Bradley goes from last man in to BMW Championship winner

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — The BMW Championship was one tournament Keegan Bradley never thought he could win, only because he didn’t think he would be playing.

Bradley was a bundle of nerves one week ago Sunday as he sat in a hotel room in Tennessee with his bags packed and his season seemingly over. And then he squeezed into the 50th spot in FedEx Cup in the final hour, the last man in Castle Pines for the next playoff event.

From biting his nails in Memphis to holding a trophy in Denver. What a week.

“I can’t even wrap my head around it,” Bradley said after an even-par 72 gave him a one-shot victory over Adam Scott, Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg.

He doesn’t have much time to let his seventh career PGA Tour victory sink in. This created possibilities Bradley never imagined a week ago.

He heads to Atlanta for the Tour Championship at East Lake, where Bradley — who went from No. 50 to No. 4 in the standings — will start four shots behind Scottie Scheffler at East Lake with a reasonable chance at winning the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize.

And that’s not the only cup in play.

Bradley became the first Ryder Cup captain — he was appointed U.S. skipper just over six weeks ago — to win a PGA Tour event in nine years. He is an assistant captain for the Presidents Cup next month in Montreal.

The BMW title moved him to No. 10 in the Presidents Cup standings. Only the top six automatically qualified Sunday, but Bradley is certain to be under serious consideration when Jim Furyk makes his six captain’s picks after the Tour Championship.

“I don’t know where that’s going to go, but I’m happy to play whatever role they want me to play,” the 38-year-old Bradley said. “I hope I didn’t throw a huge wrench in everybody’s plans, but I’m proud to be in consideration.”

Consideration came from winning, and this a rock-solid performance in the mile-high air and in wind that left several players guessing how far the golf ball was flying.

Bradley had some help from the Scott, who was tied for the lead until starting the back nine with three soft bogeys, all with a wedge in his hand. He missed par putts of 7 feet, 6 feet and 8 feet to fall three shots behind. But it was the approach shots that hurt him.

“Ten, 11, 12 kind of blew it for me there,” Scott said after his 72. “I was in position with wedges on every hole and made three bogeys. That’s almost unthinkable, really.”

Burns had a Sunday-best 65, nearly holing a bunker shot on the 18th. Aberg was in position to close the gap until posing over a 6-iron into the par-5 14th right up until it splashed down, leading to a bogey from which he couldn’t quite recover. He closed with a 71.