A protracted profitable drought was damaged on Sunday on the Zozo Championship in Japan, however maybe not the one everybody was anticipating. Rickie Fowler got here into the ultimate spherical main and searching for his first victory because the 2019 Phoenix Open, however he was clipped in the tip by a single stroke by Keegan Bradley, who had skilled a fair longer time between wins together with his final victory coming on the 2018 BMW Championship.
Bradley shot a 2-under 68, which was two higher than Fowler and adequate to complete at 15 below, one forward of Rickie, the person with dwelling he was taking part in. It was a little bit of a experience for each gamers as they sought to interrupt streaks they by no means wished to begin. Fowler shot his worst spherical of the week — a 70 — and by no means may get rolling at Narashino Country Club after shining for the primary two days. Bradley nursed a lead coming down the again stretch however kicked it away with bogeys at Nos. 14 and 16, the latter on account of a shank popping out of a bunker.
He buried a birdie on No. 17 to retake the lead, nonetheless, and maintained it with a par on the remaining gap. The end result?
“I’ve been crying since I finished,” stated Bradley after profitable for the fifth time on the PGA Tour. “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.”
There’s nothing incorrect with Bradley, age 36, in fact. It’s simply that as you grow old and truly perceive how tough it’s to win on the hardest tour in the world, the victories begin to imply extra. Bradley received rather a lot early on, however he has simply two wins since 2012. This victory strikes him into the highest 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings and ostensibly into some conversations of which he desires to be an element.
“It means a lot,” stated Bradley. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. Even if you play perfectly, doesn’t mean you’re going to win. But for me, I feel like I should be contending for tournaments, I want to be contending to play on Ryder Cup, Presidents Cups teams, majors. You know, this is going to go a long way. I haven’t really … of my five, 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.”
I do not know if Bradley goes to be in the combo for subsequent yr’s U.S. Ryder Cup crew in Rome. What I do know is that he is an neglected and possibly underrated participant on the PGA Tour. His ball-striking is world class, and if he can work out how one can return to being an above-average putter like he was a the start of his profession, he’ll legitimately be in the dialog for the Ryder Cup and possibly go fewer than eight years between main high 10s like he did from 2014 to 2022.
Regardless, that is one to have a good time. Bradley stated he is going out in Japan tonight and planning on catching the New England Patriots recreation at 2 a.m. native time. Who can blame him after breaking a four-year drought? The older you get the extra treasured these victories change into. Grade: A+
Here are the remainder of our grades for the 2022 Zozo Championship.
T2. Rickie Fowler (-14): I’m undecided the typical fan is aware of simply how in the desert Fowler has been over the past three years. Here’s a fast and non-exhaustive sampling:
- Three high 10s in the final 30 months
- Ranked behind Marcus Helligkilde and Kaito Onishi in the OWGR
- Missed three majors in 2022
- 0 SG participant (mainly PGA Tour common) for 2 years
All that to say it was superior to see him again in the combo in Japen after such a tough run for such a very long time. There’s a catch, although. We noticed this final fall when he almost received the CJ Cup. Nothing materialized from that this yr (he did not have a single high 20 in 2022 anyplace till September), so hopefully this resurgence will play out in another way. Grade: A
“It’s just finally in a position where we’re building momentum and building more confidence,” stated Fowler. “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. In a great spot and finally in a position where things are starting to kind of snowball and head in the right direction all together.”
T9. Xander Schauffele (-10): It wasn’t sufficient, however Schauffele almost shot the spherical of the day on Sunday with a 5-under 65. That 65 was a reminder of this utterly absurd stat.
Schauffele low-key rode a heater into the tip of the 2021-22 season, and he is choosing up the place he left off. In his final 11 tournaments final season, he completed in the highest 20 a whopping 10 occasions, completed in the highest 5 six occasions and received three of them (together with a crew championship with Patrick Cantlay). He’s on one other stage. Grade: A-
T45. Collin Morikawa (-2) and T53. Cameron Young (-1): Two Presidents Cup gamers went to Japan and could not crack the highest 40, which is disappointing. Both of those guys are on a little bit of “wait, are we sure they’re going to be on next year’s Ryder Cup team?” watch. While each are terrific gamers — and Morikawa an achieved winner — each may also be streaky, which may definitely be an excellent factor however typically can even result in some fairly sub-par outcomes like these. Grade: D