Rickie Fowler, Patton Kizzire commit to Mayakoba Golf Classic

WILMINGTON, Del. — Keegan Bradley hasn’t been to the FedExCup finale in four years, and he started the BMW Championship on Thursday like he was in a hurry to get back. RELATED: Leaderboard | FedExCup update: Scott on track to burst bubble again Bradley matched a career low with a 29 on the front nine at Wilmington Country Club and finished with a 7-under 64 to take a one-shot lead over Adam Scott. Bradley is at No. 44 in the FedExCup and likely needs a top 10 — he hasn’t had one since the U.S. Open — to be among the 30 players who advance to the TOUR Championship in Atlanta to chase the $18 million prize. He isn’t willing to consider the scenarios until it matters, which is Sunday. Until then, it’s all about trying to win a tournament, just like any week. “My plan is I’m going to go home and see my kids no matter what on Sunday night,” Bradley said. “I’d love to go to Atlanta. That’s everyone’s goal to start the year.” Scott started the postseason at No. 77 and tied for fifth in the playoff opener last week just to make it to the second stage. Now he’s at No. 45, giving him a chance. It also meant being paired with Bradley, and they put on quite a show. They combined for 15 birdies. “He played beautifully today, and I was really just trying to follow his lead,” Scott said. “He kind of had everything going the way he wanted, and most of the time he was teeing off first and I was just trying to follow.” PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas put a different putter in the bag and responded with a 66 to leave him in the group with former Open champion Shane Lowry and Harold Varner III. Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa led the group at 67. Rory McIlroy was the only player from the afternoon who looked to challenge Bradley, and he was doing just that at 6 under with four holes to play. But then he was between clubs on the par-3 15th, tried to hit a soft cut with a 5-iron and put his tee shot into he water. He took three putts from just short of the green, missing a 3-footer, and made triple bogey. McIlroy was in the group at 68 that included Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay, who won the BMW Championship last year an hour down the road at Caves Valley on his way to capturing the FedExCup. McIlroy was able to accept one bad swing that cost him three shots, especially having missed the cut last week in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. “Overall the rest of it was pretty good,” he said. “I knew once I got here last weekend, I knew it was a golf course that was going to suit me better than last week. … Pleased with my game. Disappointed with how I finished, but encouraged with the rest of it.” The course is new to everyone — Delaware has never hosted a PGA TOUR event — though Bradley has reason to feel right at home. He won the BMW Championship in 2018 some 20 miles away at Aronimink when he was No. 52 in the FedExCup, sending him to Atlanta. The courses are nothing alike. If anything, Wilmington reminds several players of a “big brother” to Caves Valley, about the same length (7,534 yards) except playing to a par 71. Find the fairway, fire at the flag. Miss the fairway, and it’s all about trying to get into position. It doesn’t always work out that way, and Schauffele is thankful for that. He pulled his tee shot so far left on the par-5 14th that he was in shaggy round just in front of the on No. 3. He could see a portion of the green between a television tower, some video equipment and the trees. Schauffele got line-of-sight relief, and his drop happened to be on one of the forward tees. He belted a 3-wood onto the green for birdie. Will Zalatoris won his first PGA TOUR title last week at an ideal time, moving to the top of the FedExCup standings. Three holes into the BMW Championship, he went bunker to rough to bunker and then three-putted for a double bogey. He rallied with four birdies on the back and escaped with a 70. Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world coming off a missed cut, still felt scrappy but holed enough putts for a 69.

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PGA TOUR player Zac Blair is a golf course architecture aficionado with plans on building his own golf course, The Buck Club, in his native Utah. Blair is offering his architecture expertise to PGATOUR.COM to give fans an expert’s insight on some of the unique holes on the PGA TOUR. You can follow Zac on twitter at @z_blair and follow The Buck Club at @thebuckclub. Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor have blessed the golf world with several amazing golf courses, including National Golf Links of America, Chicago Golf Club, Fishers Island and the Golf Course at Yale. This week’s The Greenbrier Classic, contested on the Old White TPC, will give many fans and players their first glimpse at the work of these amazing Golden Age architects. Macdonald and Raynor are known for their use of template holes, which were heavily influenced by some of the greatest holes on the British Isles. They often repeated these template holes from courses to course, and we will see one this week at the Old White TPC’s 234-yard, par-3 eighth hole, named Redan. The Redan hole is one of the more famous holes in golf. Even if you’ve never heard the term “Redanâ€� before, you’ve most likely played a hole inspired by the original Redan, the 190-yard, par-3 15th hole at Scotland’s North Berwick Golf Club. It is widely considered one of the best par-3s in the world, and has been replicated many times over. Macdonald, who also won the first U.S. Amateur, described a Redan this way in the book Scotland’s Gift: “Take a narrow tableland, tilt it a little from right to left, dig a deep bunker on the front side, approach it diagonally and you have a Redan.â€� The way the green is pitched/tilted from front-right to back-left, any shot that flies over the front-left bunker typically will bounce over the back of the green. Long isn’t a terrible miss, but if played properly you can surely get the ball on the putting surface. With a deep front-left bunker guarding this green, the proper play is aim at the front right corner of the green in hopes of using the raised kicker to funnel balls to the back portion of the putting surface. In my opinion, the strategy that goes into playing this type of hole is what makes the Redan so cool. The eighth hole at the Old White TPC is one of the best versions of the Redan that I have ever played because it is the proper distance for today’s technology and because the green has the correct amount of contour to feed balls right to left. You may stand on the tee and see a back-left hole location and think firing directly at the hole may be the correct play. This strategy couldn’t be any further from the truth. Missing short-left and anywhere right of the green will surely lead to over-par scores, so avoid these misses at all costs. If you execute your tee shot properly you should no doubt have a good look at birdie on this classic Redan.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Sony Open in Hawaii in his edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Sleepers, Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT

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