played. But I felt like it was the right thing to do.

So that was a really weird moment in my career.

But fast forward, to come here and to win, this club is spectacular. The way they treat the players and the caddies, they should be really proud of the way they treat the caddies this week and how the caddies are just taken care of. That means a lot to all of us.

Q. Was it weird because that was the first time you had faced that sort of thing in your career?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I just felt like it was the right thing to do. I erred on the side of extreme caution, I'd say. But that's ancient history now. I actually forgot about it until just now.

Q. Can you give a little more detail about last Sunday and what you were going through? You said you had a flight back home. Were you sort of just -- you were waiting there in Memphis to either go home or come here? What were the emotions like? Were you kicking yourself that you didn't do better? How did it all go down?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I was devastated. I finished my round on Sunday. I'm walking the range, looking at people that are warming up that are going to determine my future, really. I packed up all my stuff. I got to the hotel. I booked a flight home. I didn't think I was going to make it.

I had the coverage on. I had my iPad on the featured holes. I had my phone watching -- at two separate times I had to unplug my phone because it got too hot from me refreshing every second.

I was picturing my next year of not knowing where I was playing. It was going to be tough on my family, tough on me. I was really disappointed that I wasn't going to be out there with the guys with the Ryder Cup coming up.

Picturing now I'm not going to be playing, I'm going to have to travel to these tournaments.

I want to be in the final groups with these guys. I want to be watching them make the cut on Friday. I want to see how they interact with their other players in the locker room, on flights to and from tournaments. Everything counts.

I was seeing that slipping away, really. There was a point I was looking at the leaderboard late in the day, and I was like, I'm going to make it, and it was just surreal. I rushed to the airport and came here.

Q. Can you take the same level of happy to be here to next week? As it turns out, you're only going to be four shots -- I know you don't want to give up any shots to Scottie Scheffler, but you did beat him by 13 this week, so you're only four behind him.

KEEGAN BRADLEY: I know, that is a little silly. Yeah, geez, I'll take it. When I showed up here this week, honestly I didn't think I'd be going to Atlanta. Scottie, my caddie, asked me if I wanted to know where I need to finish, and I said no. I still don't know. But I knew it had to be really high.

Playing this week -- last week I was looking at the leaderboard the whole time, and this week that was never on my mind. I was just trying to win the tournament. Maybe I can. I'm playing great. I feel very lucky to be in Atlanta. To make the TOUR Championship two years in a row is a big deal.

Q. In big-time moments you have some of the best reactions. You seem to wear your emotions on your sleeve in those moments. Where does that emotion come from for you?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, when I'm playing golf, I'm always trying to push my emotions down, good or bad. When I do have a chance to -- winning on the 18th hole, I've only done it seven times, and so I always try to take a second to really enjoy it, not underreact to a situation like that. I really want to take everything in because I went a big stretch of my career not winning, and I took it for granted a little bit.

To be able to let all that emotion out is what it's all about. It's all those hours of practice away from the family. That's what makes it all worth it.

Q. When you were handed the Ryder Cup captaincy, I think in Europe there was a sort of feeling that maybe it was an acceptance we'd seen the best of you as a player, but we've probably got to change that view now. Do you think if this form continues, being a playing captain is a realistic alternative?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I know the people that elected me to be the Ryder Cup captain didn't feel that way. They made that clear to me. Not that I really cared what they think. I'm proud to be the Ryder Cup captain.

I would love to be a playing captain. I know it's never -- no one has really had the opportunity that I've had. I think you could have given Phil or Tiger a chance to be captain at my age and they would have played on the teams. But it's never really had a chance to happen.

It's going to be really hard for me to make that team, but if I make the team, I'll play. I don't see myself being a captain's pick. But I'll be proud to just be the captain.

If I have to go out there and play, I'd love to do that, too.

Q. On 14 after the drive into the trees, how important was that second shot to keep the round going, making par there?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, geez, that was the worst shot I hit all week. I got it a little -- I hit it a little bit fadey and it went with the wind. I was really fortunate where it ended up. I still had to hit a pretty good shot to get it back in play, but another foot or two, it was behind that tree.

That was a relief to get down there and see that I could get it out into the fairway.

Then I hit -- honestly, that was one of the best shots I've hit all week because if I pull it a little, it goes out of bounds, and if I don't hit it hard enough, it can hit the tree or go in the rough, and I'm looking at 6 or 7. That was a big moment in the day.

