CASTLE ROCK — After waiting a decade for the PGA Tour to return, Colorado golf fans will get the excitement they deserve on Sunday.

Four players are at the top of the leaderboard, separated by two strokes, as the final day of the BMW Championship begins. It promises to be an exciting finale on Sunday at Castle Pines Golf Club.

2025 US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley is in first place at 12-under par. Directly behind him is Adam Scott at 11-under, followed by Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg and Alex Noren, both at 10-under.

Bradley, the last man standing at the BMW Championship with the No. 50 FedExCup ranking, won the tournament in 2018 and is seeking his first victory this year. While the course held golfers in check with steady gusts of wind all day, the 38-year-old’s round was up and down. He had four pars, eight birdies and six bogeys.

He finished the day on 2-under par, highlighted by birdies on the par-5 17th and par-4 18th holes, as he bids to become the 20th multiple winner of the event.

“It was tough today,” Bradley said. “It was very windy, a lot of high tees that were in the wind, which made it really tough. Proud of the way I fought today. I played some brilliant golf, but I also made some terrible shots.”

Saturday also brought a different atmosphere for Scott, who shot 9-under on Friday to tie the course record with Åberg, who also accomplished the feat. Scott had just one bogey on the weekend, but the 44-year-old Australian got off to a bad start on Day 3.

He hit his first tee shot out of bounds, which eventually resulted in a bogey. He then double-bogeyed the par-4 3rd hole after hitting his drive into the water. All the momentum he had built up over the previous two days was gone, and he also bogeyed the par-3 4th hole en route to a 4-over score on the front nine.

“I felt like I ate (my round) up and I didn’t feel like I did that much wrong,” Scott said. “A couple drives just weren’t quite right and a three-putt (on the 3rd) and all of a sudden I was chasing. I struggled on the greens today, especially.

“They were just so different from yesterday’s round in terms of speed, solidity, looks and everything. It felt like I was almost on a different course, and I fought against that for most of the round. The good shots I was hitting didn’t really pay off.”

But Scott came back a bit, birdieing the par-3 11th after hitting his drive four feet short of the cup. Then, after bogeying the par-5 14th, he got back on track with birdies at the par-3 16th (10-foot putt) and par-5 17th (six-foot putt) to finish his day at 2-over.

“I’m in a good position to eventually be back there,” said Scott, who made his PGA Tour debut at The International in 2000.

Meanwhile, Åberg, a rising star on the PGA Tour who is 20 years younger than Scott, also came back down to earth after his record-breaking round on Friday, putting him back in contention after playing even par on Thursday.

The Swede started fast, with three birdies on the first five holes, but then found the rough on the sixth and seventh holes, leading to back-to-back bogeys. His momentum was also curtailed on the back nine when he double-bogeyed the 11th hole after falling into the water and then bogeyed the 13th. But he remained aggressive in his shot selection.

“I think you have to be aggressive and take your chances to beat all these guys, who are obviously such good golfers, and you don’t do that by not being aggressive, by being aggressive in execution,” Åberg said. “I think I’ve done that pretty well the last few days, and hopefully I can do that again (Sunday).”

Åberg found new life with an eagle on the par-5 14th with an impressive 34-foot birdie putt. He closed with four straight pars to finish at 1-under.

“I hit a nice 5-iron on the green (on the 14th),” Åberg said. “You just try to get those putts somewhere, but luckily it went in.”

And Noren, who double-bogeyed the par-4 3rd after hitting into the water and followed it up with a bogey at the par-3 4th, showed the same determination as the rest of the top-ranked players. He began the week ranked No. 41 but has continued his run of solid play in a season that has seen him finish in the top 10 three times.

“I was 3-over after four holes,” said Noren, 42. “When I got to 2-under, I was so happy and proud of myself that I didn’t fall behind.”

Valor Christian alum Wyndham Clark is also in contention for Sunday after turning 3-under to move to 7-under for the tournament, in a tie for fifth place with Xander Schauffele. Schauffele, the winner of two majors this season at The Open Championship and the PGA Championship, cannot be ruled out for another try on the final day. Nor can Clark, who has more experience at Castle Pines than the rest of the field and will have the home crowd behind him.

Of the pole position players, Bradley has six career victories on Tour, but none this year. Scott, the 2013 Masters champion and former world No. 1 a decade ago, has 14 career victories, but none since the 2020 Genesis Invitational.

And Åberg has one career win, last year’s RSM Classic, while Noren has 13 top-five finishes but no wins in 182 events on the Tour.

“These are the situations that (all good players) like to be in,” said Åberg, who has a chance to become the first player since 2006 to win the BMW Championship in his tournament debut. “We want to be close to the lead going into the last few holes.”

Originally published: August 24, 2024 at 7:06 PM