Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley just won Travelers Championship. Now what? | Golf Channel Podcast

Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley just won Travelers Championship. Now what? | Golf Channel Podcast

[Music] hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav well the Rder Cup is three months away but it feels like the Americans are already one up in one of the most unlikely finishes of the year keegan Bradley flipped the script on Tommy Fleetwood on the 72nd hole and stole the Travelers Championship all while the fans at TBC River Highlands were chanting USA USA rex that certainly felt like a moment at TBC River Highlands didn’t it i I don’t know if the US won on Sunday at the travel championship but it certainly seems like New England won with Keegan winning for the second time he he clearly was the favorite Tommy Fleetwood talked about it a little bit afterwards that if you’re going going to play anybody on a Sunday at TPC River Highlands that guy’s going to get all of the attention it It would be fun you’re right i there was a lot of ride a couple undertones to this throughout the day all the way to the 72nd hole which is when Keegan Bradley did what Keegan Bradley seems to do now in these pressure packed situations i I was wildly impress Well two things kind of struck me one as I’m watching Tommy Fleetwood come down the stretch I kept thinking to myself as I’m looking at the stats and watching him play like how is he not one like we’re we’re going to get into this a little bit later in the podcast he is by far the best player not to have a PGA Tour title i don’t even think I jotted down Cam Young as sort of second place only because I couldn’t come up with another name that I felt like was even significantly close and it looked as if Tommy was making it look easy he looked relaxed he was doing what Scotty Sheffller always does i think at one point he was picking up almost 11 shots on the field strokes came te to Green it was a very Scotty Shefflleresque performance right up until it wasn’t with two bogeies coming down over his last three holes he just looked uncomfortable he he talked about it afterwards the idea that he didn’t execute like he needed to and that’s really the difference when you look at what Tommy Fleetwood does well and the putting can be a little inconsistent but every other part of his game is world class by any measure it’s had the only way you can justify this the only way you can explain this is that somehow he has a hard time struggling going down the stretch six runner-up finishes it’s not as though he hasn’t had opportunities and he hasn’t gotten it done when it comes to Keegan and we’re going to have the Ryder Cup conversation later it it’s amazing what he’s been able to do my guess is if you go back and you start talking to the PG of America that when they first started having the conversation about Keegan Bradley being the next captain I don’t think they envisioned this i don’t think they saw this as I don’t want to call it a complication because it’s a good problem to have where we’re going he has to worry about being a captain
it’s definitely it’s definitely a complication
uh yeah I think that’s the way I would put it but it is a good problem to have right now that if you have a you have a captain that is playing so well that he can legitimately say yes I should be in the mix he was 17th on the US points list before he won my guess is he probably moved somewhere close to 12 11 somewhere around there at least right on the edges of being sort of in that conversation i I I don’t know that he can do it again we’re going to have the conversation about him being a Rder Cup captain but he’s certainly playing well enough to be on that team right now i mean to use one of your favorite phrases like Keegan Bradley deserves a monsoon of credit because these Rder Cup appointments and Sun at the Travelers Championship ironically enough was actually the one-year anniversary of when he got the call from the PJ of America that he was going to be tapped potentially as Ryder Cup captain Beth Paige Black in fall 2025 these Ryder Cup appointments are supposed to be a death nail they are supposed to be an acknowledgement that your playing days are over and that you’re uncompetitive and you’re not going to be a member of the 12man team and so you can then devote essentially a year and a half of your life to making the American Rder Cup team in your own form in your own sort of putting your stamp on it you know molding it to your own liking i understand that the PJ of America in this instance and picking Kika Bradley broke president you know at the time Keegan was a top 20 player in the world the previous year he had won a signature event on the PG Tour the previous year he was 11th in points before he was passed over by Captain Zack Johns for the team that eventually went to Rome and lost but this is still Rex like an extraordinary achievement for this player to even be in the conversation to now be either a playing captain or relinquish the captain or pick himself or if he could you know he could potentially depending on how he plays these final two months of the season with a major championship still to play with the Fed Cup playoffs still the tra still to play make it in the top six and automatically qualify for his own team like this is a guy who is supposed to be distracted and has his mind occupied by so many other things and yet inside the ropes he’s as good as he’s ever been he was 21st in the world entering the Travelers Championship he had a top 10 of the PGA Championship this was now his third top 10 finish in a signature event on the PGA Tour it is incredible that he has been able to compartmentalize these two roles in his life being a highly competitive player on the PGA Tour and also at least at this time entering the Travelers Championship thinking that he was going to be captaining this US Rder Cup team in a hugely consequential uh moment and year uh for the US Rout team and when you write the story of Keegan Bradley’s career when when everything is said and done and that that’s a really good point that when you become a Ryder Cup captain you’re not supposed to be competing anymore the job is supposed to be so consuming you’re supposed to have your days filled with the mundane things of picking out uniforms and thinking about lineups and
