Bradley owns Castle Pines for a day

Writing from Castle Rock, Colorado

Thursday, August 22, 2024

The day began with a Jack Nicklaus sighting and a flyover of four F-16s. It ended, after a 3 hour 10 minute lightning delay, with Keegan Bradley atop the leader board.

In between, plenty happened in the opening round of the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club, that veritable cathedral of golf high above the madding crowd – some of whom were in attendance, judging by their flip-flops – some 20 miles south of Denver.

Nicklaus was on hand because he built the golf course, and thus was introduced at the opening ceremony which concluded with the flyover from the Colorado Air National Guard. Most every living winner of The International, the modified-Stableford tournament that took root here, was also introduced, proving Castle Pines knows how to do things up.

Bradley had just arrived at the practice range, which is adjacent to the first tee, when the F-16s roared over the landscape at 8:30 a.m. (It would not have been a good day for residents of Castle Pines to sleep in.) Immediately upon teeing off, Bradley made noise of his own, with birdies on the first two holes, the first a kick-in bird and the second from just under seven feet.

The BMW winner at Aronimink in 2018, Bradley kept it up all the way around, up and down Castle Pines, right down to his 10-foot birdie at the last, the final stitch in a bogey-free 6-under 66 for the first round lead.

That effort came four days after he’d sweated out the final hour of the first playoff tournament in Memphis, where he’d come into the day ranked 39th in the standings and ended up 50th – the last spot to qualify for the BMW, and lock in a spot at all of next year’s top-tier tournaments – thanks to Tom Kim’s devilishly untidy 6-6-6 finish.

“The top 50 is one of our most important numbers for us as players to be playing in these big tournaments and FedExCup points,” Bradley said. “I want to be out there with the guys and the Ryder Cup team (which he captains next year). I want to be playing with them, on the range with them, in the locker room, in the tournament. It was really important for me to be in this top 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.”

The calm, and diligent work beginning Monday on figuring out stock yardages at 6,311 feet, created a storm of birdies.

“It's worked out,” Bradley said. “It’s definitely a little bit more stressful because there's a lot more going on, numbers, but we did a good job of it today.”

Bradley leads Hideki Matsuyama by a stroke, thanks to Matsuyama missing a two-foot birdie putt at the last after play resumed at 6:43 p.m. Mountain Time.

It’s not just Matsuyama who is chasing. A who’s who of PGA Tour golf is in pursuit. Adam Scott, who played The International in 2000 in his first Tour start, Sungjae Im, Alex Noren and Corey Conners are joint third at 4-under 68. That didn’t satisfy Im, who on back on the range after his round. But Scott was reasonably satisfied.

“Fell in a good rhythm quickly,” Scott said. “Didn't make any putts on the front but then got a few to go off some good shots on the back, and got the momentum going in the right direction. You're going to make a mistake or two (with distance) or just hit a good one and it just doesn't quite go the number you were hoping. But overall if you keep making good swings, I think we've got it figured out well enough, and if I can keep trusting it, give myself enough chances to be around at the end of Sunday.”

Another bevy of stars are three strokes back at 3-under 69, including Xander Schauffele, who had one miscue with the altitude-to-club distance conversion along the way.

“I messed up today on 10, which was my fault. I think we had 110 or 112 (yards to the) pin and I ended up hitting a full 60 (degree wedge), and I remember him saying something like close to 100 yards or 95 yards, and I hit it like 108 yards, and I was like, man, why did that go so far, and I was walking up, and I literally got lost in the sauce of one of those 10 numbers that I just listed.”

Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 with whom Schauffele was paired, sits in a tie for 15th place after a ho-hum 1-under 71. With seven wins on his resume this season, the BMW would be yet another gaudy bauble in a career year. He was runner-up to Viktor Hovland at Olympia Fields last year. His scare on Thursday was a surprise twinge in his back, notably on the 17th tee.

“Really I woke up just a little sore this morning,” Scheffler said. “I had trouble kind of loosening it up. With it being a little bit tight it was hard for me to get through it and I was laboring most of the day to get through the ball. 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. Really just felt it a little bit. But other than that, all good.”

It didn’t hurt Scheffler too badly. He parred the 17th, but made three birdies along the way to go with a pair of bogeys and is tied with, among others, Hovland.

If form holds, the field, which averaged 71.960 strokes, just a bit under par, on Thursday, will have figured things out more perfectly by tomorrow and many more players will go low.

Around Castle Pines

Rory McIlroy might have copped shot of the day honors with a wedge to the 17th green while standing on rocks adjacent to a pond. It wasn’t near the pin, but it stayed on the back edge of the green to the delight of the big gallery. He settled for par, and after some back-and-forth, is 2-under courtesy of his 21-foot eagle putt on the par-5 14th. … The long lightning delay was nothing new at Castle Pines. They were a nearly-annual occurrence in the days of The International. The usually dry air is replaced most each afternoon by more humid air flowing over the Front Range, clouds form, and more often than not electricity is produced. And while the PGA Tour usually doesn’t call a halt to play until a bolt is detected within about 10 miles of the course, here on the top of a mountain, you can see lighting 40 or 50 miles away. … Jack Nicklaus, the course designer, and the winners of The International were honored at a Wednesday night dinner that also included the induction of the brothers Solich, George and Duffy, into the Caddie Hall of Fame. Both were Evans Scholars and both hit it big in the oil business, just like Castle Pines and International founder Jack Vickers. … Nicklaus won the Western Open, of which this is the 121st edition, in 1967 at Beverly and in 1968 at Olympia Fields.

– Tim Cronin