Few have been ready for the announcement in July 2024 that Keegan Bradley could be skippering the Individuals on this 12 months’s Ryder Cup.
His final involvement within the matches got here in 2014 – he would play on two shedding groups – however now he would buck the development by choosing a participant who would possibly effectively make the workforce.
Over a 12 months on, and he would possibly nonetheless make his personal workforce after a victory at The Vacationers in June.
Born?
Bradley was born on June 7, 1986, so, on the age of simply 39, he would be the youngest Ryder Cup captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
Flip professional?
He left the novice ranks in 2008 and, after a university profession that promised little of what was to come back, started life on the Hooters Tour.
First professional win?
In 2011, he made it to the PGA Tour after a robust end to the Nationwide Tour season.
He produced a handful of prime 10s and missed cuts earlier than beating Ryan Palmer in a play-off for the Byron Nelson Championship.
It could place him within the WGC Bridgestone, the place he threatened for 3 and a half days earlier than falling away.
The next week would then change the remainder of his life.
Married?
He’s married to Jillian and so they have two sons, Logan and Cooper. They met in 2012 and tied the knot 4 years later.
She would seem within the second season of Full Swing when he would focus on his Ryder Cup hopes and subsequent cellphone name to inform him that he wouldn’t be a part of the 2023 workforce.
Favorite sporting groups?
Briefly, all issues Boston. So the Pink Sox in baseball, the Celtics in basketball, the Bruins in hockey and the New England Patriots in soccer.
So it was no shock that he would symbolize Boston Widespread Golf within the TGL, the place he would workforce up with Rory McIlroy.
Earnings?
Bradley has earned $55m, a determine that has been considerably helped by his $3.6m win at this 12 months’s Vacationers.
He has loved a group of sponsors over time; he was with TravisMathew for one thing like 9 years, and if the US workforce ought to pull it off at Bethpage, then his off-course earnings will undergo the roof.
Gear?
He’s a long-term Srixon workers participant and he makes use of the ZX5/ZX7 irons and a Z-Star ball, in addition to different additions from Ping, TaylorMade and Odyssey.
When he received the 2011 PGA, he had a bag stuffed with Cleveland golf equipment and the Odyssey White Sizzling XG Sabretooth putter.
Largest achievement?
That Main victory after a triple-bogey at Atlanta Athletic Membership’s fifteenth gap. There would then be back-to-back birdies at 16 and 17 to coincide with good good friend Jason Dufner’s poor end.
He would then win a three-hole play-off to turn out to be simply the third participant after Francis Ouimet (1913) and Ben Curtis (2003) to win a Main in his first try.
Apparently, he was the primary participant to win a Main with a protracted putter. Now he could make his identify in a distinct mild, both as a participant or the very uncommon chance of being a taking part in captain.
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