and he still does that’s that’s the amazing thing he’s still doing that while also being at such a high level but when you when we tell the story of his life after the fact imagine how many times how many chapters there’s been how many 1.0’s how many 2.0’s how many 3.0’s talking about a guy who won a PGA championship early in his career using an anchored putter and then everything changed when the USGA and the RNA decided nope we’re not going to allow those anymore and he essentially reinvented himself and kept his store card remained one of the world’s best players on the PGA Tour on a consistent basis for nearly two decades now and now he’s gotten to the point where he’s going to be a Ryder Cup captain a guy that just a few years ago should have been an obvious pick for US Rder Cup team and wasn’t so in my mind this is all part of the arc that is Keegan Bradley’s sort of career i don’t know where it lands on the on the playing captain thing and I think I’ve I’ve I’ve told this story before but when the European tour which runs the RDER Cup when they went back to Luke Donald to ask him to give it a second go after Rome this is just a few months after Rome it was actually early in the year last year they they went back they made their pitch Luke agreed that night just turns out Luke Donald was having a party at his house in South Florida keegan Bradley was there they he had agreed to take the the captain’s job again and there was an official who was having a conversation and Rory Maroy was also at this party and Rory made the comment something along the lines of he would like to captain when the Ryder Cup goes to a dare manner in Ireland two years from now and of course he would that that me to me sounds like the dream scenario can you imagine Rory on one sideline and Tiger on the other we can go through this all we want the official from the European tour however turned it on him and said “Do you remember how you felt on the Monday after the Rder Cup last year?” Rome and Rory was like “Yes I was exhausted.” He goes “All you had to do was play you didn’t have to do any of the other work that goes into making a Ryder Cup a Ryder Cup the biggest sporting event in golf one of the biggest sporting events in the year it really hit home and I think if you use sort of the litmus test or you use the example the comp of Tiger Woods captaining the President’s Cup team yes it can be done but we can all agree that’s a vastly different animal that things don’t move as fast you don’t have the same amount of pressures he had a lot of people around him including Fred Couppples and Steve Stricker and all of his friends who had been there before to sort of help him along so he could focus on playing because there’s going to be things that as a playing captain Keegan’s going to have to do while he’s actually playing i don’t know how you do that and keep in mind for the 2019 President’s Cup where Tiger was the playing captain the Americans were trailing into the final day like that could have been looking at a at a US loss had they not staged a pretty incredible rally you know sort of led by Woods himself on that file day at Royal Melbourne as it relates to playing captain I don’t think there would actually be a situation where he’d be a playing captain i think he would have to relinquish the captaincy that’s a different conversation though you know what I mean
right like but talking about
But I but I don’t think he would be a playing captain i don’t think that’s I don’t think that’s really on the table you look back at what happened last year at the President’s Cup at Royal Montreal keegan Bradley remember was an assistant captain for that team but once became clear once he won the BMW championship once he was an obvious pick for Jim Furick it became okay you focus on what you need to do inside the ropes leave all of the backroom stuff to me we can fill you in afterward you know putting him in a position where he’s half player half captain half leader half motivational speaker half logistical um sort of negotiator like in in Navigator that’s not going to work so I I see a situation where if Keegan Bradley puts himself in a position where again he’s either automatically qualifying or it becomes blatantly obvious to everyone that he would make this this US RDER Cup team much better on the surface if he is a player then I think he should relinquish the captaincy and put himself in a position where he’s guaranteed a spot down the road whether it’s in 2027 whether it’s in 2029 or beyond I don’t know but it’s clear that If the US needs him needs a player of his caliber he should be as a player and forget and leave sort of the captaincy to someone else bran Seder to me makes a lot of sense he’s already going to be captaining the President’s Cup team in 2026 he was filled in early as an assistant captain of vice captain for this US REDR Cup team he’s sort of familiarized himself with how the backroom staff and support needs to work and sort of been keeping up to speed with all the logistical headaches that go along with a home rider cup let him handle that if it becomes blatantly obvious that he needs to be on this team i don’t think a playing captain though would would ever work in this scenario uh this just in from Jason Gold thank you Goldie for this keegan Bradley just now on Golf Central said quote “I will play in the Ryder Cup i will play if I feel like it will help the team full stop.” He also added that he would not relinquish the captaincy in that scenario would just be more of on it would be just more on his assistance so I understand what you’re saying i tend to agree with what you’re saying that if he does decide to play whether if he qualifies for the team or if he makes himself a pick which is an entirely different conversation than I think where we started out last year when he took over the line last year when he took over was I wouldn’t make myself a pick if I qualify for the team then yes I’ll play but now it seems like he’s inching more and more towards that territory i tend to agree with what you what you just said i don’t think someone can do both in the modern era again Tiger Woods at the President’s Cup at Rural Melbourne was an entirely different animal this the RDER Cup is again one of the largest sporting events in the world not golf events one of the largest sporting events in the world and there is no way that he’ll be able to make those decisions that he needs to make
no i mean imagine Rex like the the the second guessing and the Monday morning quarterbacking if he was a playing captain you know if he was trying to do two jobs and not doing either of them particularly well you have to be fully invested in one role whether it’s as a captain or whether it’s as a player i don’t see him splitting time regardless of what he’s saying three months out i don’t see that happening as I think when you look at sort of the US RDER Cup team at this point i think a couple of months ago there was some hand ranking about like whoa I hope the Americans start to play better because right now you know the Europeans are on an epic run of form you know Roy won the uh Roy won the Masters ludvik looked dominant sep Straka has won a couple of events in 2025 the list goes on and on i think as we sit here now three months out like the team is shaping up pretty nicely like in my opinion there’s six players who are locked for this team sky Shoffler Xander Schoff
JJ Spawn Bryce Dambo Patrick Kentlay and Justin Thomas to me those are my six three other players I think should be locks for this team that’s Colin Morawa Russell Henley and Sam Burns two other players that I would pick either because of their course history either because of their matchplay experience I know you get their RDER Cup experience
