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Reuters
Keegan Bradley set an early pace in the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, finishing Thursday with a 7-under 64 at the BMW Championship at Wilmington, Delaware Country Club. Got a 1 round lead.
Bradley leads Australia's Adam Scott (65) by one stroke while he leads Justin Thomas, Harold Varner III and Irishman Shane Lowry (66) by two. I'm here.
The top 70 players from the FedEx Cup will qualify for his BMW, and only the top 30 points players after this event will qualify for the Tour Championship in Atlanta next week.
Bradley (44th), given his 2,000 Cup points to the BMW winner, fell behind in winning the title. He recorded his score of 29 up front on his nine with his six birdies, before in the 14–15 he added one bogey and back-to-back birdies.
Bradley teeed on the par-3 7th hole just 3 feet from the cup after he sunk his putt on the par-4 6th hole where he birdied from over 30 feet away. He hit his shot and took another birdie. He sent in another long birdie about nine meters left to right on the par-4 ninth.
The 6th and his putt on the 9th helped Bradley lead the field with his Strokes Gained: Putting.
"My plan is to come home and see my kids on Sunday night no matter what," said Bradley, who won his 2018 BMW at nearby Philadelphia's Arronimink. said. "No matter what happens here, I'll be home on Sunday night. And... I want to go to Atlanta. Obviously, that's everyone's goal to start the year."
Scott was paired with Bradley in the first round and trailed closely throughout the day. He birdied on the 14th, 16th and 18th after adding his putts on the 14th, 16th and 18th after he made four birdies and his only bogey on his front nine.
The 42-year-old Scott swooped in last week's FedEx St. Jude in his championship as he tied for fifth in the Top 70 in no time. He continued to play at that level on Thursday and fed his partner.
"I think I was drafting (Bradley)," said Scott. "He was running six-under up front. Sometimes it's nice to see that and we can draft each other, but it's also to know it's really there. Start Delaying can sometimes make the course harder than it actually is, but Keegan made it look easy today, so I tried to take advantage of that as well.”
PGA Champion Shipp winner Thomas birdied three of the first four holes and added a 41-foot eagle putt on the par-5 14th hole. Lowry also eagled that hole and sank a putt from over 56 feet away.
"If we get solid and fast this weekend, we'll be able to play a very championship-like golf course," said Thomas, despite Thursday's low scores. "If you keep the fairways tight and you hit the ball well, you can have some short clubs and make birdies."
Colin Morikawa, Xander Schauffle, Rookie of the Year 's front-runner Cameron Young is tied for sixth at 4-under 67 alongside Russell Henry, Chez Levy, South Africa's Christian Bezuidenhout and England's Tyrrell Hutton.
The 3-under-68 denouement featured Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, world number one Scotty Scheffler, reigning FedEx his Cup champion Patrick Cantlay, and Jordan his Spieth.
McIlroy challenged Bradley's lead and on the 14th hole he had six birdies and no bogey before par 3 where he bogeyed on the 15th hole. I blocked the round by marking a 6. He found water on the left of the green on his tee shot and took the drop, leaving his third shot just short of the green. After missing a bogey, his 3-hit 1/2-foot putt on a double bogey slipped past right edge.
"I played a lot better today than I did last week, so I have to take it positively," McIlroy said. "I still played decent golf. 3 under par this afternoon was pretty good. I'm going to reset tonight, forget about the 3pm swing, and go again tomorrow." } Among other notables, last week's winner Will Zaratris posted a 1-under 70 and Spanish star Jon Rahm opened with a 2-over 73. There is no 36-hole cut.
– Field Level Media
