Brendan Steele closed out his PGA Tour season last week by carding 36-34 — 70 in the final round of the BMW Championship, the third of the four season-ending FedExCup playoff tournaments. For the tournament, he posted an 11-under-par 68-67-68-70 — 273, finishing in a tie for 13th place.
This was by far the best playoff performance of the native Idyllwilder’s career, both his best finish in the BMW and his best final Fed Ex Cup ranking at 50th. In 2011, he finished 68th in the BMW, and in 2013 he finished 61st.
For the tournament, the native Idyllwilder placed ninth in both driving accuracy and driving distance, but placed only 60th in greens in regulation at 58.33 percent. We calculated his approach iron proximity — which is our own stat for all approaches from between 100-250 yards — at 30.4 feet, which is probably higher than he would have liked. (His AIP in the second round, when he fired a 67, was a low 22 feet.)
Even though he didn’t score a win as he did in 2011, this season was still Brendan’s best in many ways, and we’ll be presenting a recap of his 2015 season in next week’s paper.
We’ve heard nothing official as to when Brendan’s next PGA Tour appearance will be, but he’s played in the Frys.com every season but one. That tournament will open the 2015-2016 season in just three weeks, Oct. 15 to 18.