or the current form i would put Jordan Speed and Harris English on that team again we’re doing this uh three months out right there is 11 players already spoken for and so I think you have a Keegan Bradley who’s sitting at top a tier of players who’s like a a Ben Griffith an Andrew Novak a Mad Mcde a Cam Young uh players of that ilk could you would you make a case for Keegan Bradley oh definitively yeah I would put Keegan Bradley on that team over those players but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk like is Keegan Bradley replaceable as a player probably i mean he’s he’s got a pretty epic run of form as it sits right now he just won a signature event at a golf course that might not bear much resemblance to Beth Paige Black but he just beat the top players on the PJ tour three months out i think that I certainly think that that means something but as a captain as a leader um his passion for the event I still think Rex as I sit here right now I think that I would want him as a captain and not as a player as strange as that sounds after he just won the Travelers Championship
uh I get what you’re saying i the the one line that I kind of made when it comes to and I only make this line because we know Luke Donald is a good captain he proved that in Rome i think he’s going to prove it again at Beth Page it’s going to be a tough job for whoever is captain of that US team clearly the PG of America saw something in Keegan Bradley they wanted to zigg when they had been zagging for a long time he was not on anyone’s short list when they named him captain i’m not even saying that’s a bad thing they saw something and it may play out but we don’t know he’s very much an unknown commodity you only get really one turn at this if you’re a Keegan Bradley and so you only have one opportunity i’m not quite sure he’s in a difficult position i I think we we said it was complicated i I I’ll even go so far as to call it difficult only because this is a dream gig for him i mean you and I both have interviewed him since he took over and this means the world to him we all know what the RDER Cup means to him the passion that he has for those matches now he’s in a position where he could possibly play again I keep falling back to you i just don’t see how he can do both he can maybe keep keep the job and name that you’re the captain but someone else is going to step in whether if that’s Snaker or one of the other vice captains but I don’t see him being able to logistically pull off both you’re having to make decisions in real time while in theory you would be on the golf course that that is impossible in my mind and I think there’s two potential X factors one when would Keegan Bradley then potentially relinquish the duties i certainly wouldn’t wait to the end of the FedEx Cup playoffs to see where he eventually shakes out like that determination the potential handing over the keys to someone else on his backroom staff to be the RDER Cup captain full stop I think would have to happen sooner rather than later to get them fully up to speed and secondly at the second X factor is what happens if the players on the team the US RDER Cup team whether it’s Scotty Sheffler whether it’s Xander Schoffé Justin Thomas etc what if they essentially tell him you have to be on this team that you you might not want to relinquish this this dream job right you may just feel like you’re one of 12 and that you you may be replaced by someone else a Ben Griffin type to to round out this 12man team but if Scotty Shuffler goes to him and says “We absolutely have to have you on this team.” How does that sort of change the calculus for Keegan and his backroom staff and the PJ of America so I think that’s an important thing as well they saw what Keegan Bradley brought to the team at the President’s Cup last fall at Royal Montreal it’s the first time he’d been in on a US team in a decade uh he he could be a a potentially huge influence in that team room not just as a player but as a as a leader as well so I think that’s certainly a conversation to be had it’s certainly an unprecedented situation and again I think Keegan deserves a lot of credit uh for even making this a conversation we sort of glossed over him even though Rex it was uh certainly a compelling back and forth Sunday at TBC River Highlands but Tommy Fleetwood this is a player who’s trying to win for the first time on the PJ tour in 159 events uh shoots a final round 72 an up and down day looked like he was going to kick it away early steady himself and then ended up with a two- shot swing on the last to lose by one to Keegan Bradley uh you certainly feel gutted for him but what did you take away from Tommy Fleetwood Sunday in particular
well again I’ll go back to I kept thinking to myself as he got further and further along on the on the back n I don’t know how he hasn’t done this because he looked like he was on autopilot looked like he was going to cruise to that victory and actually make it look easy now in retrospect and I think this goes back to sometimes I think we dismiss how difficult it is to win on the PGA Tour against the best players in the absolute world i think the PGA Tour had sort of dismissed that to a certain degree it’s why they had to rework the FedEx Cup points last year because they realized that we’re not giving enough to the people who are winning and finishing in at the top of the field as opposed to the people who are finishing in the back half of the field i’ll also say and this is this is an opportunity to get on the soap box we do know how Tommy Fleetwood feels right now we do know the emotions upset angry didn’t have my best stuff it hurts all of those are things words that he used when he spoke with the media on Sunday night at TPC River Highlands he sat he sat uh stopped and took I believe it was eight different questions yes let’s give him a round of applause because it’s become an issue and he made it clear that yes I probably want to go away right now and pout i I want to be a bit of a brat right now and this isn’t what I I’d like to do but I’m going to stand here and do it because that’s what professionals do we’re having this conversation a lot lately when it comes to the game stars but here’s a player in Tommy Fleetwood who I would argue is as devastated as anyone in that situation because you finally as you pointed out in 159 attempts had a chance of doing something that you haven’t been able to do and you booted away on the last hole so good for Tommy first and foremost two we do know how he’s feeling he was really honest he said “Look I I’m going to learn a lot from this i’m not going to focus on the negatives i’m not going to let this drag me down i’m not going to let this impact my next start which probably be the Scottish Open and then the Open Championship after that and I’m going to figure out the things I did well and I’m going to work harder on those things and then I’m going to figure out the things I did wrong and try to fix those and he did plenty wrong coming down the stretch i think he simplest terms I would say he just got tentative but we know that because he stopped and spoke with the media and now the fans know that as well uh yeah I mean obviously full credit to Tommy Fleetwood for Face the Music cam Young did a similar thing a couple of weeks ago uh