CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — The PGA Tour returned to the Rocky Mountains for the first time in more than a decade. Playing at an elevation of more than 6,300 feet and dealing with the altitude was a hot topic of conversation as players tried to figure out how to adjust to the thin air.
“I think the highlight (of the day) was hitting it 430 down the 10th,” said Adam Scott.
Castle Pines Golf Club had been a fixture on the Tour for 21 years before bowing out at the start of the FedEx Cup era in 2007. Jack Nicklaus re-designed the course for the pros latest visit, stretching it to 8,130 yards. Justin Thomas, speaking on Sirius/XM PGA Tour Radio described Castles Pines as “if Shadow Creek and Caves Valley had a baby.”
On Thursday, Keegan Bradley, the last man in the field at No. 50, shot to the top of the leaderboard with an opening-round 66 before play was suspended due to lightning in the area. It would be his 11th lead or co-lead after the first round, and he’s 0-for-10 in holding on to those previous leads, including at the 2022 BMW. Here are five things to know from the opening round of the BMW Championship.
The last in shall be first
The last man into the 50-man field at the BMW Championship is at the top of the leaderboard after the opening round.
Keegan Bradley drilled his second shot at 18 from 176 yards to 10 feet and rolled in the birdie putt to shoot 6-under 66 at Castle Pines Golf Club and take a two-stroke clubhouse lead at the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who won last week, stood one stroke behind and playing 18 when play was suspended at 5:33 p.m. ET due to lightning in the area.
Bradley, who was named the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain in July, struggled last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, finishing T-59, and dropped from 39th place in the season-long race to a precarious position straddling the No. 50 cutoff and that was changing by the minute. After he completed his round in Memphis, he went back to his room and sweated it out seeing whether he’d advance to the second of three playoff events or go home and hang with his two kids.
“I had the FedEx Cup standings, the coverage on, the featured holes, my phone. I had it all going,” said Bradley, who ended up as the ‘Bubble Boy’ at No. 50. “Sunday afternoon was one of the toughest afternoons of my PGA Tour career. It was really brutal. It’s such a relief to be here. I just felt a lot calmer today.”
It showed as he made six birdies and no bogeys, and holed a 10-foot par putt at No. 7 to keep his momentum going. He is projected to improve from bubble boy status to No. 4 heading into the FedEx finale. This week the new cut off is to make the top 30 and advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake, where the winner will earn $25 million in bonus money. Despite the pressure to crack the top 30, Bradley said he and his caddie talked about going about their normal routine and not force things.
“Try to birdie any hole I can,” Bradley said. “That was the plan.”
Scheffler tweaks his back
It’s never good to see a professional golfer reaching for their lower back after hitting a shot and it’s even worse when that golfer is the world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is trying to win the FedEx Cup for the first time and cap off a spectacular season.
But on the 17th hole, Scheffler hit his second shot and touched his lower back with his left hand.
Scheffler finished with a couple of pars and posted three birdies and two bogeys for an opening-round 1-under 71. Afterwards, Scheffler downplayed any potential injury, saying, “it’s fine.”
Scheffler did concede that he woke up with a sore back and had trouble loosening it up.
“It was hard for me to get through it and I was laboring most of the day to get through the ball,” he explained. “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.”
Asked to elaborate on what happened, he said, “Maybe 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.”
Would he be seeking any special treatment? “Just normal routine. Just like always,” he said.
Scheffler was paired on Thursday with Xander Schauffele, who is second in the FedEx Cup and shot 69 to best Scheffler, the FedEx Cup leader, by two strokes.
Schauffele said he noticed that Scheffler was stiff when he tried to turn his head but joked that it may be a bigger problem for the field than for Scheffler, noting that he needed treatment on his neck at the Players Championship and elsewhere when he won. “I guess it’s a bad sign for everyone else,” he said.
Scott returns 24 years later
