BMW Championship - Final Round
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Golf careers are highlighted by tremendous triumph in memorable moments, but memorable moments are built on top of tiny circumstances -- these little butterfly-effect happenings that are barely even noticed until they become part of the bigger narrative.

Keegan Bradley has had a couple of those tremendous triumphs that make a career in the last several months, but they would not have been possible if not for the bizarre things that unfolded before them.

The first was on July 8 when Bradley was named U.S. Ryder Cup captain. It was a move nobody saw coming but the type of announcement that can change the trajectory of one's entire professional life. 

The "what if" game can be played forever with that announcement. What if Tiger Woods accepts the captaincy? What if Bradley is not left off the 2023 Ryder Cup team as a player? What if Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin don't lose to Rickie Fowler in a playoff at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July 2023 and Fowler doesn't have a resume good enough make the Ryder Cup team, which allows Bradley to be picked? 

Is Bradley still a tragic figure that gets thrown into the captaincy less than a year later if he's on that team in Rome?

I mean, maybe. Maybe not, too. There are so many little things that led to that.

It goes further, too. What if Bradley doesn't receive this gust of wind in his sails as the Ryder Cup captain at age 38? He now has an identity as an aging player and knows that a group of folks -- the PGA of America, in this instance -- believe in him. That is not the biggest deal in the world for a world class golfer, but after how down and out Bradley seemed a year ago, I'm not sure it can be understated either. What if the PGA doesn't pick him for that Ryder Cup captaincy? Does he go on to win last week at the BMW Championship and probably play his way on to the Presidents Cup team a month from now in Montreal?

"I know the people that elected me to be the Ryder Cup captain didn't feel [like my best playing days were behind me]," said Bradley on Sunday after defeating Adam Scott, Sam Burns and Ludvig Åberg by one shot each. "They made that clear to me. Not that I really cared what they think. I'm proud to be the Ryder Cup captain.

"I would love to be a playing captain. No one has really had the opportunity that I've had. I think you could have given Phil or Tiger a chance to be captain at my age and they would have played on the teams. But it's never really had a chance to happen. It's going to be really hard for me to make that team, but if I make the team, I'll play. I don't see myself being a captain's pick. But I'll be proud to just be the captain. If I have to go out there and play, I'd love to do that, too."

Guys like Bradley are fueled by things like pride, by the belief others have in them. It's not everything, but it's definitely something.

The butterfly effect of Bradley's year is also not that ethereal either.

Eight days ago, after shooting 2 under in the final round at TPC Southwind, Bradley was already preparing for a long offseason because he thought he was going to finish outside the FedEx Cup top 50, which was necessary to even play in last week's BMW Championship.

"I was devastated," he said. "I finished my round on Sunday. I'm walking the range, looking at people that are warming up that are going to determine my future, really. I packed up all my stuff. I got to the hotel. I booked a flight home. I didn't think I was going to make it. I had the coverage on. I had my iPad on the featured holes. I had my phone watching; at two separate times I had to unplug my phone because it got too hot from me refreshing every second.

"I was picturing my next year of not knowing where I was playing. It was going to be tough on my family, tough on me. I was really disappointed that I wasn't going to be out there with the guys with the Ryder Cup coming up. Picturing now I'm not going to be playing, I'm going to have to travel to these tournaments.

"I want to be in the final groups with these guys. I want to be watching them make the cut on Friday. I want to see how they interact with their other players in the locker room, on flights to and from tournaments. Everything counts."

However, Tom Kim finished bogey-double-double at TPC Southwind, kicking away around 100 FedEx Cup points over his last three holes. He finished 51st in the standings, 14 points behind Bradley for the 50th and final spot into the BMW Championship.

The margins are so small.

But now? Bradley has a real chance to do what was inconceivable even a year ago: not only make the Presidents Cup team in 2024 and Ryder Cup team in 2025 but serve as a vice captain and captain respectively at the events he loves the most.

"I still feel like I'm in the prime of my career," he said on Sunday. "I feel like there's a lot of parts to my game that are the best it's ever been, and I feel like I got years ahead of me ... I wanted to make this Ryder Cup team at Bethpage where I was the captain. That's always a goal of mine. I feel like I can still keep playing at a high level for a while."

Those are big goals, yes, but they would not be possible without the small, almost unnoticeable moments.