after booting at the RBC Canadian Open with what he thought was a perfectly played 72nd hole so again uh when these guys do it we learn more we have a greater understanding we have greater context of what they’re going through as players and a greater context what their performance means in the grand picture credit to Tommy Fleetwood when I look at sort of the difficulty of winning on the PJ tour and the numbers as it relates to Tommy Fleetwood are pretty gaudy like he has more than $30 million in earnings on the PJ tour without a win uh six runner-up finishes which I believe is just one shy of Cam Young’s total of seven which is the most since the PJ tour began keeping statistics of that in 1983 42 top 10 finishes which is by far the most of any player without a win again since the PJ tour began keep statistics in 1983 the pressure to win on Sunday and I understand the conditions were difficult you had the West Crosswinds so a lot of you had a lot of crosswinds across TBC River Highlands that made it more difficult the scoring wasn’t quite as good on Sunday but Tommy Fleetwood had made just a single bogey through 54 holes of the Travelers Championship he made five on Sunday including two in the last three holes what do you think Rex was the most egregious mistake the one that would keep him up on Sunday night and have him sort of ruining and lamenting what could have been
uh I I applaud you you you actually physically applauded Tommy Fleetwood for actually speaking to the media and then our friends in the media didn’t ask the one question that I felt like needed to get asked because if I went to one thing over the course of that final round is what did he and his caddy Ian talk about in the middle of the 18th fairway why did he switch clubs what club did he go to why did he feel like I think on the broadcast they seem to think that he went down
from nine it was from nine to a pitching wedge
uh nine to yes okay so why did did he catch a a gust did he feel like that the nine was going to bring the back into play and with the how thick the rough was that was going to be a much harder up and down it was a very timid putt up the hill from just off the green short and he left himself way too much and I I would even say the par attempt was very timid there’s a bunch of things I think you can point to probably just being indecisive in these situations if if I had to think about exactly what he’s going to sort of ruminate on and the things that he wants to fix fix he was indecisive when he needed to step up and execute the shot i mean Tommy Fleetwood is one of the games flushers like if you stand and watch him on the range he he is appointment viewing like every single iron shot it seems square out of the middle of the club face and yet on 16 and on 18 Sunday at the Travelers Championship he twice missed the green from inside 155 yards you know for a player of his caliber even in pretty tricky uh windy conditions that that has to absolutely sting and absolutely has to have him second-guessing exactly what went wrong you you mentioned the number of close calls that Tommy Fleetwood has had over the years in the six runner-up finishes i’ve sort of been shocked by that he hasn’t really put himself in this position all that often you know we see what the stats are right we see the runner-up finishes we see the top fives we see the top 10s but you’re talking about genuine opportunities to win golf tournaments on the PGA Tour he really hasn’t had that many a couple years ago the Canadian Open obviously he lost in the playoff to Nick Taylor that’s sort of the one that immediately comes to mind but this was the first time at least in 2025 that he has had a realistic opportunity was realistically in contention led the golf tournament with one hole to play the PJ tour comms department in what sort of seemed like an ominous sign of the day right the the the players went off and threw some swimsuits off split teams because of morning storms in Cromwell Connecticut the PJ tour comm’s department sent out a stat sort of comparing how players uh in the final group had compared and contrasted with their experience in the final group with Keegan Bradley Russell Henley and Tommy Fleetwood the insinuation seemed to be the suggestion Rex seemed to be because you look at the stats Tommy Fleetwood was going to back up because that’s what history told us that Tommy Fleetwood was going to do again according to a tweet sent out by the PJ Comm’s department this was only the sixth time Tommy Fleetwood had been in the in the final group only one of those times had he shot a final round under par his scoring average was 71.4 that was about two and a half shots higher than Russell Henley and about a shot higher than Keegan Bradley so this wouldn’t have have quite been a a Rory you know relief catharsis release
on the 18th green but there was certainly some demons that Tommy Fleetwood was going to have to overcome and I think now that the scar tissue is has been compiled a little bit a little bit higher
no and it’s going to take a minute to rebound from this i mean he Tommy Fleetwood is one of the game’s most engaging players i wasn’t surprised that he stopped and talked with the media and everyone else that wanted to talk before he left TPC River Highlands and I think he said all the right things but that doesn’t make it any easier like especially if you’re a player of Tommy Fleetwood’s ilk and someone who has accomplished so much in his career and we always compare performances at the Ryder Cup we did this with Luger about the idea that oh he’s playing in the Ryder Cup before he actually played in a major championship we compare it to these pressure packed situations and we’ve seen Tommy time and time again execute at the RDER Cup when he’s playing for continent when he’s playing for the flag when he’s playing for his teammates and yet somehow when you put him in this situation it’s as simple as as him just not executing coming down the stretch there’s a lot of other words you can probably use to describe his performance but that’s the one that stood out to me
yeah i don’t think it’s necessarily like a a clutchness issue as you mentioned he’s won seven times on the European tour or he’s been a stalwart the European Rder Cup team the only thing I could think of is that he’s won just twice overall in the last six years and so he’s sort of remembering how to win and again he has not had a bevy of chances on the PJ tour and and failed to get it done you know he hasn’t sort of kicked away tournaments before in this manner i think he’s going to learn a lot from it like you you look at the amount of talent that he has and the shotmaking ability like he’s going to win on the PJ tour but Sunday’s like he had the Travelers Championship i certainly think just make it a little bit harder all right we’ll come back to the Travelers Championship at the end of the show but we’ll have Amy Rogers on the other side of this short break pga Frisco in searing hot temperatures made for some really grumpy players amy Rogers coming right up [Music] and we’re pleased to be joined now by Amy Rogers Golf Channel insider who was covering the KPMG Women’s PJ Championship all week for us amy first of all how would you describe the week at
