PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Keegan Bradley’s putter has been his friend of late, but nothing beats not having to use your putter. Bradley knocked in a gap wedge from 115 yards at the uphill par-4 ninth, his final hole of the day, for an eagle and a walk-off finish to remember.
“I turned a good day into a great day,” Bradley said. “Man, it was a fun day and what a way to finish. It was a blast.”
That capped off a round of 5-under 66 and a 36-total total of 12-under 130, which set the lowest 36-hole score in tournament history. He’ll have to share that honor in the record books because Sam Burns fired a tournament-best 8-under 63 to tie for the lead.
“I didn’t even realize it was bogey-free until you said that,” Burns told Golf Channel’s Steve Burkowski in a post-round interview when informed of his clean card.
Walk-off EAGLE
Have a day, @Keegan_Bradley. He leads by two. pic.twitter.com/qOIi8a37CH
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 30, 2021
Burns may need oven mittens to handle his putter it’s so red hot.
He took 22 putts on Thursday and 23 Friday, and ranks first in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. He birdied five of the first six holes on the back nine to come home in 30. When asked what he attributed his putting performance this week to, Burns said he’s enjoying putting on Bermuda greens, the grass he grew up playing on back home in Shreveport, Louisiana.
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“I’m just comfortable around those,” he said. “I think just playing on them every day back home, you’re used to seeing grain, you kind of don’t even think about it, but you know it’s there and you’re kind of calculating it in.”
For Burns, it added up to his fourth 36-hole lead or co-lead this season and the most on the PGA Tour. Burns, a third-year pro, still is seeking his first win on the circuit.
7 birdies in his last 11 holes.
@SamBurns66 is on cruise control and has a share of the lead. pic.twitter.com/7fB3axXYy6
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 30, 2021
Bradley’s wedge shot at nine deserves the headlines, but his putter also has contributed to his success. He went through trying times after his trusty belly putter, which he used to win the 2011 PGA Championship and two other titles, was banned in 2016. That putter was an Odyssey Sabretooth model, but until recently the Odyssey Tour reps weren’t able to figure out the weighting or get the loft correct in a legal model. That changed back in Phoenix and it’s like having an old friend in the bag.
“I made all the putts I should have made and I snuck in a couple longer ones, too,” he said.
Bradley holds the 36-hole lead or co-lead for the seventh time on Tour in search of his first win since the 2018 BMW Championship. The walk-off at the last, which caddie Scottie Veil joked was the “club call of the year,” bounced just past the hole and spun back into the cup for a deuce and his ninth hole-out from 100+ yards this year (Tour best).
“You can’t see it from where we are, so you kind of have to wait for a reaction and then when people put their arms up, normally that means it goes in,” Bradley said. “Another bonus of having fans out here.”
Asked how he planned to celebrate his walk-off heroics, Bradley smiled and said, “Go home and go to bed. I’m exhausted. No celebrating yet.”
That can wait until Sunday.