Keegan Bradley, who barely made it into the field for BMW Championship, takes first-round lead with bogey-free 66 at Castle Pines; Denver native Wyndham Clark goes up and down en route to 72 as NBA/Olympic champ Derrick White watches
By Gary Baines – 8/22/2024
CASTLE ROCK — And the last shall be first.
It turns out that applies not only in the Bible, but to the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club.
At least so far.
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, who hung on by his fingernails to land the 50th and final spot into the BMW Championship, emerged from Thursday’s opening round with the lead.
The 38-year-old sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to shoot a bogey-free 6-under-par 66, good for a one-stroke advantage in the first PGA Tour event held in Colorado since 2014.
All this after finishing 59th out of 70 players in last week’s FedExCup Playoff opener and sweating out whether he would even qualify for the second postseason stop. More importantly, by advancing with the top 50, he earned a spot in all eight of the lucrative PGA Tour Signature Events in 2025.
“Sunday afternoon was one of the toughest afternoons of my PGA Tour career. It was really brutal,” said Bradley, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour. “It’s such a relief to be here. … I had the FedExCup standings, the (TV) coverage on, the featured holes, my phone. I had it all going. It was tough, but I’m glad that it worked out.”
After all that, with his 66 on Thursday, Bradley was projected to jump from 50th to fourth in the FedExCup standings. Now there are still three rounds left in the BMW Championship, but that’s quite a difference considering what Bradley was feeling four days earlier.
“The top 50 is one of our most important numbers for us as players to be playing in these big tournaments and for FedExCup points,” he said. “I want to be out there with the guys and the Ryder Cup team. I want to be playing with them, on the range with them, in the locker room, in the tournament. It was really important for me to be in this top 50.”
On Thursday, Bradley birdied the first two holes and added more on Nos. 8, 13, 14 and 18. That leaves him one up on Hideki Matsuyama, who’s coming off a victory Sunday at the FedEx St, Jude Championship. But Matsuyama — and seven other players — had a long wait to finish round 1 on Thursday due to a mid-afternoon lightning delay.
When Castle Pines Golf Club hosted The International from 1986 to 2006, the tournament rarely made it through a year without a lightning delay. So it was only fitting that the BMW Championship experience more of the same.
But after more than three hours of suspended action, play resumed at 6:45 p.m. after stopping at 3:33 p.m.
Matsuyama, finished up his lone remaining hole — 18 — with a par and posted a 67 that included six birdies and one bogey. Four players who concluded their first round earlier — Adam Scott, Sungjae Im, Alex Noren and Corey Connors — share third place at 68.
Denver native Wyndham Clark and 26-time PGA Tour winner Rory McIlroy, playing together, were on the 18th green when the horn sounded at 3:33 p.m., signaling the weather suspension. McIlroy faced a 20-foot par putt on 18, while Clark had a 6-foot attempt for birdie. After the long delay, McIlroy missed and made a bogey for a 70, while Clark converted his birdie try and shot 72. (More on Clark below.)
As things wrapped up on Thursday, 21 players — out of the 50-man field — broke par. But just nine shot in the 60s.
“I was a bit surprised it played more difficult than I thought it would, and I can see now if you’re off out there, you’re going to really struggle because the rough is brutal,” Scott said. “It’s going to be important to hit a lot of fairways the rest of the week.”
Conners agreed with Scott’s assessment.
“It had played more receptive in the practice days,” Conners said. “I thought there might be a few more birdie opportunities or a few more chances to be aggressive, but there was definitely some tricky pins out there on some slopes and tucked in some corners. It played more challenging than I was expecting, honestly.”
Yet Bradley didn’t have a big hiccup all days.
“I just felt a lot calmer today,” he said. “I played really, really well. … I really enjoyed playing golf in front of the fans today and playing on this course.”
And the fans, having seen just one PGA Tour event come to Colorado since 2006, really enjoyed it too.
“I think people love that we’re here,” Noren noted.
Wyndham Clark (left) and Rory McIlroy chat while walking down the first fairway on Thursday.
Rollercoaster Ride to a 72 for Valor grad Wyndham Clark: Denver native and Valor Christian graduate Wyndham Clark started out the first PGA Tour event he’s ever played in Colorado in very nice fashion — with a 394-yard drive on No. 1 and an up-and-down from a greenside bunker for birdie. And, playing in a twosome with Rory McIlroy, he added another birdie and finished the front nine at 2 under par.