It was hot
it was so hot it really uh felt like survival of the fittest one Caddyy was telling me that as they headed into the weekend it felt like they were just in survival mode you know they really thought uh even par might win this thing that’s just how uh tough it was out there not only heat indexes in the triple digits you had wind gusts of 30 40 miles an hour on the weekend and then combined with uh a tough test out there the first time these women competing uh at PGA Frisco just made for a a combination of of really tough elements uh it was tough for all of us being out there just braving the the heat all week so that’s the first thing that comes to mind the heat
and I want to get to Miy Lee’s victory it was pretty impressive as you pointed out it looked like that was a grind coming down the stretch but this is kind of the first time we’ve had an opportunity to actually see Frisco and it’s going to host major championships in the future this is going to PG of America’s crown jewel as a major championship venue what was your takeaway i have to say I w I was pretty surprised it it really was not what I expected for a major championship venue in years past the the KPMG Women’s PJ Championship had really prided itself on taking this championship to historic venues uh some of the most popular uh in the game of golf uh in order to elevate the women’s game to be able to showcase uh their talent and abilities on the biggest stages uh in the game and so uh to head to this venue where there really wasn’t uh any sort of history was just very much a a big question mark it definitely didn’t have that sort of beauty or or aura about it that we’ve seen uh at a lot of the venues where they hosted this this championship in years past and it very much felt like as the week was going on they were kind of feeling their way through the setup kind of figuring out uh what did and didn’t seem to be working um I didn’t see too many adjustments along the way but there were certainly um you know some concerns from players about the setup and I don’t know how much you know wind was a factor there but certainly having you know extensive weights uh you know three groups backed up on on holes throughout the course um was a problem when you know temperatures are are 100 degrees and obviously impacted the pace of play and uh so coming away from it yeah I’m a little surprised at the experience and what we saw with it as a a major championship venue for the women
amy just to follow up on that when when Rex and I are hearing sort of player complaints or criticism about the setup we always love that because we love these players who are the best in the world actually giving their thoughts on what sort of non-professionals are doing in terms of the setup did you feel like this was a a setup issue was this a golf course issue at PJ Frisco or was this players you know who are used to going low being tested in ways that they typically don’t throughout the season and thus were caught off caught off guard a little bit
no not not at all i I think they they relish these tough tests and you hear that a lot i mean you look at what they they have played in the past you know what they had even at Aaron Hills with with the US Open i think what we were hearing from some of the players and Bethan Nichols reported on this from uh Nelly Corda yesterday she talked about just Nelly saying their their ball flight is just different than it is for the men you know they can’t get the ball as high to land it as softly on some of these greens with some of these hole locations when you’re combining that with a 35 mph wind you know they’re trying to flight the ball down and so then they can’t hold some of these greens so I think some of those things weren’t necessarily uh taken into consideration uh I spoke with a volunteer on the range this morning he said this was uh not typical uh for this time of year in this area to have these high winds he said it’s usually pretty still he said it’s usually um you know these winds are typically more what they see in March so I don’t know if that was part of the disconnect where the the setup was more for a calmer uh you know sort of weather expected for the week but we saw this several days in a row that you think then maybe we would have seen a sort of you know some sort of adjustment so I definitely don’t think it’s any sort of griping on on the part of the players they relish a tough test and I think they just felt like good shots uh weren’t being rewarded
maybe we don’t play a major championship in Texas in June mid I’m just going to go on a limb and say it you talk about being tough you talk about wanting to play the best players in the world world wanting to play in tough conditions no one was tougher than Mi Lee what impressed you the most about her this week yeah just so steady just so unflapable as we’ve come to know from Miy Lee and it had been about two years since we had seen her uh in the winner circle she came pretty close uh last year at Lancaster Country Club but um it was really interesting i spoke with Mi’s mom uh on the 18th green uh just after her win today and she said that that was a really tough one uh for Mi and she used the word collapse in describing what her daughter had done at that US Women’s Open so to be able to come back out here uh and to get this win she said was particularly important uh for Miy what’s really interesting too is Mi actually lives in the area but she instead chose to stay at a hotel this week and her mom is staying in Mi’s house so her mom was telling me that each day she was getting up at 3:00 a.m cooking Mi all her food and meals and then she was shuttling them over to her uh so that she would have them for the week and so her mom telling me “I basically didn’t sleep uh all week as she was helping her daughter out.” But she said it was so nerve-wracking just watching her today as you know Mji got off to a difficult start to her round today made quite a few bogeies early and and her mom told me “I thought that this was going to be what we saw at Lancaster again.” And so she was so relieved to see that her daughter was able to to pull out the win this time
amy that’s now three different major championships for Mi Lee why doesn’t she seem to warrant the same sort of attention as a Nelly Corda or a Lydia Co or a Gino Title when players are talking about the strength and the superstars of the LPGA despite her credentials certainly warranting that well I think it’s just now with her getting this third major beth Anne Nichols and I were standing behind the green at 18 and kind of looked at each other we’re like well this is a third different major now and I think when you get that third one you sort of move into this different class we saw that with Lydia Co when she won the AIG Women’s Open last year and she suddenly was like “Wow the gr grand slams kind of like in reach this is a possibility for me now.” You know and so I think it kind of moves these players into a different class where we’ve seen a lot of players with one major or two majors but suddenly when they get into this three they’re kind of in a different sort of echelon and so I think that’s kind of what we’re seeing from Miley Lee and and she’s not a huge personality she’s kind of quiet kind of reserved just uh really one of those players that lets their clubs do the talking so that’s probably why you haven’t heard as much about her or from her uh but certainly now with three different major titles uh I think we’re going to hear her in the conversation a lot more going forward
