Monday Leaderboard: Keegan Bradley has a Ryder Cup problem of
Welcome to the Monday Leaderboard, where we run down the weekend’s top stories in the terrific world of golf. Get an Arnold Palmer, bring up a chair and get ready for the Ryder Cup argument to end all Ryder Cup disputes …
Captain Keegan’s Conundrum
As the Ryder Cup continues to grow in importance in the golf universe, its every plot twist becomes fodder for Golf Twitter and podcast debate. The essential issue now: Should Captain Keegan Bradley select Keegan Bradley as a player? On one hand, the responsibilities of a captain are all-encompassing, needing a total understanding of your players’ tendencies and requiring the ability to make tactical decisions in genuine time. On the other, it’s a bit of a run-’em-out-there-and-see-what-happens task, and you want the best “’em” available. And at the moment, couple of players are working at a higher level than Bradley.Advertisement He won the
Travelers Championship for the 2nd time in 3 years on Sunday, and rallied from 3 or more strokes behind for the fourth time in his profession. That’s the type of in-round resilience you want out of a player. Bradley got in the week ranked 17th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, but should move close to automatic-qualifier status. No captain has actually played in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963, although Tiger Woods did so in 2019 at the Presidents Cup.The question isn’t whether Bradley belongs on the Ryder Cup group;
he’s quite near to responding to that in the affirmative. The question is whether Bradley as a player would work enough to necessitate splitting his attention from captaincy. Playing a competition with no other focus than yourself is extremely different from having fun with one eye constantly on the U.S.-vs.-Europe leaderboard.( One wild idea making the rounds on Twitter: Name Woods the de facto captain and let Bradley play in peace.)Bradley and the U.S. group have a big home-field benefit, but every Ryder Cup hinges on a couple secret choices … and this might be one of them.Fleetwood Cracked There are couple of players on the PGA Tour who are as cheerful, amiable and easy-to-root-for as Tommy Fleetwood. There are likewise, regrettably, no players on the PGA Trip considering that 1983 who have carded as many top-10 finishes– 42, consisting of Sunday at the Travelers– without a win. Fleetwood has actually won 7 times on the DP World Trip, so it’s not like he doesn’t know how to get it across the line, however for whatever factor he can’t close the deal even when carrying a three-stroke lead into Sunday … or a one-stroke lead into the final hole.Advertisement Fleetwood struggled from the get on Sunday, posting bogeys on 3 of his first four holes. Leading Bradley(and Russell Henley, who had already completed )by a stroke on the 18th at -15, Fleetwood bogeyed, rolling his eight-foot par attempt past the hole and leaving Bradley 5 feet for a tournament-winning birdie. “I’m upset now,”Fleetwood said. “I’m mad … Today, I would enjoy to simply go and sulk somewhere, and maybe I will do [that] But there’s simply no point making it a negative for the future.”Feels like the Ryder Cup
has currently begun.Minjee’s Major, LPGA Players’Complaints Over at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Minjee Lee likewise started the day with a considerable lead– four strokes, in her case. And Lee also spent 3 bogeys over 4 holes on the front
nine at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas.
However she stayed consistent sufficient to hold on for a three-stroke triumph over Auston Kim and Chanettee Wannasaen. Lee now needs just one more significant to finish the LPGA Grand Slam; while there are 5 LPGA majors, only 4 are essential for the Slam. She is the 16th player to win the 16 LPGA tournaments this season.Advertisement On a less favorable note, LPGA players blasted the PGA of America for what they called ruthless and unjust course setups, which they blamed for rounds lasting 6 hours and awful scorecards. Gamers blamed hole places”on the side of hills,”as Stacy Lewis put it, and greens that were difficult to stick on approach. Not a great minute for a major.What’s
up with the club-tossing? We are obviously in a new golden era of club-tossing. Long an outlet of aggravation for both pros and novices alike, club-tossing is having a moment, thanks first to Wyndham Clark. The 2023 U.S. Open champ took heat for slinging a club at the PGA Champion and nearly braining a volunteer: Clark put himself in more trouble at the U.S. Open with his destruction of a number of Oakmont lockers. He apologized today at the Travelers, however a number of other players joined his ranks, like Cameron Young with this blast of rage: And Justin Thomas”failed”to keep his club after an errant shot: But the undoubted club-tossing GOAT of the moment is none other than Rory McIlroy. Sure, he’s secured his disappointment a few various ways, however check out how smooth this specific toss is: So what’s to be done about this epidemic of club-tossing? Well, it does not seem rather reasonable that we desire players to reveal feeling, then get all pearl-clutchy when they actually do. On the other hand, golf probably doesn’t want
to start specifying where the gallery stands the possibility of getting an iron in the teeth. Maybe a stroke charge if a club leaves a player’s hands? And if they do not throw it ahead of themselves– you understand, so you can get it en route to the next hole, rather than doing a walk of shame– then that’s an instantaneous DQ for bad situational awareness.Was this the greatest golf week ever?You most likely do not understand Myles Creighton. You probably didn’t know that there was a Wichita Open this past weekend on the Korn Ferryboat Tour. But you can certainly wrap your mind around this: Creighton carded an 11-under-par 59 on Saturday thanks to a miraculous chip-in on the 18th hole: Oh, but there’s more. Creighton recorded his very first professional ace on Friday. And on Sunday, he headed out and won the entire competition by a stroke! How’s that for a run? Not bad for a guy ranked 442nd worldwide, without a top-10 finish in any of the 13 Korn Ferry occasions he’s played this season.Advertisement Creighton’s 59 was the 15th under-60 round in the history of the Korn Ferryboat Tour. Unusually enough, Adrien Dumont de Chassart also carded a 59 in the Wichita Open on Thursday. But Dumont de Chassart would go on to complete 4 strokes behind Creighton.This week: PGA Tour: Rocket Classic( Detroit), LPGA: Dow Champion(Midland, Mich. ), LIV Golf:
Dallas, PGA Tour Champions: U.S. Senior Citizen Open.