TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 28, 2024

Keegan Bradley

East Lake Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Keegan Bradley to the media center here at the 2024 TOUR Championship. You go to the BMW Championship last week at No. 50, win, and then you come in this week at No. 4 with a chance to win the FedExCup. Just opening comments on the crazy whirlwind of the last week from Memphis and now sitting here.

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, Sunday afternoon in Memphis was one of the scariest times of my career, honestly. Fast forward a week, to just be here is so great. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm in fourth in the FedExCup and I should just be happy to be here.

Making it to the TOUR Championship is such a big deal for us players. Anytime you finish off the year here, it's a big deal.

Q. I'm assuming a couple weeks ago you weren't thinking much about winning this thing, but how much have you had to, I guess, recalibrate?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, geez, it's so amazing how quick your year can change, how golf can change. I have such an amazing opportunity here to do something really special and something that I've never done in my career.

Now winning the FedExCup has become such an important part of being a great player. This is obviously my greatest chance to do that.

What a great opportunity. What a fun thing to be able to go out and not only make it here but now I've got a chance to win the whole thing.

Q. What do you think of the course and the restoration? You've obviously played here a lot. What do you think of the changes, and are there any strategies that you're going to employ different from in the past to try and win?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, there's a few players in this field that always play really great here, and it sort of changes everything. Everybody is at a level playing field this week.

I think the officials have to do a really good job with setting the course up with how firm the greens are, and with what I've heard they're going to do a great job of that. I was going to hit it down the 10th hole on 18, and just found out that was out of bounds. That's an interesting wrinkle to everything.

I think they did a really good job. I think there's a few extreme sections of the course that you have to avoid, but there's so much history here at this golf course, and updating the course was a great thing for this tournament.

Q. I wonder since Sunday if you've had a chance to talk to Jim Furyk in relation to your own possibilities of being a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup and maybe what this week might mean for that?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I've spoken to him a little bit. We're going to chat a little more as the week goes on.

I want to do what's best for the team. I truly, truly mean that. If what's best for the team is for me to play, then I want to play. If what's best is for me to be the vice captain and there's better pairings, then I'm happy to do that.

Jim has been an incredible leader. I've learned so much from him already. Jim is a guy that when I first came out on TOUR, he was a guy that I really looked up to.

To be able to be around him and sort of hear his insight, just a few of the little things that he's told me, has really, really helped and I think will help my captaincy at Bethpage.

Q. Do you think it matters either way for your own Ryder Cup captaincy which role you might take? Could it help you more to just be an assistant, or does playing supercede that? Also, does playing well this week matter in that do you think?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I think there's pros and cons to both sides. I think certainly being a vice captain would help me being a captain at Bethpage because when you're playing, your mentality changes a bit. You're more stressed out. You're thinking about, geez, I've got the alternate shot hole, I've got the tough drive. So there's other things in your mind.

But also being inside the ropes with these guys in the battle, in the heat, reminding myself how tough this is, and if a situation arises where I am playing at Bethpage, playing this, playing at the Presidents Cup would certainly help.

I've gone back and forth, and I think that there's pros and cons to both of them. Whatever happens, I'm going to have to figure out how to make the best of it.

Q. Just curious if Jim has asked you for your opinion on picks, or will he ask you for your opinion on picks?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah. I think we've had some quick discussions, but he's largely left me to playing these last couple weeks. You've always got to remember that these guys were players, too, and Jim is a Hall-of-Fame player, and he knows what it's like to be -- he was explaining to me a situation, I forget which Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup it was, he was in a very similar spot that I was; he was a vice captain but he was still trying to make the team. So he knows what I'm going through.

I think as it comes to this week, I think with the different format and stuff like that, I think it shouldn't come down to one week that you decide whether a person is going to play a month later. But I really -- there's part of me that feels terrible I put him in this position. But I want to be as up front with him and honest with him, and he's been great.