i apologize for this in advance Amy i’m going to drag you down to what Lav and I do best which is stupid sports radio kind of conversation sometimes and as you pointed out three separate three different major championships now if she were to win next month at the Women’s Open which I believe is in Wales would that be the Grand Slam or is she still a Chevron shy
it depends on who you ask asking you we’re asking you you’re the You’re the only guess that matters
so there’s a few different criteria here so if you’re looking at this in terms of what the LPGA considers the career grand slam they’re saying even though there’s five if you’ve won four different majors of the ones provided to you that you have uh achieve the career grand slam now if you ask someone like a Lydia Co she doesn’t agree with that her personally she feels like you have to win all five to be considered um you know to have achieved the career grand slam there’s only one player that’s won uh you know five different and that that’s Ki web and so that’s some pretty uh elite company there but um you know it depends on who you ask you know what’s your criteria you know do you feel like you should win all five or do you keep it at four to keep it more in line with what the men consider a career grand slam so uh what do you guys think um I don’t think you should be able to manufacture a major championship and thus sort of move the goalpost as terms of of what’s a grand slam champ but that’s just me Rex
uh I love the fact that Lydia Co has her own personal record book like I do appreciate that i I can I can say that uh and I’m I think I’m with Lav on this one where if you can if you’re going to continue to tinker with this formula then you probably have to draw a line somewhere because if I’m Men and I do win next month at the Open Championship I’m going to feel like I won the career grand slam i think you should have to win them all you know if there’s five out there I feel like you should have to win all five to be considered you know if that’s how they’re going to have it on the LPGA and they’re going to have five majors then I think you know you should have to win all five so
if next month
but if but if the PGA tour all of a sudden you know mandates or the the organizing body somehow mandates or the media mandates that all of a sudden the players championship is the fifth major and you’re sort of moving the goalposts in that respect and now nope Scotty you know I know you’ve won the players championship but now you’ve got to win all five in order to consider joining Roy Mroy as a career grand slam doesn’t make any sense to me but I digress amy we’ll we’ll let you get out of here on this question besides Miy Lee’s pursuit of the Grand Slam the super grand slam whatever you want to whatever you want to term it what sort of storylines still stand out to you now with three major championships in the books and two more to come well Nelly Corda right we’re still waiting to see if Nelly Corda can get that first win of a season it’s it’s crazy to think that after the incredible run she got off to to start uh her season last year but here we are still waiting for her to get that that first victory so that’s something I’ll definitely be following as we move uh into this latter half of the season and then uh back to the Grand Slam talk uh of course Lydia Co you know she has said that that’s kind of become a goal of hers now at this stage in her career is she’s already made it into the LPGA Hall of Fame that you know if she can pick up you know other uh you know legs of the slam as well that’s that’s something that I’ll be definitely following in the years to come see if she can get that done also so I think Nelly Nelly is still uh the big one as we move into this latter half of the season though
well Amy great reporting all week at PJF Frisco much more on NBCS.com/golf look forward to talking to you down the road thanks guys [Music] all right Rex the Travelers Championship was the eighth and final signature event of the PGA Tour season as you look at the entirety of that series for 2025 what stands out to you uh Hideki Rory Russell Henley Justin Thomas Straa Scotty Sheffler Keegan Bradley those are the winners of the signature events this year and if you look at it from 30,000 ft the PGA Tour accomplished what they set out to accomplish they wanted the best players together more often playing for big purses and big points at classic venues whatever that your definition is of that so it is a success on that level where you’re going to point to this list of winners that I just read off and say “Yes that that’s what we’re looking for here.” that it delivers the product that you want delivers more often than not where I seem to run into issues though is well twofold really one and we’ve addressed this before the idea that 72 players just seems like such a random number when it comes to a field size there’s no reason you couldn’t expand that to 80 or 90 or 100 players entirely different conversation where I run into issues with it is the sustainability of these events with huge purses and you have sponsors that seem to be happy right now with the product that they’re getting my concern is when you talk to people on tour how long is that that satisfaction going to maintain that you have travelers you have Sentry you have some of the biggest sponsors that have been loyal to the PGA Tour for a long time who’ve been asked to essentially pony up twice as much as they did before for these purses and right now they’re fine with that but I’m curious going forward if that’s going to be what they if they’re going to continue to be happy with that
