Keegan Bradley celebrates after winning the BMW Championship on Sunday in Castle Rock, Colo. Bradley finished at 12-under 276 – one stroke better than Adam Scott, Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg. Matt York/Associated Press

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — The BMW Championship was one tournament Keegan Bradley never thought he could win, only because he didn’t think he would be playing.

Bradley was a bundle of nerves one week ago Sunday as he sat in a hotel room in Tennessee with his bags packed and his season seemingly over. And then he squeezed into the 50th spot in FedEx Cup points in the final hour, the last man headed to Castle Pines for the next playoff event.

From biting his nails in Memphis to holding a trophy in Denver. What a week.

“I can’t even wrap my head around it,” Bradley said after an even-par 72 gave him a one-shot victory over Adam Scott, Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg.

He doesn’t have much time to let his seventh career PGA Tour victory sink in. This created possibilities Bradley never imagined a week ago.

He heads to Atlanta for the Tour Championship at East Lake, where Bradley – who went from No. 50 to No. 4 in the standings – will start four shots behind Scottie Scheffler, with a reasonable chance at winning the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize.

Bradley became the first Ryder Cup captain – he was appointed U.S. skipper just over six weeks ago – to win a PGA Tour event in nine years. He is an assistant captain for the Presidents Cup next month in Montreal.

His victory moved him to No. 10 in the Presidents Cup standings. Only the top six automatically qualified Sunday, but Bradley is certain to be under serious consideration when Jim Furyk makes his six captain’s picks after the Tour Championship.

“I don’t know where that’s going to go, but I’m happy to play whatever role they want me to play,” the 38-year-old Bradley said. “I hope I didn’t throw a huge wrench in everybody’s plans, but I’m proud to be in consideration.”

Consideration came from winning, and this rock-solid performance in the mile-high air and in wind that left several players guessing how far the golf ball was flying.

Bradley had some help from the Scott, who was tied for the lead until starting the back nine with three soft bogeys, all with a wedge in his hand. He missed par putts of 7 feet, 6 feet and 8 feet to fall three shots behind. But it was the approach shots that hurt him.

“Ten, 11, 12 kind of blew it for me there,” Scott said after his 72. “I was in position with wedges on every hole and made three bogeys. That’s almost unthinkable, really.”

Burns had a Sunday-best 65, nearly holing a bunker shot on the 18th. Aberg was in position to close the gap until posing over a 6-iron into the par-5 14th right up until it splashed down, leading to a bogey from which he couldn’t quite recover. He shot a 71.

Bradley, who finished at 12-under 276, effectively sealed the win with a 5-iron from 227 yards in which he took dead aim behind two bunkers to a back left pin and watched it settle on the firm green 16 feet away, the closest anyone was all day.

“As pure a golf shot as I’ve ever hit,” Bradley said.

He two-putted for birdie and a two-shot lead, allowing him a cushion and time to soak up chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” from thousands who encircled the 18th green and paid tribute to the Ryder Cup captain for the 2025 matches.

The consolation for Scott was moving into the top 30 players who qualify for the Tour Championship.

Bradley earned $4 million for his second title at the BMW Championship; he also won at Aronimink in 2018 when he was the No. 52 seed in what was then a 70-man field.

Bradley and Scott joined Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Chris Kirk (69) who moved into the top 30 to qualify for the Tour Championship. They bumped out Brian Harman, Jason Day, Davis Thompson and Denny McCarthy.

WOMEN’S BRITISH OPEN: Two weeks after gaining entry into the Hall of Fame by winning an Olympic gold medal, Lydia Ko continued her remarkable summer by breaking free from a logjam of world-class talent to win the Women’s British Open by two strokes at St. Andrews, Scotland.

Ko, a 27-year-old New Zealander, secured her third major title – and a first in eight years.

“This is almost too good to be true,” Ko said.

She rolled in a left-to-right birdie putt at the storied 18th hole on the Old Course to shoot 3-under 69 for a 7-under total, then had to wait to see if that was good enough to beat top-ranked Nelly Korda, defending champion Lilia Vu and two-time champion Jiyai Shin.

That quartet of past and present stars shared the lead at one point down the stretch of an engrossing final round played mostly in cold, blustery and wet conditions before ending in sunshine.

Ko was waiting on the practice putting green not far from the 18th green, doing stretches while wearing ear muffs, when Vu lined up a 20-foot putt for birdie that needed to go in to force a playoff. It came up short, and Vu ultimately made bogey to shoot 73 and drop to 5 under alongside Korda (72), Shin (74) and Ruoning Yin (70) in a four-way tie for second place.

Ko was asked what feels better: an Olympic gold medal, her first two majors, or winning a third at St. Andrews.

“It’s kind of like saying, ‘Do you like your mother better or your father better?’” she said, eliciting laughter from the crowd around the 18th green. “They are all special in their own way.”

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Stewart Cink won The Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan, for his first PGA Tour Champions title, closing with a 6-under 66 for a four-stroke victory.

The 51-year-old Cink, the 2009 British Open champion, won in his 10th career start on the 50-and-over tour. He finished at 17-under 199 to match the tournament record set by Joe Durant in 2021.

K.J. Choi was second after a 67. Mike Weir (64) was another stroke back.