That’s where the roller-coaster ride started as the 2023 U.S. Open champion made just one par on the back nine — at No. 11. He hit three balls in the water on the back side, carded two double bogeys and two bogeys. In other words, he made four 6s on the back nine. But he also added four birdies, including a 6-footer on the last hole, after the resumption of play at 6:45.
“Definitely a bummer being here for three (extra) hours,” Clark said.
The par-5 17th was part of the wild ride as, after hitting over the green in two, he advanced his third shot 2 feet out of gnarly rough, then hit his fourth into the front bunker before getting up and down for bogey. “It’s brutal,” he said of the rough behind 17. “It was so thick and it was sitting not all the way down, so I had to hit a nice soft high shot and just went under it.”
Add it all up and Clark posted an anything-but-ordinary even-par 72, leaving him in 22nd place.
“I essentially had four doubles today,” Clark said afterward. “I was in the middle of the fairway with irons in on two par-5s and made bogey, and hit it in the water twice and made double. That’s eight shots I just gave away.”
Asked what he took out of the day overall, he said, “I hit it fantastic, I thought, at least off the tee. I hit some really good shots. If you take away those three water balls, it’s a different round. … I obviously played great today. I’m really bummed about” the score.
One of the positives for the three-time PGA Tour winner was that Derrick White of Parker, who has won an NBA title (with Boston) and an Olympic gold medal (with team USA) in recent months, was in his gallery — for a time with the NBA championship trophy. White competed against Clark in basketball as kids and in high school, and they met up during the Olympics in Paris a month ago. “We kind of always had a mutual respect because we guarded each other,” Clark said.
“We played against each other, Cherry Creek against the Parker Hawks, growing up,” White said earlier. “It was a big battle, big rivalry on the court. Obviously he went and did big things. We ended up reconnecting and we both went to the Olympics, which is pretty cool.”
Clark enjoyed having his old basketball rival and current friend following him.
“It was pretty cool, honestly,” Clark said. “He’s kind of new to golf, so his first experience at pro golf was at the Olympics watching and walking with us. He really has the (golf) bug. He said, ‘I love it so much.’ So it’s really cool to have him out there. It’s great having local sports superstars watching me and other golfers and bringing more awareness to golf.”
Fans surround the first tee as the McIlroy/Clark pairing gets set to start their round.
2023 U.S. Am Winner at Cherry Hills Soaring Again: Nick Dunlap may be from Alabama, but he’s got this thing for playing well at high altitude.
Of course, he won the U.S. Amateur last August at roughly a mile high in elevation, at Cherry Hills Country Club. Then, his second PGA Tour victory this year came at the Barracuda Championship, played at over 5,900 feet in Truckee, Calif.
Then the 20-year-old came to Castle Pines this week, which sits at over 6,000 feet, and he put together a very impressive opening round on Thursday, carding a 3-under 69 despite a double bogey on the 15th hole, where he hit his approach in the water from the rough.
He’ll go into Friday tied for seventh place.
Scottie Scheffler on the ninth hole in round 1.
Sore Back Hinders Scheffler: Scottie Scheffler, who sits atop both the world golf rankings and the FedExCup standings, started the BMW Championship with 10 straight pars before making just three more pars the rest of the way en route to a 1-under-par 71.
Scheffler indicated he had a sore back on Thursday, but he didn’t anticipate it will be any significant issue.
“I woke up just a little sore this morning,” he said. “I had trouble kind of loosening it up. With it being a little bit tight it was hard for me to get through it and I was laboring most of the day to get through the ball. On 17 I was trying to hit a high draw, and that’s a shot where I’ve really got to use a big turn, big motion. I just felt it a little bit. But other than that, all good.
“I hit a few too many balls yesterday or something. It was just a little sore. I’m sure I’ll get some ice on it and stuff and I’ll be totally fine tomorrow.”
Said Xander Schauffele, with whom Scheffler was paired: “He was stiff at the Masters and at the Players and had to get worked on all those times (and still won). I guess it’s a bad sign for everyone else.”
Xander Schauffele blasts from a bunker on the eighth hole.
