Joseph

Bramlett

Bramlett is trending well with top 20s in three of his last five starts. That includes a T16 last week at the Memorial. Bramlett took a chance on sectional qualifying on Monday, falling three shots shy at the Rockville site. He was set to make his third appearance at the Canadian Open with missed cuts in his two previous tries.

Bramlett started his day with a 28'11" birdie bomb at the par-4 10th and it was a sign of things to come today. He went to find 13 GIR and gained 2.9 strokes putting before his day was over. Another highlight came at the par-3 fifth when he poured home a birdie from just inside of 43 feet. Bramlett arrived on the heels of back-to-back top 15s and showing no signs of slowing down. He’s a fan of the tough conditions at PGA National, “I definitely like when the conditions are difficult and guys have to really earn it. I think that’s historically always been in my favor. So I really enjoy it. I was really looking forward to getting to this golf course this week.” The Stanford product has never led or co-led after any round on the PGA TOUR but he was T4 after day one of the 2021 Honda Classic before swallowing a 9-over 79 to miss the cut.

Bramlett went 14-for-29 on the PGA TOUR this season to settle for 174th in the FedExCup standings. It was the third straight season that he’s landed outside of the top 140 but he continues to play his way back onto the big stage via the KFT Finals. Last year he went T20-T27 before winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. This time around he’s opened with T18 and T6 finishes ahead of the KFT Championship. “From a results perspective, it’s been a really poor year, but from a game development side, I really feel like I’ve made strides and gotten a lot better this year. It’s confusing as so why I haven’t been able to put it together for four rounds. Still don’t have the answer to that, but my short game’s gotten a lot better, my putting’s in a great place, my chipping is back to where it used to be when I was a kid growing up.” Bramlett is oozing confidence and he’s flashed bits and pieces of form but failed to post consistent results. Perhaps his fifth full season on the PGA TOUR will provide some of those answers form a consistency standpoint.

The 34-year-old Bramlett carded rounds of 66-70 to finish at 8-under 136, with Grayson Murray (66-72), Kevin Chappell (69-72) and Andrew Beckler (69-72) earned the other three spots out of a field of 78. Bramlett finished T-51 two weeks ago at the AT&T Byron Nelson and won last September’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship. He’s played in two previous U.S. Opens, missing the cut in 2010 and 2019. Next week will mark the third career major championship start and second in a U.S. Open for 28-year-old Murray, while 35-year-old Chappell will play in his eighth U.S. Open, where he has two top 10s – T-3 in 2011 and T-10 in 2012. North Carolina product Ben Griffin is first alternate, with amateur Josh Duangmanee as second alternate.

Team chemistry is tough to quantify but this duo lived with each other for a while until McNealy upgraded his digs last fall. The pairing should be a comfortable one for both golfers. That didn’t help them last year at this event when they went 69-70 to miss the cut on the number. This time around, Bramlett arrives fresh off a closing 64 at the RBC Heritage and McNealy has top 40s in 11 of his 14 stroke-play events played this season.

Last week at the Masters, Mexico’s Ancer shot 72-79 to miss the cut by three strokes. It marked Ancer’s fourth MC of the season (8/12). For the 34-year-old Bramlett, this week will mark his tournament debut at Harbour Town Golf Links and his 17th Tour start of the season. He’s made eight cuts in 16 starts with a best finish of T-20 at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. Mmost recently, he missed the cut at the Valero Texas Open after finishing T-48 at the Valsapr Championship. Bramlett regained his Tour card last season thanks to his win at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, where he finished at 20-under 268 to earn his first KFT victory and finish atop the Finals points standings.

The Stanford alum and California native was tied for the lead with Cantlay on 14-under total after ringing up seven birdies at 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 5 and 6, but ended on a sour note with back-to-back bogey-5s at 8 (penalty off-the-tee) and 9 (failed scramble) in freshening breezes. On 11 (of 14) fairways, he mustered 11 greens in regulation, but salvaged the lap with a 1.545 putts per GIR, and is pacing the event in the latter with a tidy 1.417. The 33-year-old, who will move over to the Nicklaus Tournament Course for R3, is in the top 10 at the midpoint for a fourth time in 84 events, first since last season’s opposite-field Barbasol, where he was T2 before fading to T11 (65-67-67-71). His career best on TOUR among two top 10s is T7 at the 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson, T12 thru 36 holes (64-70-67-68). See link below to post-round comments.

The Standford alum, who outflanked three bogeys with 10 birdies, including six in a row, landed 11 (of 14) fairways utilizing a backup driver. Asked afterwards, “Thankfully, I travel with a backup, but yeah, it’s the second time in six months I cracked a driver on Wednesday at like 2 p.m. after the equipment trucks leave.” For those playing the SC, he gained 1.638 strokes off-the-tee at last check, and 5.145 on approach, both of those No. 1-ranked, but lost 0.485 around and 0.033 with the flat stick. The 33-year-old, who arrived off a season-best T20 last week at the Sony (68-66-69-64), missed the cut in both prior appearances in 2020 & 2021, and now heads to La Quinta CC for R2. See link below to post-round comments.

Collecting finishes of T-42 at the Fortinet Championship and T-58 at the Sanderson Farms Championship in his first two starts of the season, Bramlett has yet to connect on a made cut since. Failing to see the back-half of the Shriners Children’s Open, Bermuda Championship, World Wide Technology Championship, and the Houston Open, the Stanford product will look to right the ship this week at the RSM Classic. Unfortunately, the 33-year-old has yet to come through in Sea Island in the past, missing the cut in his three previous appearances. He is set to begin this year’s RSM Classic at 11:20 a.m. EST alongside Kevin Streelman and Scott Gutschewski on the Seaside Course.

The 33-year-old Bramlett, who finished at 146th in the regular-season FedExCup standings, earned his exempt status back after shooting back-to-back rounds of 7-under 65 to finish at 20-under 268 and secure his first KFT win by four strokes over Trey Mullinax. “While my FedExCup ranking didn’t reflect what I would like it to, my skills got a lot better last year,” Bramlett told media on Tuesday. “I got a lot more speed off the tee, my wedge game is dialed in a lot better and I’ve become a more consistent putter. So for me, looking through it through that lens, there’s a lot of optimism coming into this year.” Last season, the Stanford product made 15 cuts in 27 starts and posted six finishes inside the top 25. He also made the cut in all five KFT starts, also notching podium finishes at the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass (T-2) and The King & Bear Classic at World Golf Village (T-3). And although he missed the cut last year in Napa, he finished T-35 here in 2017. “It just feels like northern California golf to me,” he said. “The grass is what I grew up on. I love the trees. When trees frame holes for me, that is just -- always helps me kind of strategize, it feels comfortable. And the greens are really demanding so you’ve got to hit it in the right spots, you’ve got to manage your speed. It’s the type of golf course that if you play well, you can get it going pretty low, but if you hit a few bad shots, you’re penalized for them.”