[PHOTO: Getty Images]
Adam Scott let slip a golden opportunity for his 15th PGA Tour victory, but the silver lining was his runner-up at the BMW Championship secured a progression to the season-ending event in Atlanta.
Scott robbed himself of a FedEx Cup Playoffs victory on the back nine at Castle Pines in Colorado, coincidentally the Denver course where he made his PGA Tour debut at The International tournament in 2000 aged 20. Scott’s four bogeys in six holes on Sunday (Monday morning AEST) from the turn came while playing partner and eventual winner, Keegan Bradley, left the door open on multiple occasions. Several of Scott’s mistakes came from poor irons shots when he either pulled or overcooked an approach shot.
The former world No.1 wound up with an even-par 72 and a tie for second, his second runner-up result this season after an outright second at the recent Scottish Open. Bradley, the last man into the 50-player BMW field, won his seventh PGA Tour title weeks after being named US Ryder Cup captain for 2025.
“[Holes] 10, 11, 12 kind of blew it for me; I was in position with wedges on every hole and made three bogeys. That’s almost unthinkable, really,” Scott said. “I definitely struggled on the greens on the weekend. Just didn’t quite have the confidence in some of those putts. [Overall] I played fairly well. I thought I played well off the tee today, which was nice. But just didn’t take advantage from there.”
Despite the hiccups around the turn, Bradley allowed Scott to stay in it by hitting errant drives on the last two holes. Scott even had a chance to make a birdie putt that would have forced Bradley to make a short par putt to avoid a playoff between the two. Bradley did miss that par putt, but Scott hadn’t holed his birdie moments earlier, allowing the American a one-shot win while Scott shared second with younger guns Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg.
“It’s amazing it came down to one shot, but I felt like my bogeys on 10, 11, 12 gave Keegan a bit of breathing space, and the pressure wasn’t really on him, and he didn’t make any mistakes,” Scott said
Scott’s 16th runner-up result of his brilliant PGA Tour career also secured a record 11th appearance for the International team at the Presidents Cup next month. He finished third among six automatic qualifiers, including Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, Scott’s fellow Australian Jason Day and Byeong Hun An.
At 14th on the FedEx Cup standings, Scott also secured his place among the top 30 who advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club later this week. Another consolation for the Queenslander is those who made the Tour Championship lock up starts in all four majors for 2025. The 2013 Masters champion will now avoid some of the gruelling efforts he had to go to this year to qualify for the other three majors, like the US Open.
“I’m disappointed not to have won today, but I’m pretty happy to be going to East Lake because that wasn’t on the cards a couple weeks ago; I’ve played well,” Scott said. “After a couple days of rest and getting my head into next week, it’ll be fun to go and have a couple good rounds and find my way up the leaderboard at East Lake.
“You grind all year and then finally the last four events my game has really turned around and looked solid. A lot can happen in a few weeks out here, and all of a sudden I’ve gone from a very frustrating year had I not finished well to now feeling pretty pleased with myself.”
Meanwhile, Scott’s fellow Australians Day, at 33rd on the standings, and Cameron Davis, 36th, were projected to miss out on the Tour Championship – ending their 2024 seasons. That’s despite Davis finishing tied for fifth at the BMW, his second top 10 this season. Former world No.1 Day had four top 10s this campaign while Davis won his second career PGA Tour title at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July.
Meanwhile, at the AIG Women’s Open Championship at the Old Course at St Andrews, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko won her third career major just weeks after claiming the gold medal at the Olympic women’s golf tournament. Grace Kim was the top Australian at T-37.
On the DP World Tour, Victorian David Micheluzzi finished T-10 at the Made in Denmark event while fellow Australian Jason Scrivener was T-27.
