With his victory Sunday at the Travelers Championship, Keegan Bradley took a massive step toward being the first playing captain at the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
Bradley birdied the last hole at TPC River Highlands to edge Tommy Fleetwood, who bogeyed two of his last three holes, and win the Travelers for the second time in three years. Bradley’s win also came on the year anniversary of him getting the call from the PGA of America asking if he’d captain this year’s American team at Bethpage.
Long adamant that he would not pick himself as one of 12 competitors, Bradley is now up to seventh in the world rankings and ninth in U.S. Ryder Cup points, which has forced him to change his tune.
“I will play if I feel like it will help the team,” Bradley said Sunday evening.
Bradley hasn’t played a Ryder Cup since 2014, when he made his second straight appearance.
Fleetwood’s sixth career runner-up on the PGA Tour moved him five spots to second in European Ryder Cup points, only behind Rory McIlroy.
Russell Henley, who shared second at Travelers with Fleetwood, also made a big jump, moving inside the top six to fourth. The top six in points after the BMW Championship will automatically qualify while six captain’s picks will be made after the Tour Championship. The top six Europeans will be finalized Aug. 25 with six picks coming Sept. 1.
Here are updated looks at both points standings (q-clinched berth):
U.S.
1. q-Scottie Scheffler, 27,536.93
2. Xander Schauffele, 12,472.70
3. J.J. Spaun, 12,271.85
4. Russell Henley, 11,166.85
5. Bryson DeChambeau, 10,318.00
6. Justin Thomas, 9,997.69
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7. Collin Morikawa, 9,482.01
8. Ben Griffin, 8,432.91
9. Keegan Bradley, 7,845.22
10. Harris English, 7,666.53
11. Maverick McNealy, 7,126.46
12. Brian Harman, 6,521.26
13. Andrew Novak, 6,346.28
14. Patrick Cantlay, 6,010.83
15. Sam Burns, 5,508.75
16. Tom Hoge, 4,392.10
17. Cameron Young, 4,386.55
18. Daniel Berger, 4,308.82
19. Tony Finau, 4,160.51
20. Lucas Glover, 4,155.63
21. Denny McCarthy, 3,815.97
22. Wyndham Clark, 3,698.49
23. Akshay Bhatia, 3,502.92
24. Michael Kim, 3,462.99
25. Jordan Spieth, 3,447.75
Europe
1. q-Rory McIlroy, 3,138.45
2. Tommy Fleetwood, 1,237.43
3. Tyrrell Hatton, 1,216.55
4. Robert MacIntyre, 1,212.11
5. Shane Lowry, 1,202.11
6. Sepp Straka, 1,146.33
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7. Rasmus Hojgaard, 1,072.33
8. Ludvig Aberg, 909.53
9. Justin Rose, 886.84
10. Viktor Hovland, 882.31
11. Thomas Detry, 750.59
12. Matt Wallace, 707.57
13. Niklas Norgaard, 634.43
14. Aaron Rai, 586.46
15. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, 576.34
16. Thorbjorn Olesen, 564.55
17. Jon Rahm, 544.89
18. Laurie Canter, 539.62
19. Jordan Smith, 526.78
20. Jorge Campillo, 506.43
21. John Parry, 500.37
22. Antoine Rozner, 482.48
23. Paul Waring, 475.13
24. Harry Hall, 436.56
25. Julien Guerrier, 431.65
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