A long winning drought was broken on Sunday at the Zozo Championship in Japan, but perhaps not the one everyone was expecting. Rickie Fowler came into the final round leading and looking for his first victory since the 2019 Phoenix Open, but he was clipped in the end by a single stroke by Keegan Bradley, who had experienced an even longer time between wins with his last victory coming at the 2018 BMW Championship.

Bradley shot a 2-under 68, which was two better than Fowler and good enough to finish at 15 under, one ahead of Rickie, the man with home he was playing. It was a bit of a ride for both players as they sought to break streaks they never wished to start. Fowler shot his worst round of the week — a 70 — and never could get rolling at Narashino Country Club after shining for the first two days. Bradley nursed a lead coming down the back stretch but kicked it away with bogeys at Nos. 14 and 16, the latter on account of a shank coming out of a bunker.

He buried a birdie on No. 17 to retake the lead, however, and maintained it with a par at the final hole. The result?

“I’ve been crying since I finished,” said Bradley after winning for the fifth time on the PGA Tour. “I can’t remember the last time I cried. I talked to my wife on the phone a second ago, FaceTime. I can’t keep it together, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

There’s nothing wrong with Bradley, age 36, of course. It’s just that as you get older and actually understand how difficult it is to win on the toughest tour in the world, the victories start to mean more. Bradley won a lot early on, but he has just two wins since 2012. This victory moves him into the top 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings and ostensibly into some conversations of which he wants to be a part.

“It means a lot,” said Bradley. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. Even if you play perfectly, doesn’t mean you’re going to win. But for me, I feel like I should be contending for tournaments, I want to be contending to play on Ryder Cup, Presidents Cups teams, majors. You know, this is going to go a long way. I haven’t really … of my five, I haven’t really won that many leading the entire day like I did today, and I really learned a lot and I think I can take a lot of that going forward the rest of the year.”

I don’t know if Bradley is going to be in the mix for next year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team in Rome. What I do know is that he’s an overlooked and probably underrated player on the PGA Tour. His ball-striking is world class, and if he can figure out how to return to being an above-average putter like he was a the beginning of his career, he will legitimately be in the conversation for the Ryder Cup and probably go fewer than eight years between major top 10s like he did from 2014 to 2022.

Regardless, this is one to celebrate. Bradley said he’s going out in Japan tonight and planning on catching the New England Patriots game at 2 a.m. local time. Who can blame him after breaking a four-year drought? The older you get the more precious those victories become. Grade: A+

Here are the rest of our grades for the 2022 Zozo Championship.

T2. Rickie Fowler (-14): I’m not sure the average fan knows just how in the desert Fowler has been over the last three years. Here’s a quick and non-exhaustive sampling:

• Three top 10s in the last 30 months
• Ranked behind Marcus Helligkilde and Kaito Onishi in the OWGR
• Missed three majors in 2022
• 0 SG player (basically PGA Tour average) for two years

All that to say it was awesome to see him back in the mix in Japen after such a difficult run for such a long time. There’s a catch, though. We saw this last fall when he nearly won the CJ Cup. Nothing materialized from that this year (he didn’t have a single top 20 in 2022 anywhere until September), so hopefully this resurgence will play out differently. Grade: A

“It’s just finally in a position where we’re building momentum and building more confidence,” said Fowler. “I feel like in the last few years there would be times where kind of take a step forward and just was never really able to build more momentum than for one week at a time. In a great spot and finally in a position where things are starting to kind of snowball and head in the right direction all together.”

T9. Xander Schauffele (-10): It wasn’t enough, but Schauffele nearly shot the round of the day on Sunday with a 5-under 65. That 65 was a reminder of this completely absurd stat.

Schauffele low-key rode a heater into the end of the 2021-22 season, and he’s picking up where he left off. In his last 11 tournaments last season, he finished in the top 20 a whopping 10 times, finished in the top five six times and won three of them (including a team championship with Patrick Cantlay). He’s on another level. Grade: A-

T45. Collin Morikawa (-2) and T53. Cameron Young (-1): Two Presidents Cup players went to Japan and couldn’t crack the top 40, which is disappointing. Both of these guys are on a bit of “wait, are we sure they’re going to be on next year’s Ryder Cup team?” watch. While both are terrific players — and Morikawa an accomplished winner — both can also be streaky, which can certainly be a good thing but often can also lead to some pretty sub-par results like these. Grade: D

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It has been a long three years for Rickie Fowler and on Sunday at the 2022 Zozo Championship he has an opportunity to squash all his past critics. Getting around Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club with a 4-under 66 on Saturday, Fowler stands at 14 under through three rounds and commands a slim lead over Keegan Bradley at 13 under, Andrew Putnam at 12 under and Viktor Hovland at 11 under.

