True grit helps Bradley realise his dreams

GOLF:YOU JUST don't know any more, do you? On Sunday, here at Atlanta Athletic Club, Keegan Bradley ended one sequence – that of Americans failing to win a Major – which had seemed to be an aeon but, in fact, was only 17 months long; but, perhaps more pertinently, he continued another streak as he became the seventh-straight first-time winner of a Major title when he captured the USPGA championship.

Bradley, a 25-year-old golfer from a family with rich lineage in the sport, didn’t just capture the famed Wanamaker Trophy, he brazenly stole it. He became its custodian after a performance of such majesty and grit – having stood on the 16th tee of his final round with a five-stroke deficit on Jason Dufner – over his closing three holes and then the extra three holes of the play-off that nobody could begrudge him his win.

Rather, this was another signalling of yet another young gun’s arrival as a major player. As his aunt, Pat Bradley, a six-time Major winner in the women’s game, put it afterwards of her nephew’s refusal to capitulate when all seemed lost heading down the stretch: “He showed some Bradley toughness. We’re an Irish family and we have that Irish toughness and he showed that, and I am just so very proud of him and the way he fought back and brought it home.”

How tough was Bradley on closing the deal? Well, maybe he did inherit some family traits. In his book, Golf Is A Game of Confidence, in 1996, Dr Bob Rotella wrote that Pat Bradley was the most mentally tough athlete he knew. Now the cycle has come full circle because Rotella – the man of the moment, coming on the back of his tie-up with Darren Clarke at the British Open – also works with the new PGA champion.

Bradley’s response to a triple-bogey six on the Par three 15th hole – which left him five shots behind Dufner – was stunning as he birdied the 16th and 17th holes and made par on the 18th. Behind him, Dufner – seeking his first ever win on tour – bogeyed 15, 16 and 17 and parred the 18th to earn a play-off. In that subsequent three-hole aggregate duel, Bradley went birdie-par-par to Dufner’s par-bogey-birdie for a 10 strokes to Dufner’s 11 win.

Bradley, who started the year ranked 329th in the official world rankings, moved to a career-high 29th on the back of his win – the first Major claimed by a player using the long belly-putter – and earned exemptions into Majors and WGC events that make it a life-changing victory. Or, as Bradley, taking a photo of the trophy to upload onto his twitter page, put it: “it seems like a dream, and I’m afraid I’m going to wake up . . . and it’s not going to be real”.

Bradley, in his ‘rookie’ season on the US Tour but with a winning pedigree after capturing the Byron Nelson Classic earlier in the season, proved that arriving unheralded was no handicap.

“Ever since I was 10 years old, I’ve kind of flown under the radar. Growing up, I’ve always wanted to win tournaments, to win Majors,” he said in providing an insight into his own hunger.

Of the impact made on him by his aunt, Bradley recounted the story of going to watch her play when he was very young. “I grew up going to Pat’s tournaments and totally idolising her and wanting to be like her out there. I remember watching her, literally staring her in the face, and I’m her nephew, and she was so into it, she would not even recognise me. And I thought that was cool. I always wanted to be like her.”

Growing up in Vermont in New England, Bradley had also been a more than decent skier. But, one day, sitting atop a ski run, he decided it was not for him.

“It was a slalom and I’ll never forget it. It was raining, cold, sleeting and I’m at the top of the mountain going, ‘this is not as much fun as golf, I love golf so much more.’”

His father, Mark, a PGA club professional, was his main influence. “My dad gave me the opportunity to play endless golf when it was not snowing in Vermont. Endless golf, all day long, as much golf as I could get, and it’s paid off.”

Yet, Bradley’s route to the main US Tour was hardly mainstream. Having attended St John’s University in New York – more noted as a basketball college – he started playing on the Hooters Tour (literally the third division) before progressing to the Nationwide Tour and, this season, to the US Tour.

So, how does he explain graduating to the status of a Major champion so quickly? Simple, really,

“The top players are not dominating like they were, which is great for the tour. It gives an opportunity for a player like me to win this and I just think it (the PGA Tour) is as deep as it’s ever been and it is only getting deeper – the younger players are very, very good.”