“Captain Keegan” Might’ve Became “PLAYING-Captain Keegan” with This Performance

This win might’ve been the moment “captain Keegan” became “playing-captain Keegan.” 👀 Ryan Barath and golf stats guru Lou Stagner break down KB’s momentous week in Connecticut, as well as:

Kurt Kitayama goes historically lights-out
Brian Campbell’s accuracy wins out again
Chris Gotterup got’er done in Scotland
Aldrich Potgieter, golf’s true Rocket man

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Keegan Bradley does it again. I’m excited to once again be joined by Lou Stagner, our lead stats guy, as well as the assistant men’s golf coach for the Princeton golf team. And Lou, it’s been a very busy month on the PGA Tour in July. I’m looking forward to uh getting through all of it. Some good stuff this month. Oh, come on. You got to be kidding me with another birdie. Let’s kick it off with Kurt Kittyama. Now, this was his second win on the PGA Tour and what really stood out for him was his his relationship with his score on the front nine versus the back nine cuz that really stood out for him. Yeah, he absolutely lit it up on the front nine. He gained nearly 11 strokes on the front nine and he was 12 strokes better than the back nine. Um he birdied 45% of the par force. Um that is the highest single event mark on tour since 1983. Um he had backto back sub 39 holes, 28 on Saturday and 29 on Sunday. It’s only the third player in the entire shot link era back to 2004 to shoot consecutive sub39s on the same side. And then not only that, but he had a a 27 hole stretch that stood out from the rest of his quarter in the event. From the start of round three through the ninth hole of round four on Sunday, he gained 13.24 strokes on those 27 holes. He was 17 under. Um, it’s the best 27 hole stretch on tour this entire season. So, it began with the third round 60 lowest round by any PJ tour winner in 2025. That is that is hugely hugely impressive. Hey, you always say it’s hard to follow up a really good round with another one and to be able to just completely carry on to Sunday uh was a pretty impressive feat. Yeah, I mean 17 under for 17 under is great for an entire four round tournament. to go 17 under across 27 holes is uh is really taking it to the next level. Chris got her up at the Scottish Open uh really showed off with his flat stick like for him and he’s known as a guy who really drives the golf ball extremely far but you know his touch around the greens really stood out this week. His flat stick was on fire this week. He gained 7.3 strokes with his putting. That’s a Scottish Open record. Uh it’s his second best putting week of his career. Uh he was perfect uh 100% inside 5 ft. Um and he gained over three strokes more on the greens than either of the previous two champions uh at this event. That’s insane. Now, we talked about uh Kurt and his front nine versus back nine. Um Chris was was very similar. I mean, his his uh stats really stood out on the front nine of the event uh just for the tournament. Yeah, he did. He really tore it up on the front nine. He was 11 under. Uh gained nearly 12 strokes on the front nine. Uh he only gained about three and a half on the back nine. So, a pretty big discrepancy between the front nine and the back nine all week. Um he’s the only winner in 2025 to finish in the top five in strokes gained off the tea and strokes game putting. It doesn’t happen too often. And his front nine driver numbers, he was two and a half strokes gained off the tea just on the front nine, which is uh, you know, pretty impressive to gain that much just on the front nine with your driver. This is the winning putt. Brian Campbell taps it in and at 32 years old, he is a twotime winner on the PGA Tour as Brian Campbell wins the John Deere Classic. Brian Campbell is not known as a very long player, but what does stand out is the fact that he’s pretty darn accurate. He’s very accurate. He hit 54 of 72 fairways, so 75% driving accuracy. Uh it’s the second highest by any winner this season and he trails only himself. Um he hit 84.6% of the fairways at the Mexico Open. He dominated the par fours. He career best 11 under on the par fours. Uh he led the field in par4 scoring for the first time in his career, which is a very impressive feat to do there. Uh a massive 9.85 strokes gained on par fours. It’s more than double his previous best in his entire career. That’s crazy. And I I just I I love that kind of stuff cuz it like it goes to show that there are different ways that different players can dominate on a golf course. And not only does he dominate in uh like on par fours, but it also happens to be something very interesting is that um two wins, two first victories, and two playoff wins, which doesn’t happen very often. No, it does not happen. Uh he is the fifth player since 1983 going back a long way to claim first two wins uh in first two playoff starts within the same season. So that does not happen too often. He seems to be pretty comfortable in playoffs. Uh he all four rounds were 68 or better. First time in his PJ tour career. And he only had three holes that were overpar the entire week. Also a personal best for him. I think that’s better than me for four rounds that I’d ever done in in one round. So that’s uh that’s pretty good. I typically make more than three bogeies just on the front nine of the first round. Aldridge potter 2025 Rocket Classic champion. uh some playoff poise at just 20 years old. So he drained about an 18-footer on the fifth extra playoff hole to lock up his first win and he’s got his first PGA Tour victory. Now Detroit Golf Club is not known for being an overly long golf course relative to PGA Tour standards. And similar to Brian Campbell, Aldrich really stood out on the par fours around this golf course. He did. So he gained 9.73 strokes on just the par fours. was a whopping 76% of his total strokes gained. Second best in the field there. That’s crazy to to get se 76% of his strokes gained just on like the par4s to me. I know there’s more par4s on the course, but that also means there’s more opportunity to get into trouble as well. So to be able to stand out in that category is is pretty darn impressive. And as well, he went bogeyree a couple times. Yeah, he went bogeyree uh in rounds one and three. Uh so both first and third round no bogeies. He piled up 12.3 strokes gained and 16 birdies or better accounting for uh 97% of his weekly gains right there. In those two rounds he hit 89% of his greens in regulation and was 100% in scrambling. So when you can hit nearly 90% of the greens and then when you miss you’re getting it up and down for par, that’s a pretty unbelievable combination. You’re going to you’re going to shoot some good numbers there. considers this a major. Can he deliver one here at the final hole? Did he ever. Now, speaking of of low scores and and putting, you know, we could mention some other things. Um, Keegan Bradley has Captain Keegan. Captain Keegan. Captain, you can say it. I I I don’t know how I’m going to willing to call him that yet, but yes, he is. I mean, by far he is the captain for sure. Whether he’s a plane captain, we’re going to find that out soon enough. Um but uh at the Travelers Championship, he made a lot of putts on Sunday that really stood out. Yeah. Final round putting clinic by Captain Keegan. 168 ft and 8 in of putts made on Sunday. It’s the sixth most most by a PJ tour winner in a final round since 2003. He had two bombs over 35 ft. He had a 64-footer on number nine and a 36-footer on the 15th hole. And it’s only the fourth time in his entire career he’s hauled multiple 35-footers in one round. 35 footers or longer one round. Must have been that home tournament advantage everyone uh talks so much about there. But yeah, one more thing on his putting. There’s only been five winners in the shot link Eric that have hold more feet of putts in a final round. So it was a really outstanding performance with the flat stick. That’s crazy. It’s crazy impressive to like to see that. I mean, it was a very exciting coming down the stretch and coming down the stretch on the golf course was also where he gained a lot of shots was on those final holes of a golf course that is really honestly not that easy. Yeah. Like I think he was maybe coming down the stretch trying trying to impress himself to uh put give himself a spot on the RDER Cup team there. So played the final six holes in nine under three shots better than the rest of the course. Uh he gained 1.29 more strokes on that stretch than elsewhere. Total strokes gained on holes 13 to 18 was 6.63 versus 5.34 on the other 12 holes. So, he played those last six holes really, really well. That back nine run was the key to his win. It was uh it was exciting coming down the stretch and Lou, it’s always exciting talking to you diving into the stats and we really do appreciate the time.