Q. Take us through 18 from start to finish, because you played it brilliantly, and your kids came out and saw you in the fairway. That was a cool hole.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: It was great. I hit two great shots and then in between I got to go give my boys a squeeze. Normally when they're around, good things happen.
Q. You rolled in the 29-footer for the first eagle of the week at 18, you look back at 'em and point at 'em. So, again, that's pretty good karma.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: It's great. This is the first year we've bringing them all to Hawaii so it's been a really fun trip.
Q. Talk about the tournament. You're 13-under. You made a nice move today on a day a lot of people were making moves.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I played great. Birdied my first three holes, and then sometimes it's tough to keep that going, but I kept it going the whole day.
Q. You've been good for years now. I don't think people give you enough credit. You're a solid guy.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Thank you.
Q. This is not unexpected, you come in every week thinking you're going to win.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I do, yeah. I don't take much time off in the off-season so I feel like I'm ready to go as soon as I come to Hawaii. But this has been a weird place for me, some good weeks and some really poor weeks, but I feel good out there.
Q. You do love golf courses where you got to go 28-under to win this thing, right?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: It's tough. It's just as tough as a having to shoot 5-under to win. It's just a different type of difficult. You got to keep making birdies, you got to keep going, that can be difficult.
Q. When you come to a tournament like this, is there a question mark, am I going to have it the first week, am I not going to have it, or what's the thought process?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: It was actually really nice that we played Hero, it was much closer to the event this time. This hasn't really felt the same for me. I feel great out there. I love -- everything in my bag is in good shape, I feel good.
Q. What did you say to them when they ran out there?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: What did I say? I gave a big squeeze. It was fun. This is the first time we brought 'em all to Hawaii. It's been a fun trip so far.
Q. You're you bringing them all to Augusta?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Oh, yeah.
Q. (No Microphone.)
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I will. (Laughing).
Q. Can you walk us through the mustache?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I did it as a joke to my wife and family, and they all thought it was funny and liked it. Then now that I've played a couple good rounds I'm getting nervous, I'm going to have to keep this thing for awhile.
Q. This year, obviously no one's really had what you're going to experience this year where you are a player still competing. How do you mentally, as the year goes on, do you have to make a strategy of how you're going to handle these dual roles?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I have two jobs. My one job is out here, and then my other job is to be the captain and be the leader of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. I really enjoy being the captain. This isn't like difficult for me. I love talking to the guys, I love talking to my vice captains, so -- and I love to play golf. So these aren't difficult things. It's stressful, for sure, but I enjoy both of them.
Q. Are you adding anything to your schedule just to keep a better eye, or is what you've got going enough?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Luckily, I'm in all these big events, all the major, all the Signature Events. As of now I don't see any reason to add any -- we'll see as the year goes on if I need to go take a peek at a tournament that other guys are at. But I'm sort of learning as well. As of now, no, I think the schedule's going to be great.
Q. Being five hours behind East Coast time do you have to send any e-mails this morning about your captaincy job, or do any work?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: No, I've been doing a little bit, but they have been great about when I'm playing to sort of -- but I'm thinking, like, I had a dream last night, a Ryder Cup dream last night.
Q. What was the dream?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I just have 'em all the time. That I'm dreaming about -- well, one, I can't get to the course, like one of those, and I'm like stressed out. But I dream about being at Bethpage a lot, it's constantly on my mind.
Q. When you start playing well like you are here, and you're thinking about the Ryder Cup all the time, is there any part of you in your head is thinking maybe?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Certainly a maybe, but we're two rounds into the 2025. So if we get to July and it's looking like that, then we'll start to talk, but for now I'm just going to keep playing my best.
Q. How many hours a day do you say you spend on the Ryder Cup team?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I mean, I'm thinking about it at every moment. There's certain times I sit down, I have meetings with PGA of America, and with my vice captains, those are like logged times. But then like I'll be thinking about something I want to do, I'll write it in my phone. Like, I'm thinking a lot, talking with my wife a lot about ideas that I have, talking to old coaches, old players like that.
Q. Was there a good idea that you had on the course this week that you can share?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I think I'm going to keep those to myself for now.
Q. As the crow flies, Keegan, how far away does Luke live from you?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Two minutes, three minutes. I see him at The Grove all the time. He's legitimately a friend of mine. So it's actually been really great, there's no weirdness or anything, we both know we're going to try our hardest to beat each other.
Q. Do you guys ever go out to dinner?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, yeah. We were talking about playing a couple weeks ago. Luke is a legitimate friend of mine, so it's certainly strange, but fun at the same time.
Q. Makes me wonder who the illegitimate friends are.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, yeah (laughing).
Q. You very wonderfully said when you became captain, you were named captain, as you have gone into the grind of being a captain, has that emotion gotten larger as you creep closer to Bethpage?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: It does. Ever since the year-to-go event that we did things have been going faster. Some major decisions are being made every day, team room stuff, logistical stuff at the tournament, stuff like that. So it's certainly, since that year-to-go date's happened it's been a lot more and a lot more decisions are being made.
Q. Walk me through the eagle on 18, the second shot.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I had 302 to the flag, which had 161 front, perfect 3-wood. I roped one down there and it kicked perfectly and went down. Then I realized my boys were there. I got to go stop and see them. What a nice way to end the round.
Q. Coolest thing you guys have done this week?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Going to the beach. Playing football. Right. Going down the slide.
Q. The TOUR is starting to look into different concepts for the TOUR Championship. You've been around that since 2011, I guess. Some brackets, some just different changes. What have you heard, what do you want, what would you like to see?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I just heard about this a second ago, so I don't know anything about it. I do know that the format now I think is a little clunky. I think it's a little strange. There's no right, there's no right or wrong way. They're trying to create drama in the last event of the year, and you got guys like Scottie Scheffler who, you know, if they don't do something like that, wouldn't have to even play that week and you win the FedExCup. So I'm not in a position to, thankfully, to make those, but I'm all for trying to make the TOUR better.
Q. Is there anything you would like to see? Do you think any form of match play, medal match play, not just --
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I think that would be certainly interesting, because the pressure that you would, that you feel at the TOUR Championship, if you're going to win the FedExCup and win whatever amount of money is at stake, that's real pressure. So to watch two guys go out and play for it would be pretty cool.
Q. As much as it only seems like money grows on trees, if there was a way to properly award the season winner higher and make it a bigger deal, would there be less, I guess, questions about format?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Probably. I think if you win the regular season FedExCup that's a really big deal, and they reward that pretty well now. But I think you're right if they did that even more so you would be better off.
Q. Eight million, chump change?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: (Laughing). That's not chump change for me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports