It isn’t over ’til it’s over. Keegan Bradley pulled off the seemingly impossible Sunday at TPC River Highlands, emerging from a crowded leaderboard to win the 2025 Travelers Championship with a tournament-clinching birdie on the 72nd hole. Bradley (-15) edged Tommy Fleetwood and Russell Henley (-14) in a chaotic finish that saw Fleetwood bogey the last as Henley drained a 51-foot, 9-inch chip that looked as if it might force a playoff.
The moment was sweet for Bradley, who entered the winner’s circle for the eighth time in his PGA Tour career, and particularly sour or Fleetwood, the 36- and 54-hole leader who stood atop the leaderboard across all 18 holes Sunday only to fall at the last. Fleetwood has now notched 42 top-10 finishes across 159 PGA Tour starts without a victory, the most by any player since 1983.
With four holes to play, Bradley, the United States Ryder Cup captain, found himself well behind the Englishman; only then did he begin to dig in. A birdie on No. 15 pulled him closer before a bogey from the blade of Fleetwood came on the next hole. Facing a one-stroke deficit with entering the 18th, Bradley put his second shot within 6 feet of the pin, while Fleetwood failed to find the green.
When Fleetwood was unable to save par from inches behind Bradley’s ball, the 39-year-old New Englander stepped up and buried his birdie, both arms flying in the air as he captured his second tournament title in the last three years.
With the triumph, Bradley fires up the FedEx Cup standings to No. 8 in the season-long race. He grabs the final signature event of the season — along with its $3.6 million winner’s prize — and makes it eight different winners across the eight biggest tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule that has crowned champions such as Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Åberg, Russell Henley, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Sepp Straka and now Bradley this season.
As the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, Bradley is in charge of deciding which 12 Americans will represent the country in the international event this September. The top six players in the Ryder Cup standings will automatically qualify with Bradley forced to decide six captain’s picks that will fill out the team.
Bradley has stated that he would be unlikely to choose himself for the team; he would only assume a player-coach role if he qualified on points. However, given his level of play this season — particularly in clutch moments like Sunday at the Travelers — he may ultimately have no choice but to call his own name when the time comes.
Now ninth in the standings, Bradley is within striking distance of the top six depending how the rest of the season plays out. Asked after the victory whether his mindset on playing in the Ryder Cup changed, Bradley simply stated: “Go USA!”