Keegan Bradley did his aunt, LPGA Tour Hall of Famer, Pat Bradley, proud, with his first PGA Tour win Sunday at the Byron Nelson Championship. The 24-year-old New Englander tucked his belly putter into his gut and bloodlessly canned a two-foot par putt at the 419-yard 18th hole, the first extra hole of a sudden-death playoff with Ryan Palmer.
“Just read it and smash it in the back of the cup,” the native of Woodstock, Vt., told Golf Channel about his thought process before draining his putt for the victory. “It’s just a dream of mine since ever I could remember.”
After wayward drives from both contestants on the 73rd hole of the tourney, Bradley waited while event volunteers wheeled away a lemonade stand, ruled a movable obstruction, that blocked his view of the green. No matter; Bradley saw an opening and wasted little time in hitting a low draw under tree branches about 145 yards to the front of the green.
Bradley’s ball stopped just inches from rolling down the slope into the water. Palmer was not so fortunate. Under a tree and with 142 yards to the hole, he choked down on a 6-iron, flicked his wrists, and hooked it into the hazard.
Bradley certainly comes from solid blood lines. Aunt Pat, the pride
of Westford, Mass., captured six major championships and 31 tour
victories in her professional
career. When she captured her first tour win in 1976, and after each subsequent victory, Bradley’s mother clapped a Swiss cowbell on the family’s porch in Westford. That cowbell resides in the World Golf Hall of Fame, but I’m pretty sure, sitting here in the next town over from Pat’s family homestead, I just heard someone clang a bell for Keegan.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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