The long drought of victory was broken on Sunday at the Zozo Championship in Japan, but perhaps not what everyone expected. Rickie Fowler made it to the final round of the lead and was looking for his first win since the 2019 Phoenix Open, but he was ultimately beaten by Keegan Bradley, who experienced an even hit. longer time between wins with his last win being at BMW Championship 2018.
Bradley hit two under 68, two more than Fowler and good enough to finish 15 under 15, ahead of Rickie, who was at home he was playing one. It was a bit difficult for both players as they looked to break streaks they never wanted to start. Fowler scored his worst goal of the week – 70 – and was never able to roll at Narashino Country Club after shining for the first two days. Bradley tried to take the lead in the next round but kicked it off with a bogey on 14 and 16 followed by a hit from a bunker.
However, he buried a birdie at number 17 to regain the lead and maintain it with a par on the last hole. Result?
“I’ve been crying since the end,” Bradley said after his fifth win on the PGA Tour. “I can’t remember the last time I cried. A second ago I was talking to my wife on the phone, FaceTime. We can’t keep each other, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with Bradley, 36. It’s just that as you get older and really understand how hard it is to win the world’s toughest tour, the victories start to mean more. Bradley won a lot early on, but he’s only had two wins since 2012. This win puts him in the top 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings and it looks like he’s keen to get in. some conversation he wants to join.
“It means a lot,” said Bradley. “There’s a lot of hard work to go through. Even if you play perfect, that doesn’t mean you’ll win. But for me, I feel like I should go to tournaments, I want to compete. Ryder Cup, teams, pro leagues, you know, it’s going to be a long way, and I’ve really learned a lot and I think I can do a lot of it in the rest of the year.”
I don’t know if Bradley will join the US team for next year’s Ryder Cup in Rome. What I do know is that he is an underrated and perhaps underrated player on the PGA Tour. His batting is world-class, and if he can find a way back to the above-average hitter he was at the start of his career, he will be legitimately in the game. story for the Ryder Cup and could go less than 8 years between the big top 10 like he did from 2014 to 2022.
Regardless, this is one of those memories. Bradley said he’s going out in Japan tonight and plans to watch the game against the New England Patriots at 2 a.m. local time. Who can blame him after breaking the four-year drought? The older you get, the more precious those victories become. Rank: A +
Here are our remaining scores for the 2022 Zozo Championship.
T2. Rickie Fowler (-14): I’m not sure the average fan knows how much Fowler has been in the desert for the past three years. Here’s a quick and incomplete sampling:
- Three top 10 in the last 30 months
- Behind Marcus Helligkilde and Kaito Onishi in OWGR
- Missing out on three majors in 2022
- 0 SG player (basically the average PGA Tour) for two years
All of that to say it’s great to see him back in the mix at Japen after such a difficult long time. However, there is still a difficult point. We saw this last fall when he almost won the CJ Cup. Nothing has materialized since then this year (he doesn’t have a top 20 in 2022 until September), so expect this revival to play out the other way around. Grade A
“It’s finally in a position where we’re building momentum and building more confidence,” says Fowler. “I feel like over the last couple of years there’s going to be a time when I’ve got to go one step further and never really get more motivated than in a week at a time. In a great position and ultimately in. a location where things are starting to snowball and together they’re on the right track.”
T9. Xander Schauffele (-10): That’s not enough, but Schauffele almost scored on Sunday with a score of 5 under 65. That 65 is a reminder of this utter nonsense.
Schauffele plays a hearth at the end of the 2021-22 season and he is continuing where he left off. In his last 11 tournaments last season, he’s made the top 20 a whopping 10 times, finished in the top five six times and won three of them (including the team championship). with Patrick Cantlay). He’s on another level. Grade A-
T45. Collin Morikawa (-2) and T53. Cameron Young (-1): Two players from the Presidents Cup went to Japan and failed to make the top 40, which is disappointing. Both of these guys are a bit “wait, are we sure they’ll be on the Ryder Cup team next year?” clock. While both are excellent players – and Morikawa is an excellent winner – both can also be continuous, which can certainly be a good thing but can often also lead to some bad results. pretty side effects like this. Grade: EASY