Playing in the final pairing alongside Putnam in the third round, Fowler hardly looked as if he was a year removed from his last contention run. Two birdies on his outward half were accompanied by three on his inward half and only one bogey — his lone blemish over his last 36 holes.

While the collective golf public will be at the back of Fowler in the final round of the Zozo Championship, his return to prominence will not come without stress. Fowler has struggled as a 54-hole leader throughout his tenure on the PGA Tour, converting only two of eight prior chances into victories including his last triumph at the 2019 WM Phoenix Open.

Last in this position at the 2021 CJ Cup at The Summit Club, Fowler struggled early and often 51 weeks ago and ultimately gave way to Rory McIlroy. There is no McIlroy in this field, but that is not to say his pursuers can be glanced over. Bradley can ball-strike with the best of them, Putnam is in the midst of a stellar seven-tournament stretch and Hovland is well, Hovland and capable of just about anything.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in this situation. Last year at CJ [CUP] was in a similar situation, but other than that, there hasn’t been much the last few years,” Fowler said. “Obviously remember being in those situations before, but no, it will be tough tomorrow, but also fun. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m going to have to play well and continue to do what I’ve been doing the last three days. Keegan [Bradley], Putty [Andrew Putnam] on down the list, there’s plenty of guys within a few shots. I’m out front, in control, but that can change if I don’t execute like I have been.”

The leader

1. Rickie Fowler (-14)

Fowler began the week congratulating Tom Kim and his former caddie Joe Skovron on their victory at the Shriners Children’s Open and now he finds himself in position to grab a trophy of his own. Motivation has never been fleeting for Fowler as critics run wild and his recent swing changes only empowered those to come out of the woodworks. 

The iron play has looked extremely sharp through three rounds, but more importantly, he is starting to putt like vintage Fowler again. While many like to point to his full swing as the cause of his poor play, it has actually been the flat stick which has let the 33-year-old down. Losing strokes on the greens the last two seasons on the PGA Tour, he has quickly rectified this situation. While the full swing will surely come under pressure in the heat of contention — and the driver should be on the eyes of viewers — with Fowler it has and always will come down to the putter.

Other contenders

2. Keegan Bradley (-13)

3. Andrew Putnam (-12)

4. Viktor Hovland (-11)

T5. Maverick McNealy, Cameron Champ, Hayden Buckley (-10)

T8. Sahith Theegala, Taylor Moore, Tom Hoge, Ryo Hisatsune, Joel Dahmen, Matthew NeSmith (-9)

Earlier this week, a question was posed on the First Cut Podcast whether Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young or Hovland will capture the most victories in the 2022-23 season. My CBS Sports colleague Kyle Porter was the lone man to select Hovland and must be grinning at the moment.

Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club is an exquisite fit for the Norwegian as he is one of the best ball strikers in this field and has displayed this through 54 holes. Hitting all 18 greens in regulation in Round 3, if Hovland is able to keep things this stress free on Sunday, it may be him and not Fowler who notches a win for Oklahoma State.

“It’s just kind of simple golf. Like there’s not too much water, but there’s just some really good tee shots out here. Not the widest fairways and the rough is penal, so you’ve got to drive it well,” Hovland said. “If you put it in the fairway, you’re going to have a lot of good short irons with the greens being so soft and pure, so you can really attack the pins, and if you get the putter going, you can make some birdies.”

2022 Zozo Championship updated odds and picks

• Rickie Fowler: 11/5
• Keegan Bradley: 12/5
• Viktor Hovland: 6-1
• Andrew Putnam: 15/2
• Maverick McNealy: 20-1
• Cameron Champ: 25-1
• Hayden Buckley: 40-1
• Sahith Theegala: 40-1
• Tom Hoge 45-1
• Matthew NeSmith: 60-1
• Taylor Moore: 75-1
• Joel Dahmen: 80-1

The heart says Fowler gets off the schneid and wins the Zozo Championship. His price is relatively fair and I don’t mind indulging just for the fact it is Fowler. Unfortunately, golf has a way of ripping hearts out and Hovland may be the player to do just that. 