Q. You mentioned being calm, honestly just kind of playing with house money here. How did you balance that vibe with as you get deeper into the tournament, you know you've got a shot to win, and not letting the pressure creep in on you?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, this is my 14th year on TOUR. I've won six times, now seven. I've been in chances where I should have won and didn't. But I've been in these situations a lot. I kept telling myself that.

There were some guys on the leaderboard that hadn't done that on the TOUR, and I knew that was going to be tough for them. Adam has won a million times but...

I've been in these situations, and I've come from behind and won, I've been ahead and won, and I just kept telling myself that I've been in these situations before and I've won and done it. Today was one of those days.

Q. Just wondering, your second shot on 15 hit that over the green, leave you kind of in a spot in the bunker. Wondering what you thought of what happened with that approach shot and how you assessed the bunker shot?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: So first off, it's a really tough shot. Right when I hit it, the wind sort of laid down, and I was aiming right there, and the wind sort of laid down, and then it hit off the edge of the bunker and went to the back.

Then Adam hit the same thing, it went way over the green. It's a tricky little section of the course where the wind is, and the wind just laid down on me a little bit. I was lucky to make 5 there.

Q. How much responsibility have you already had for the Ryder Cup, and how have you tried to balance that with practicing and playing and getting ready for tournaments?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I just feel like I have an obligation to some of the younger players to talk to them, get to know them a little more. Nothing that has been work by any means. It's actually been fun for me to get to know Sahith and some of these younger guys that have just gotten out here. A guy like Cameron Young, you think he's been out here forever, this is only his third Playoffs.

That's been most of it. Little things like picking out the golf bag and stuff. But that's not hard work.

I expect things to ramp up, and I'm lucky to have Brandt and Webb to bounce ideas off of, and it's been great.

Q. Has the qualification process even been determined? Is it going to remain as it was, or could there be tweaks to it? Have you guys gotten into that yet?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: We've gotten into it a little bit. I don't see there being in the tweaks. I think the system -- to finish in the top six is really difficult. I don't think that -- those always identify the best six, I think, on the U.S. side.

The only weird area is the LIV guys, what they do and where they fall on the list. We're going to have to really get with the captains, get with the team that's going to be there and figure that out.

But I think the system works. I haven't heard from anyone, any previous captains of anyway they would change it. But we'll look into it.

Q. You have not heard that the LIV guys are ineligible, have you? Is it like it was the last time? You have the option to pick them if you want?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah. I'm going to have the best 12 players, so the PGA of America, they -- we're going to have the 12 best players, so they need to figure that out, if that's their problem. I know you have to be a PGA member to play in the Ryder Cup. That's the only stipulation that you need. So we'll make sure if some of those guys that we think might make the team, we'll make sure that they are a member.

Q. Was it just your dad's job circumstance that he wasn't able to join you for one of your previous victories, and how gratifying was it for him to be here today?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, well, he comes to a handful of tournaments a year. You just have to get lucky to be at one of these that you win at. You never know where you're going to win. I've been fortunate enough to have my family at almost all of my wins. The only one I can think of that I was by myself was my first win at Byron Nelson and then Japan, which no one was there. But it was great to have him here.

It's a special thing to win on the PGA TOUR, and it's something that you really have to cherish, and to have him here makes it that much more special.

Q. How long has he been at Jackson Hole? It's weird to hear him mention the Wyoming State Amateur for a New England kid.

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, when I went to St. John's my college years I would drive out to Wyoming and I would work at the golf course and I would play in the Wyoming State Amateur and the Wyoming Open. I was out there for three summers, I believe. So I would get done with school in Queens, get in my Ford Focus and drive for three days to Jackson and work all summer, play golf and fish and play in those local tournaments, and it was great.

Q. How old do you feel?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, it's so weird when I do these interviews after the round when everyone is calling me, like is it so -- it's crazy that you're 38 years old, one of the oldest guys and you're in the lead. I don't know how I went to that point. It seems to just have happened.

I still feel like I'm in the prime of my career. I feel like there's a lot of parts to my game that are the best it's ever been, and I feel like I got years ahead of me that I can -- I wanted to make this Ryder Cup team at Bethpage where I was the captain. That's always a goal of mine. I feel like I can still keep playing at a high level for a while.

Q. That's three straight years with a win. Do you take any pride in that?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I do. I was actually thinking about that at the trophy presentation. Three calendar years with a win is really amazing. I take a lot of pride in that, and I take a lot of pride in the quality of the tournaments that I do win. They're some of the best fields in the world.