Vermont Native Shocks The Golf World!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Who is this guy anyway?
When you think of the world’s greatest pro golfers and where they’re from, the state of Vermont isn’t exactly on the top of your mind. In fact, it’s not even in your mind at all!
That may soon change after this past weekend’s PGA Championship in Atlanta. That is where Woodstock, Vermont native Keegan Bradley took the golfing world by storm with a stunning victory in golf’s fourth and final major of the year.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOkay, so Bradley made a little news earlier this season. He won his first career PGA Tour event at the Byron Nelson Championship by winning a playoff.
That winning playoff experience apparently meant something Sunday because Bradley was forced to play extra holes again, this time for a major championship. He defeated Jason Duffner to win the coveted Wanamaker Trophy.
The playoff win capped an unbelievably dramatic finish to the event. Bradley triple-bogeyed the 15th hole after putting the ball into the water and seemed out of it at 5-shots back with 3 holes to play. But the man never gave up.
“I just kept telling myself, don’t let that hole define this whole tournament,” he said. He did not.
Bradley made back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 to put a little pressure on leader Jason Dufner. Whether Dufner collapsed under that pressure is a question that only he can answer but it certainly appeared to be the case.
Dufner hit his tee shot into the water on the par-3 15th beginning a string of 3 straight bogies leading to the playoff with Bradley.
Bradley birdied the first playoff hole and went on to win the playoff by 1-shot. An amazing accomplishment for a relatively unknown rookie.
He is the nephew of LPGA star Pat Bradley and the son of a golf pro in Vermont. He lists the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots as his favorite sports teams and the Red Sox winning the World Series as his biggest thrill outside of golf.
If that’s not enough “regular guy” stuff for you, he lists “Seinfeld” as his favorite TV show, “Goodfellas” as his favorite movie and says his dream foursome includes his dad, Ben Hogan and his favorite pro athlete Tom Brady.
Tom Brady may be a little busy now with training camp and Ben Hogan is no longer around, but something tells me that Bradley will probably get to meet the Patriots’ QB sometime soon and maybe even get a chance to tee it up with him and his dad sometime during the offseason.
After all, he is the 2011 PGA Champion.
