Keegan Bradley gives PGA Tour huge boost with | Golf News

The Travelers Championship’s closing spherical final Sunday noticed a important uptick in TV rankings in contrast to the earlier 12 months, with Keegan Bradley rising as the champion.

The thrilling conclusion at TPC River Highlands noticed Bradley stage a comeback to narrowly snatch away Tommy Fleetwood’s first PGA Tour victory. The nail-biting closing spherical clearly struck a chord with followers, drawing in 3.5 million viewers according to Sports Business Journal.

This marked a 35 % increase in viewership from the 2024 closing spherical, which attracted 2.6 million viewers who tuned in to watch world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler clinch a playoff victory against his close pal Tom Kim.

This surge in viewership is a welcome reduction for the PGA Tour, which has been grappling with dwindling audiences in current seasons. The LIV Golf setup has also seen underwhelming numbers, with the division in males’s skilled golf seemingly impacting fan engagement.

However, the compelling narrative at TPC River Highlands managed to reel in a substantial quantity of followers final Sunday.

Fleetwood, the English golfer, had his best shot yet at securing his first win on American soil. He entered the ultimate spherical with a three-shot lead.

He appeared poised to obtain this feat late on Sunday, but a disappointing end noticed him make two bogeys in his final three holes. With a one-shot lead going into the ultimate gap, all Fleetwood needed was to match Bradley to secure the championship; however, a two-shot swing noticed the American golfer come out on prime.

The English golfer took the loss arduous, but he was keen to glean some positives from an in any other case stellar week. He stated: “I’m upset now, I’m angry — when it calms down, look at the things that I did well, look at the things that I can learn from. I said yesterday, I haven’t been in this position all year.

“So it has been a while, felt like I did a lot of good issues, but there have been issues that I undoubtedly can do higher, and I’ve to do higher. So I did a lot of issues properly enough this week to win, but I did not do that; it hurts.

“When it calms down, the most stupid thing to do and the worst thing to do would be to make a week like this a hindrance to what you do going forward.”

For Bradley, this only bolstered his odds of turning into the first Ryder Cup captain to also play since 1963. Fresh off a victory, it appears the captain is prepared to take on a twin function.

“I never really planned on playing,” he admitted after the match. “Now, with the amazing vice-captains I have, I feel a lot more comfortable if I went that route. I had this epiphany at the US PGA Championship when I was getting these loud ‘USA’ cheers.

“I do not suppose any participant in the historical past of the sport has skilled what I’m experiencing in that I’m a Ryder Cup captain, in my eyes still one of the best gamers in the world, attempting to win majors and tournaments, coming down the stretch of a match.”