5 things about KeyGan Bradley I learned to write our magazine story

Before next week’s Ryder Cup, US team captain Keegan Bradley greeted the latest Golf Magazine cover. You can argue that Bradley has become the face of this year’s Ryder Cup – because of his captain, because of his passion for the event, because of his candidacy to do the team and because of his connection to the host course – so it was only appropriate for him to serve as the face of our viewing issue, too.

You can read the cover story In its entirety here. You can also look video version Below. Or you can read about some things I have learned about Bradley in the process of writing and reporting our history.

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1. He was not just a competitive skier – he was a truly Good one.

Like Bradley I grew up in the small town of New England, less than 100 miles south and west from his home to Woodstock, VT. As Bradley I grew up a competitive skier with a summer love for golf. When I was in college my golf team friends and I also played a half frequency rounds with Uncle John to Keegan, a former ski run and low handicapper living in the city. I remember he said at a time when Bradleys learns two things early: how to ski quickly and how to make birds. And I would read how Kejan had to decide as a child on which road everyone would go.

So it was eagerly that I dove in the newspaper’s archives to try to figure out how good the Bradley ski career was actually. Bradley in an era where his high school results are mainly pre-social media (Plus Vermont may not have been the first in the Internet era), so it was not like his ski exploits were particularly capable of Google. Thankfully, Valley’s news It was especially useful in tracing some race results. Findings: Keegan was fast! He was not just a competent skier – he was one of the fastest in Vermont, a hotbed for ski races.

A newspaper excerpt highlighted a race of race in the league in both directions of the giant slalom which was described as “his third victory in five races”. And he was widely written about his third place completion in the 2003 Vermont State Championship race. A quotation stuck by that show by Woodstock Steve Foley: “… Keegan Bradley made himself proud of his third place,” Foley said. “Many of those Northern boys run on weekend programs, and Keegan was an extraordinary show.” Even in Vermont, Bradley liked his role as submissive.

2. He has always been a mix of “strangers” and winner.

I wrote in the magazine about the idea that there are “Two Keegan Bradleys”. One was an eternal winner-word who was a multi-season athlete, with many sports, a boy you would like in your corner, a natural leader and a native of a born, born son of a PGA professional and nephew of The legend of lpga pat Bradley.

But the other side is this little city child with a chip on his shoulder who thinks he would better force his competition because they have certain integrated advantages; He was with a modest background in a cold -weather state playing a sport built for warm -rich children. The year he won the title of high school state in Massachusetts was the same year that he and his father Mark moved to a trailer where the kitchen table doubled like a bed. And this was the year Bradley won a scholarship for St. John, where the next chapter began…

3. Bethpage connection is very true.

You will hear enough for Bradley and Bethpage in the following days you can start to ask yourself if the background is true, if the connection is true, if Bradley and Bethpage really I DO Go back. Stay safe: they really do, really. Bradley was excited to play Bethpage before he enrolled, and after he got there, he played regularly in other state park courses, as the famous Plus yellow. But on Monday he and some teammates would have access to Bethpage Black – at least part of it. It was the perfect metaphor for the whole Bradley relationship with golf: on the edge of greatness, close enough to enjoy it, but not yet welcome.

You can hear it with Bradley’s voice when he talks about Bethpage. He said he feels “a true sense of obligation to represent Bethpage the right way”, with which he means defending the origin of his country’s club.

“Winged Foot is great, Shinnecock is amazing, but if you talk to a real New Yorker, Bethpage is their home course,” he said.

4. ”He is just a kind all”

My favorite quote from reporting the piece – the one I found the simplest and most useful – was from St. John Frank Darby’s College coach who recruited Bradley and withdrew for his overall impatience.

“He’s just a kind everything,“Darby said.” He has this sticky enthusiasm that simply brings people together with him. “

They say how you do nothing is how you do everything, and it checks for Bradley, who seems to have gone to this captain with his characteristic cocktail of dedication and nerve energy. He is in it, indeed.

5. He may allow to lose more now than in college, though.

Bradley’s teammates called him “grandfather” for a reason: he was not exactly directing the New York City nightlife charges. For one thing, he was so focused on the laser in his golf future that there was no time to do everything else. For another, going to the city at NYC is an expensive proposal.

But that does not mean that St. John’s team was a bad time in any way. Bradley describes them as a tight gang, Ragtag living some of the best years of their lives in a team house in Queens. The way Bradley described it, if there was an extra boy on the team list, then they would find a way to place a mattress in the living room. This suppressed their approach – once you were on the team, they would find a way to make it work. Everything except playing the last four holes in Bethpage Black, of course.

This is a way that Bradley’s American team will change.

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