yeah I think that’s certainly a realistic concern i understand the origin of the signature event series and why the PGA Tour is doing it they’re trying to highlight regular season events that really matter for the fans they’re essentially underlining and boldfacing those tournaments and saying “Look guys this is going to be the biggest purse and the best field on what is probably going to be some of the best courses that we have to offer.” I would I would probably make the point that TBC River Highlands is not one of the best courses that the PJ Tour has to offer however it is an incredibly well-run event that is incredibly well attended as you saw Sunday at the Travelers Championship like that was an absolute vibe it was electric but when you are essentially Rex telling fans and telegraphing to fans that these are the only events that really matter on the PJ tour schedule you only have to do that when the schedule is bloated when you have events that are quote unquote lesser events when they’re leading up to then the signature event series a better business model in my opinion for the PJ tour would be to have 15 or 20 signature events you know weed out some of these sea-level events that way you don’t have to necessarily call out that there is a A class of tournaments and a B class of tournaments make everything better by trimming back some of the schedule and not having the sort of two different tours that currently exists on the PJ tour on Wednesday’s podcast we sort of recaped the naming of the new CEO or the first CEO of the PGA Tour Brian Rolap last week at the Travelers Championship i had an opportunity to sit down and do an interview with him and beyond impressive like I think all of the things we’d heard about him we’d all have gone on Wikipedia and looked up exactly what his resume was and he delivered he won the press conferences he won the player meeting everything that is that being said he still faces plenty of challenges and one of them to your point is exactly what we just pointed out the idea that you you have now come up with a class system for the different tournaments and that usually works well for the tournaments that are in the upper class the ones that are in the lower class they’re the ones that are going to suffer and I think we’ve kind of seen that with fields that don’t necessarily live up to expectations now there are outliers the idea that Jordan Speeds and Scotty Sheffller and the rest of the guys from Dallas are going to play the Byron Nelson and Colonial that goes without saying but by and large the non-signature events they’re they’re the ones who have suffered in this category and I would also point out and I think it was you who made the point that with the NFL and Brian Brolock was essentially the number two person at the NFL before taking over that CEO job at the NFL you had a big game every week it didn’t matter who it was against you had a marquee matchup every single week of the season and they continue to want to expand the season you don’t have that under this scenario so I’ve been reluctant to get on board with you when it comes to the idea that less is more with golf now I’m still not I’m still not there with you but I see where the conversation is certainly going right now my argument has always been name me a corporation that turns away business that’s essentially what you’re asking the PGA Tour to do and by and large corporations don’t do that you have sponsors right now who are more than willing to pony up whatever that money is for the purse to be a non-signature event and right now they’re happy with it is that sustainable that’s kind of part of what I was sort of trying to get at with the idea that the model right now is a little squeaky because you have two sides of this coin one the sponsors who are having to pay more and as long as they continue to think their product is worth more then you’re fine and then on the other side you have the ones who continue to play less but may not like their product either so it’s going to be a catch 22 that we may end up with a situation that you’ve argued for for all of these years where you you we just have a n natural condensing of the schedule
yeah i think we’re all sort of encouraged we’re all sort of hopeful to see what Brian Rolaps seemingly an outsider in the world of sports coming in and how he could potentially leave his mark on the PGA tour the the point that you sort of mentioned there is that the NFL doesn’t really have an off week like no one shrugs and it’s like nah it’s week seven you know who really cares no like week seven in the NFL has an entire week’s worth of studio shows that are pumping oxygen into those games the storylines are evident the ratings is there the interest is there the gambling is there the fantasy football is there like there is so much that is invested in every single week of the NFL schedule i think it remains to be seen sort of what sort of skills what sort of attributes what sort of characteristics are transferable from the NFL to the PGA Tour but I do think there is power in having scarcity of the schedule if you are a diehard NFL fan you are savoring each and every one of those 17 weeks that your team is going to be playing because otherwise you’re sitting here on June 23rd and it’s really sad and it’s really lonely and you just can’t wait for training camp and two a days and scrimmages and the preseason and eventually end week one of the NFL season to get there can you create a similar dynamic for the PJ tour where there isn’t a quote unquote off week where you’re sort of catching your breath and where the field isn’t as strong can you make every week on the PJ tour schedule appointment viewing to me that can only happen by condensing the schedule and as it relates to this larger discussion of signature events make every event on the PJ tour a signature type event make it a 100 man fields put it at the very best golf courses give it a sizable purse with the best fields and I think you’ll have the most interest from not just the PJ tour players who want to be invested in that but PJ Tour fans who want to see a condensed stronger schedule overall than what we currently have well and in that scenario you’re going to end up with a schedule that has 15 events on it because the the the best players just aren’t going to play that much we’ve seen it they we’re at the end of the season now and we had just a rash of WDs and it has everything to do with guys are just tired and they’re injur and they’re they’re injured whatever the case may be towards the end of the season but to your point you’re right you never skip a Sunday not not in the fall not during football season whe even if you’re a fan of a bad team like you are in Jacksonville you’re never going to skip that Sunday i literally just had to swap out my Jag shirt for this Adidas shirt that you clearly uh do not like uh speaking of that rash of WDs it is worth pointing out Rex that both Jordan Spath and Victor Havlin among about five or six players had to withdraw during the Travelers Championship with injuries for Spath it was like a upper back neck issue victor Havlin had a neck issue as well do you think that this is cause for concern or do you think it’s just hopefully uh sort of a a rest recovery and uh sort of precautionary issue for both Jordan Speed and Victor Havlin
we have a social media post from Jordan Speed on the screen right now during warm-up my right scalp tightened and despite trying to push through pain spread to my neck and upper back it’s not great if he would have said he WDD because of his wrist which has been an ongoing issue then yes alarm bells would have gone off probably all over PGA Tour headquarters because that’s not what you want to see from the Golden One however in this particular case this goes to what I just said it has been a really long season and you’ve got a lot of big events coming up between the Open Championship the Scottish and when by the time you get back you’re heading straight to the playoffs i think this is probably more cautious than anything else just making sure that I I don’t need to complicate things right now i could probably take a Sunday off uh my guess is he’s got the next two weeks off before he heads to the Scottish make sure you’re fully healthy for the final run
