CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — A strong finish on Saturday has Keegan Bradley in the lead by one stroke after the third round of the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club.
The 2025 United States Ryder Cup captain birdied the last two holes to post a round of 2-under 70, putting him at 12-under 204 for the tournament heading into Sunday. The last man to secure a spot in the 50-player field, Bradley also led after the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs’ penultimate event.
It was a wild, up-and-down round on Saturday for Bradley, who had eight birdies and six bogeys and hit only 50 percent of greens in regulation. But Bradley’s putter bailed him out, as he ranked No. 1 on the day with 1.11 putts per green in regulation.
“It was tough out there today,” Bradley said. “It was really windy, a lot of elevated tees that were into the wind, which makes it really tough. Proud of the way I fought today. I played some brilliant golf but I hit also some terrible shots, too. I guess that’s the way of the world. But I’m proud of the way I fought there in the end.”
Second-round leader Adam Scott (74 on Saturday) is in second, one shot back at 11 under. The Australian was 4 over through the first four holes and shot a 40 on the front nine, then bounced back with a 2 under on the back nine.
“I kind of felt like I made a meal of (the start), and I didn’t feel like I did that much wrong,” Scott said. “A couple of drives were just not quite right, and a three-putt, and all of a sudden I’m kind of chasing.”
Ludvig Aberg (71), in the hunt for his second career PGA Tour win, is tied for third with fellow Swede Alex Noren (70) at 10 under. Noren fired a bogey-free back nine and birdied his last three holes.
Noren’s tee shot on the 193-yard, par-3 16th was almost a hole-in-one, as it settled 9 inches from the cup for a tap-in birdie.
Xander Schauffele (67) posted the second-lowest round of the day and was second with 129 feet of made putts. He is tied for fifth place with Wyndham Clark (69) at 7 under.
A two-time major winner, Schauffele rode a hot putter to a bogey-free back nine that featured four birdies. He also had birdies at Nos. 2, 7, 8 and 9.
Clark, a native of nearby Denver, made a late move into the top five by eagling the 524-yard, par-5 17th. He estimated that he knew a “couple hundred” people in the gallery, one being fellow Colorado native Derrick White, fresh off an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics and a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. White hyped up the crowd on the 18th hole after Clark’s round.
“It’s pretty cool,” Clark said. “It’s great to see where Derrick has gone in his career. It’s honestly one of those pinch-yourself moments because we were third grade all the way to high school playing basketball against each other, and you would almost never think that he’d be at the highest level and I would be at the highest level at my sport, and two kids coming out of Colorado, it doesn’t happen very often.”
Si Woo Kim of South Korea (71) and Taylor Pendrith of Canada (73) are T7 at 6 under.
After a double bogey on the par-4 second hole, Sepp Straka (69) had four straight birdies at Nos. 7-10 to move up the leaderboard.
The Austrian is tied for ninth at 5 under with eight others, including 2021 FedEx Cup winner Patrick Cantlay (72).
–James Nokes, Field Level Media