Get Out the Abacus: Xander Schauffele made just one bogey in his round of 3-under 69 on Thursday, but was left a bit confounded by all the computations that go into adjusting to playing at 6,000-plus feet of altitude.
“I think out here there’s a few times where you’re going over water and it’s downwind and you’re off a downslope and you’re doing your calculations, and the numbers are putting you five steps short in the water, and it’s just a little bit of a trust thing on certain holes still,” he said.
“So you’re sitting there and you get your initial number and then we’re breaking it down to sea level, and then there’s two or three numbers because I always want a short and a long and the pin, so there’s like six numbers, and then I’m talking about wind, all those numbers, and there’s nine numbers. Then I need the final number for the shot I’m hitting at sea level.”
Whew. Who knew you needed an advanced math degree to play at Castle Pines?
Quotable: Xander Schauffele, No. 2 in the world, on his pairing Thursday and Friday with No. 1 Scottie Scheffler: “It’s a comfortable pairing. Teddy (Scheffler’s caddie) and Scottie, they’re fun to be around. We’ve played enough golf together. We can talk if we want. We don’t have to if we don’t want to. We’re not talking too much walking up these hills trying to catch our breath getting to the ball. But it’s a comfy pairing.”
The F-16 flyover of Castle Pines Golf Club on Thursday. (Photo: @BMWchamps on X)
Notable: Among those in attendance for Thursday’s opening ceremonies — featuring Amanda Hawkins performing the national anthem and a flyover by four F-16 fighter jets from the Colorado Air National Guard — was 18-time major winner Jack Nicklaus, who designed Castle Pines Golf Club, which opened in 1981. … Helping out with Wednesday’s BMW Championship junior clinic was fellow World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin, who grew up in Boulder and played golf and football at the University of Colorado. … Rory McIlroy, one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour, smacked his opening tee shot at Castle Pines — on the dramatically downhill par-5 first hole — 395 yards. Wyndham Clark, in the same group, went 394 with his tee shot there. … BMW Championship officials said general parking for Friday has sold out, while limited general parking remains available for Saturday and Sunday. All parking must be purchased in advance (CLICK HERE). As an alternative, ride-share can be utilized for drop-off to then walk into the tournament. The drop-off-pick-up location is 482 W. Happy Canyon Road in Castle Rock, near the championship entrance.
Hale Irwin with Dinger during Wednesday’s junior clinic. (Photo: @BMWchamps on X)
For the scores and pairings for the BMW Championship, CLICK HERE.
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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: THE ESSENTIALS
What: The BMW Championship, the second of three PGA Tour FedExCup Playoff events in 2024.
When: Friday-Sunday remaining championship rounds. Note: Gates open at 7 a.m. on Friday and 6:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For Friday tee times, CLICK HERE.
Where: Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, opened in 1981 and designed by Jack Nicklaus. Castle Pines GC hosted the PGA Tour’s International from 1986 through 2006. Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Jack Vickers founded Castle Pines GC and The International.
Purse: $20 million, with the winner receiving $4 million.
Beneficiary: All the net proceeds from the BMW Championship benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation for caddies. Evans Scholarships, worth an estimated average of $125,000, are awarded by high-achieving teenage caddies with significant financial need.
Defending Champion: Viktor Hovland.
Course Setup: A PGA Tour-record length (since at least 1983) of 8,130 yards (Par-72). Green speed on Stimpmeter: 13. 77 bunkers and 10 water hazards.
History of Event in Colorado: The BMW Championship has been held once before in the Centennial State, in 2014 at Cherry Hills Country Club.
Tickets/Military Honors: For information, CLICK HERE. Note: Kids 15 and under receive complimentary grounds admission when accompanied by a ticketed adult (2 juniors per adult). Also, active-duty military, along with military retirees, active reserves and veterans can also be admitted free to the tournament after obtaining passes at bmwchampionship.com .
Format: 50-player field. No cut. The top 30 in the season-long point standings after the BMW Championship will advance to the Tour Championship.
TV Schedule: Friday: noon-5 p.m., Golf Channel; Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Golf Channel; 1-4 p.m., NBC. Dan Hicks, Kevin Kisner, Terry Gannon and Brad Faxon will call the action at different times from Castle Pines.
General Information about BMW Championship: CLICK HERE.