yeah Jordan Speed in particular is expecting the couple’s third child in the next couple weeks so that’ll be an opportunity uh for him to have a little bit extra time off as well like Jordan Sp was playing 10 of 12 weeks he felt really good in his practice rounds his body felt great the proam went well uh he was really encouraged and then just sort of had a a fluke issue uh getting ready for the tournament on the range did not sound overly serious again both of these players Jordan Smith and Victor Havlin spoke with reporters and gave them an update on what’s going on but like this is a situation where this is the this is the heart of the schedule and these guys are dog tired guy Shuffler talked about the need for a couple of days off as well he was playing five of six weeks uh at this point in the schedule and to the previous point about the signature events and are they working are they not working when you look at the schedule Rex from the Masters through this point you have between the majors and the signature events that’s seven of 12 weeks those are tournaments these guys want to play they need to play as it certainly as it pertains to the points you’re probably playing a couple other tournaments whether it’s Rory at Canada whether it’s Scotty at the Nelson like this is a jam-packed part of the schedule i don’t think the spacing is quite right and hopefully we don’t see a spate of injuries sort of derail the end of this PJ tour season another player who was in the mix at least for the most part at the Travelers Championship Rex was Windam Clark and on Thursday after report came out from the US Open where he trashed his locker he kind of sort of not really apologized for destroying that take a listen here
listen some photographs that came out of Oakmont um that made it their way on through social media is there anything you’d like to comment on or make any statements on with regard to to some of that stuff in the locker room
yeah I mean you know I’ve I’ve had a lot of highs and lows in my career especially this year some lows and you know I made a mistake that I deeply regret and I’m very sorry for what happened um but I’d also like to move on not only for myself but for Oakmont for the USGA and kind of focus on the rest of this year and things that come up i still want to try to make the RDER Cup team i still I’m on the outside looking in for the FedEx Cup and I um you know so I’m I’m starting to move on and focus on those things
rex what’s your read on that
uh I understand that that golf course aggravated a lot of players i understand that you get frustrated in the heat of the moment we had really good fun a few weeks ago when I snapped the the shaft on my driver and I didn’t even mean to do it so I I I’m not going to sit here and try to stand on a soap box and pretend like I’m going to clutch pearls because he he took out a locker it’s a shame because you and I both were in that locker room last week and it’s awesome it’s like a museum inside Oakmont it’s a really really cool place i’m sure he’s going to pay for I believe it was two lockers that he ended up putting a a foot through or something along those lines to your point very non-apology yes of course you want to move on i understand i’ I’d rather not address this right now of course you wouldn’t because this is uncomfortable for you you really don’t get that call but he’s not the first person i mean you and I didn’t even play that golf course last week and you and I both wanted to kick things by the time we got out of there on Monday afternoon trying to get to the airport so I understand where the frustration was coming from but it’s not going away anytime soon
i mean I literally declined an invitation a media day invite to play Oakmont because with my driver yips I had absolutely no business uh playing on that golf
doug Ferguson got developed the shanks on Monday doug Ferguson the AP golf writer said he developed Shanked and is going to quit the game really tough scene can’t necessarily blame him nor do I necessarily blame Windham Clark and I like I I understand the want and the desire to move on in this instance but what about the Oakbop members i would assume that they are still furious about what happened what about the USJ and sort of the stain on them with Windham Clark a past champion desecrating private property while competing in their tournament to me I just don’t understand where the contrition is like it’s it’s a it’s a baffling PR strategy to not fully own this and just stop at the apology as opposed to then spinning this in to a FedEx cup in a Ryder Cup conversation if you’re
stop breaking things please just stop breaking things everybody stop wind stop breaking remember Remember the shirt that Rory ripped i mean at least at least that’s his own property as opposed to
believe Roy broke a team marker last week at the USO
oh yeah yeah I mean tensions tensions run high i think as it relates to the Windham Clark in particular this sort of follows a pattern of poor behavior remember the PJ championship also chucked his driver ended up destroying a sign uh behind the tea so hopefully he’s getting the help he needs hopefully he can better compartmentalize and uh showcase some better encourse comportment as it relates to Windham Clark all right that is going to do it for this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Live you guys know the drill nbcupports.com/golf for all lace news notes and updates rex and I will be back on Wednesday for a preview edition of the Rocket Classic no it’s not the Rocket Mortgage Classic it is the Rocket Classic i’ll also be on Golf Today uh all week long rex you’ll be contributing on Golf Central thanks for listening thanks for the support we’ll talk to you guys in a couple of days [Music]

In this week’s edition, Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner discuss Keegan Bradley’s potentially game-changing win at the Travelers Championship, his Ryder Cup plans, Tommy Fleetwood’s latest dose of heartbreak, a controversy-filled week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the end of the signature events in 2025 on the PGA Tour. #Golf #GolfChannel #GolfChannelPodcast

Chapters:
0:00: How Keegan Bradley authored one of the best finishes of the year at the Travelers Championship
04:00: Why Bradley’s Ryder Cup captaincy just got even more complicated
12:00: How the American Ryder Cup team looks right now
17:30: What went wrong for Tommy Fleetwood on Sunday at TPC River Highlands
27:00: Amy Rogers joins the guys from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
38:00: Were the 2025 PGA Tour signature events a success?
46:00: Both Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland exit Travelers with injuries
48:00: Wyndham Clark’s non-apology apology after Oakmont incident
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Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley just won Travelers Championship. Now what? | Golf Channel Podcast
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