Keegan Bradley

Keegan Bradley
Personnel
Nation:	United States
Career data
Professional since:	2008
Current tour:	PGA Tour (since 2011)
Tournament wins:	9 (PGA: 3, others: 6)
Major wins :	1
Awards:	2011 PGA Tour Newbie of the Year

Keegan Bradley (born June 7, 1986 in Woodstock , Vermont) is an American professional golfer on the US PGA Tour . Immediately in his first year on the tour, he caused quite a stir by winning the 2011 PGA Championship . Besides the fact that he was only the third professional player after Ben Curtis and Francis Ouimet to win his first major appearance, he was the first to use a so-called belly putter . As a result of his success, he was also voted Rookie of the year 2011 on the PGA Tour.

Early life

Keegan Bradley grew up in the state of Vermont, rather untypical for an American golf professional . He competed regularly in ski races during the long Vermont winters. But when he noticed that he preferred the weather conditions while golfing to skiing, at the age of 12 he decided to concentrate entirely on golf . His aunt Pat Bradley , who was his early role model, played a major role in this . Pat has won 31 tournaments on the LPGA Tour and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame .

Career

In 2008 he decided to go pro. He started on the NGA Hooters Tour, where he scored his first victory on his fifth run. In 2009 he had another win on this tour and he made his first experience on the Nationwide Tour, where he managed to make the cut twice in two starts. In 2010 he played continuously on the Nationwide Tour . After a hesitant start, he achieved four consecutive top 5 results at the end of the season, which brought him 14th place in the final bill and he was thus able to secure the license to play on the PGA tour. In the second tournament on the PGA Tour in 2011, he achieved a top ten result at the Bob Hope Classics . And his first win was in his first year at the HP Bryon Nelson Championships in the playoff against Ryan Palmer .

2011 PGA Championship

A few weeks after his first victory on the PGA Tour, he was also able to play his first major, the PGA Championship . With a 64 on the second day he took the lead, which he had to give back to Jason Dufner by one stroke on the third day . On the day of the final, after playing a triplebogey on the 15th hole, he was already five strokes behind. However, he got two birdies on holes 16 and 17 and his opponent played holes 15-17 bogey, so they were tied again after the 17th hole. Both par played the 18th hole, so the winner had to be determined in a playoff. In the 3-hole playoff, Bradley played one shot better than Dufner and thus won the tournament. With this victory, he climbed from 108th to 29th in the world rankings.

2012

At the 2012 Northern Trust Open , he managed a long birdie putt on the last hole, which saved him in a three-man playoff against Phil Mickelson and Bill Haas . He could not win the playoff, however, because Bill Haas sank a 15-meter putt on the 2nd extra hole and won. He was also close to winning the 2012 WGC-Cadillac Championships. On the tenth tee of the last day he was in the lead, but he played a disastrous 41 on the last nine holes and fell back to the shared eighth place.

Tournament wins (9)

PGA Tour (3)

Legend Major tournaments (1) Other PGA Tournaments (2)

No.	date	competition	Winner score	head Start	Second
1	May 29, 2011	HP Byron Nelson Championship	-3 (66-71-72-68 = 277)	Playoff	Ryan Palmer
2	August 14, 2011	PGA Championship	-8 (71-64-69-68 = 272)	Playoff	Jason Dufner
3	5th August 2012	WGC - Bridgestone Invitational	-13 (67-69-67-64 = 267)	1 hit	Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk

NGA Hooters Tour Wins (2)

• 2008 Southern Dunes
• 2009 Texas Honing Open

Other victories (4)

• 2011 PGA Grand Slam of Golf , Franklin Templeton Shootout (with Brendan Steele)
• 2015 CVS Health Charity Classic (with Jon Curran)
• 2016 CVS Health Charity Classic (with Jon Curran)

Major tournament

Won (1)

year	competition	After 54 holes	Winner score	head Start	Second
2011	PGA Championship	one blow back	−8 (71–64–69–68 = 272)	Playoff 1	Jason Dufner

¹ Defeated Jason Dufner after a 3-hole playoff: Bradley (3–3–4 = 10) and Dufner (4–4–3 = 11)

Results at major championships

Tournament	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
The Masters Tournament	DNP	T27	T54	CUT	T22	T52	DNP	DNP	T43
PGA Championship	1	T3	T19	CUT	T61	T42	T33	T42	T29
US Open (Golf)	DNP	T68	CUT	T4	T27	CUT	T60	CUT	CUT
The Open Championship	DNP	T34	T15	T19	CUT	T18	DNP	79	CUT

DNP = Not started
CUT = Cut not made
"T" = Broken place
Green background for won tournaments
Yellow background for top 10 places

Participation in team competitions

• Ryder Cup : 2012
• Presidents Cup : 2013

The game

Keegan Bradley practices some very noticeable and unusual rituals in his pre-shot routine. Before the swing he usually stands behind the ball to identify the direction of the shot, tripping slightly with his feet slightly offset while turning the club on the ground in his right hand. He also often performs this turning movement while aligning himself with the ball. Occasionally he performs trial swings on the ball by first placing the club behind the ball as if it were a stroke, but then performing the trial swings with the ground on the side facing him next to the ball. His method of identifying the putt line on the greens is also unusual: he turns his head slightly to the left by about a quarter turn to the right and, as it were, "squints" for the direction.

Keegan Bradley uses a belly putter.

He tends to be one of the "long hitters" on the PGA tour. For 2012 he was ranked 16th (out of 191 players listed) by the PGA in the "Driving Distance" category, with an average distance of 302.7 yards measured.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Keegan Bradley: "Always wanted to be like Aunt Pat". In: Small newspaper . August 16, 2011, archived from the original on September 10, 2012 . 
2. ↑ In the Bag: Keegan Bradley. (No longer available online.) Golf.de, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 20, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
3. ^ ^{A b} Woodstock Native Keegan Bradley Heating Up Nationwide Tour. (No longer available online.) In: Vermont Standard. November 24, 2010, archived from the original on March 25, 2012 ; accessed on March 20, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Keegan Bradley wins Hooters Tour event. USA Today , August 9, 2009; accessed March 20, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Ryan Palmer loses in the playoff to Keegan Bradley. (No longer available online.) Golfparadise.com, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 20, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
6. ↑ Keegan Bradley wins major in Atlanta. In: Focus . August 15, 2011, accessed March 20, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Haas, the surprise winner. (No longer available online.) Golftime.de, archived from the original on February 26, 2012 ; Retrieved March 20, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Rose wins in Doral. (No longer available online.) Golftime.de, archived from the original on March 14, 2012 ; Retrieved March 20, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Official website
• Player profile on the PGA Tour
• Tournament results of the last two years on the Official World Golf Ranking Website (English)
• PGA Tour Statistics: Driving Distance 2012