Golf:Keegan Bradley produced a remarkable closing six under 64 to sneak past long-time leader Jim Furyk and win the WGC Bridgestone Invitational over the Firestone course at Akron, Ohio.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy shot a two under, 68 to finish in a tie for fifth place while compatriot’s Graeme McDowell (72) and Michael Hoey (72) both suffered disappointing final rounds.
The 42 year old Furyk has never won a World Golf Championship tournament but that looked about to change when he led by one shot playing the 18thth. However a double bogey moments after Bradley had made a 15-foot par putt saw him lose out by one shot.
Instead of making a huge leap towards an eighth Ryder Cup cap, Furyk moved only from 15th to 11th in the standings a week before the top eight earn automatic places in Davis Love’s side. Bradley, on the other hand, is up from ninth to fourth as he heads into his defence of the USPGA Championship, the final major of the season, at Kiawah Island.
“I still can’t believe it,” said the 26-year-old, looking almost as stunned as when he won the first major he had ever played in last August from five behind with three holes to play. This time he was six strokes adrift with 13 holes remaining, but he closed the gap to one and then saw Furyk flop a chip over a bunker into more rough, hit his next shot to five feet and miss it.
“There’s no way I should have made worse than five,” Furyk admitted: “I’ve no-one to blame but myself and when things go wrong it’s an empty pit. I’m disappointed. I saw my boys crying after the round and I guess it reminds you as an adult and a parent that you have to act in the proper way and do and say the right things.
“At worst I should be in a play-off. If I put the third shot on the green I put a lot of pressure on him to make that putt. For my fifth shot I hit the worst putt of the week.”
The good news for Furyk, of course, is that even if he does not make it into the Ryder Cup top eight next Sunday night he is favourite now to be one of Love’s four wild cards - especially after winning all his five games in the Presidents Cup last season.
Despite having won the USPGA title Bradley was not chosen for that, Fred Couples instead picking Tiger Woods and FedEx Cup play-off winner Bill Haas. The player pushed out of an automatic qualifying spot by Bradley’s victory was Hunter Mahan, whose loss to Graeme McDowell gave Europe the win at Celtic Manor two years ago.
Mahan is another near-certain wild card if he needs it, however, and as things stand Steve Stricker and Dustin Johnson would probably complete a powerful looking line-up. Stricker matched Bradley’s closing 64 to be joint runner-up with Furyk in Akron, leaving McIlroy and Justin Rose joint top Europeans in a share of fifth.
Tiger Woods tied for eighth with, among others, world number one Luke Donald and fellow Englishman Lee Slattery.
Details
267 Keegan Bradley (USA) 67 69 67 64
268 Steve Stricker (USA) 68 68 68 64, Jim Furyk (USA) 63 66 70 69
269 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 65 68 69
272 Rory McIlroy (NIrl)70 67 67 68, Justin Rose (Eng) 70 69 66 67
274 Jason Dufner (USA) 67 66 73 68
276 Tiger Woods (USA) 70 72 68 66, David Toms (USA) 68 67 73 68, Matt Kuchar (USA) 70 70 70 66, Lee Slattery (Eng) 65 71 72 68, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 73 66 71 66, K J Choi (Kor) 71 72 67 66, Bo Van Pelt (USA) 70 69 66 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 66 69 71 70
277 Kyle Stanley (USA) 69 73 68 67, John Senden (Aus) 66 70 69 72, Simon Dyson (Eng) 66 71 70 70
278 Dustin Johnson (USA) 69 68 73 68, Nick Watney (USA) 69 70 72 67, Bill Haas (USA) 67 71 70 70, Scott Piercy (USA) 69 70 70 69, Bubba Watson (USA) 66 73 72 67
279 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 75 72 63, Graeme McDowell (NIrl)70 67 70 72, K.t. Kim (Kor) 67 67 74 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 67 70 72 70
280 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 67 70 71 72
281 Jason Day (Aus) 75 70 70 66, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 67 72 73 69, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 72 71 71, Martin Laird (Sco) 68 72 68 73, Ian Poulter (Eng) 74 69 69 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 72 72 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 66 65 77 73
282 Jamie Donaldson (Wal) 68 73 75 66, Branden Grace (Rsa) 72 70 66 74, Johnson Wagner (USA) 71 74 68 69, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 69 71 74 68
283 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 74 70 69 70, Zach Johnson (USA) 68 73 68 74, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 70 74 68
284 Phil Mickelson (USA) 71 69 73 71, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 71 72 71
285 Adam Scott (Aus) 71 70 71 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 73 68 71, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 72 70 73, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 68 74 70, Mark Wilson (USA) 72 71 73 69
286 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 71 72 70 73, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 73 73 69, Paul Lawrie (Sco) 72 68 74 72, Danny Willett (Eng) 72 74 73 67, Brandt Snedeker (USA) 71 70 70 75
287 Hunter Mahan (USA) 73 73 69 72, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 71 75 71 70, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 70 71 74 72, Jonathan Byrd (USA) 73 73 69 72, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 71 73 70 73
288 Yoshinori Fujimoto (Jpn) 73 74 71 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 76 71 70 71, Rickie Fowler (USA) 70 80 69 69
289 Kevin Na (USA) 72 76 72 69, Peter Hanson (Swe) 73 71 71 74, Joost Luiten (Ned) 72 71 77 69
290 Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 72 66 76 76
291 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 74 71 73, Toshinori Muto (Jpn) 73 71 73 74
292 Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 79 72 68
294 Lee Westwood (Eng) 68 72 81 73
295 Robert Rock (Eng) 76 72 74 73, Michael Hoey (NIrl)78 75 70 72
299 Ted Potter, Jr. (USA) 72 72 75 80
301 Tom Lewis (Eng) 78 76 74 73
302 Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 77 72 76 77