The world No. 11 will need to hit a few more fairways, but for a driver of his caliber, this should be achievable. He has quietly become one of the best putters in the world dating back to last summer and combined with his ball-striking prowess, he will put a ton of pressure on Fowler, and possibly enough to break him. 

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With the overnight leader heading in the wrong direction in the second round of the 2022 Zozo Championship, the door was swung wide open for a number of candidates to put their claim on this championship. Andrew Putnam was the man who marched through first as the 33-year-old was simply brilliant around Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on Friday.

Signing for an 8-under 62, Putnam secured not only a new course record — which was later bested by John Huh’s 61 — but also a share of the 36-hole lead at 10 under. Beginning the day with two straight birdies, he added birdies on the par-3 fifth and par-4 eighth to turn in 4-under 30. Four additional birdies on his inward half were all he needed to claim the new low score around Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, but it was nearly one less as he experienced a brutal lip-out for eagle on his final hole of the day.

One worse than Putnam on the day was fan-favorite Rickie Fowler who carded a 7-under 63 to share the lead at the halfway point. Coming off a short week at the Shriners Children’s Open, the five-time PGA Tour winner is still clearly working through swing changes, but Friday did mark his first bogey-free effort of the young season.

A big step in the right direction, Fowler will need to continue to play in this manner if he is to overtake Putnam and fend off Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland — all of whom are currently inside the top 10.

The leaders

T1. Andrew Putnam, Rickie Fowler (-10)

The question heading into the weekend is whether Fowler can continue to drive the golf ball the way he currently is. Losing nearly four strokes off-the-tee at TPC Summerlin a week ago, the 33-year-old struggled with a two-way miss and was left scrambling more times than not in the desert. 

It has been a completely different story through 36 holes as he ranks 12th in driving accuracy having connected on nearly 66% of the fairways. With a necessity of playing approach shots from the short grass, Fowler understands the importance the big stick holds moving forward.

“I need to drive it well around this place, which like I said, I’ve managed my way with what I’ve had the first two days, but looking forward to a little bit of work and tighten that up,” Fowler said. “Yeah, just continue to have fun on this golf course and hopefully I’m playing from the fairway.”

Other contenders

3. Keegan Bradley (-9)

4. John Huh (-8)

5. Keita Nakajima (-7)

T6. Matthew NeSmith, Sam Ryder (-6)

T8. Adam Schenk, Collin Morikawa, Joel Dahmen, Viktor Hovland, Luke List (-5)

It was an impressive bounce back for Morikawa in the second round as he signed for a 6-under 64 to catapult his name into contention. Earlier in the week, he mentioned the effects of jet lag having only been in Japan for 30 hours before the onset of the tournament and admittingly looked sluggish in the first round. 

He now appears to be back to his normal self and having experienced a winless 2021-22 campaign, he will relish the opportunity to get off the schneid and back into the winner’s circle. The world No. 9 ranks second in driving accuracy and fifth in greens in regulation through the first two rounds and it is hard to imagine his reliable ball-striking going anywhere over the weekend.

2022 Zozo Championship updated odds and picks

• Keegan Bradley: 18/5
• Rickie Fowler: 4-1
• Andrew Putnam: 5-1
• Collin Morikawa: 14-1
• Viktor Hovland: 16-1
• Xander Schauffele: 18-1
• John Huh: 20-1
• Matthew NeSmith: 25-1
• Keita Nakajima: 40-1
• Cameron Young: 45-1
• Sam Ryder: 45-1

Ideally, the ball will be played down in the second half of this tournament as Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club continues to dry out from previous rain. This puts an added importance on ball-striking as around-the-green play will prove to be more difficult and greens will firm up. 

With this in mind, Morikawa makes a ton of sense at 14-1 which is roughly the same as his pre-tournament price. As mentioned, he is driving it beautifully and his iron play looks like peak Morikawa which makes him ultra dangerous as a chaser. The two-time major champion stands alongside a potential long shot option in Luke List at 5 under who possesses a similar skillset and is listed at 55-1 if looking for a bit more juice for your squeeze.

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