Keegan Bradley excelled in his return to the President’s Cup.
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MONTREAL – If you leave the Royal Montreal Golf Club, head south on Autoroute 35, cross the border at Highgate Springs, drive 100 miles and take a right, you’ll reach the leafy little town of Woodstock, Vt. Hit the road at the right time and the whole trip can take you less than three hours.
No wonder Keegan Bradley feels like this week, he’s come home.
Bradley is not supposed to be on this US Presidents Cup team. Not really. There has been so much turnover in these American charts that no one is still around his generation. Rewind a few years to the 2017 Presidents Cup and you’ll find that there’s no one left from that American team. Ditto for the 2016 Ryder Cup. And the 2015 Presidents Cup. But look at the team photo from the 2014 Ryder Cup and you’ll find a 28-year-old Bradley in red, white and blue, in the middle of his favorite week of year. At the time he assumed it would be there ANY year, on each of these teams for the next decade plus.
Instead, it took a decade to bounce back.
And so when the 38-year-old from Woodstock drained a birdie putt on the first hole of his four-ball match Thursday, he let out a whoop and a giant fist pump. And when he holed a 20-footer into the middle of the cup on 18, securing a 1-up victory and a 5-0 sweep of the USA, he lost his mind.
“It was 10 years of pent-up energy not playing this,” Bradley said after the round. “I just had such a blast out there today.”
Bradley’s relationship with Team USA is well documented. His obsession creating the Ryder Cup roster was so all-encompassing that it permeated every part of his life. When he was left out of last year’s Ryder Cup, it almost ruined him. But then, in a shocking turn of events, he found his role: this year he was named the US Ryder Cup. captain for next year’s game in Bethpage. And then he found his game, winning the BMW Championship in August to compete in this year’s President’s Cup team. Since then, he has been trying to stop and smell the roses every minute.
“Well, this morning when I heard the National Anthem and I was seeing the boys getting ready, I got really excited. It really surprised me,” he said. “There was a moment in my life when I never thought I would do it again.
This time it looked different than in 2014. In his years on the Ryder and Presidents Cup teams, Bradley was always paired with Phil Mickelson, an electric partnership he says he took for granted, battling with “one of the greats to ever touch a club.” But there is beauty in the new.
“I haven’t played Wyndham much, and now I know why he’s so good,” Bradley said, referring to four-ball partner Wyndham Clark. “He hits a lot of good shots and makes a lot of long shots.”
Bradley took his fair share of shots on Thursday, too. More than his fair share. He canned six putts of 10 feet or more, including one in the first and one in the last. That meant plenty of chances to let his teammates and fans know how much it meant to be back.
There’s an irony to Bradley’s return: For all those years, he wanted to play his way onto these teams to prove he was one of the guys who belonged. But that boy band he’d dreamed of joining? They are all gone. This is a whole new culture. That doesn’t make it any less satisfying, but it does give it a different perspective. He described admiration – mixed with some regret.
“To be able to be here with a whole new group of guys, and I’m not afraid to say, I’m 38 years old and I look at all these players here. It has truly been an inspiring week for me, on and off the golf course. I just love being around them. They’re funny, they’re fun, and I’m really proud to be in the same room with them playing this tour.”
This was admiration. Regret:
“On a really serious note, what I’ve learned is how much these guys care about each other,” he said. “I was of an era, I think, where I felt like everyone I was playing against was my enemy, and I’m very sorry for that. These guys care about each other. They want to beat them bad inside the ropes, but when they get outside the ropes, they’re friends, the women are friends. It’s a much happier way to go about this life.”
Bradley is extremely competitive. He is also extremely restless. He has loved his golf life, but it has never been easy. Late in Thursday’s press conference he was asked about his appearance on Netflix Full motionwhich showed his heartache but also his off-course personality.
“I find it very difficult to be myself in golf tournaments,” he added. “I’m a nervous wreck. I felt (Netflix) was an opportunity to show people who I am for real, what I’m like off the golf course. That’s why I’m so jealous of these guys. They are themselves AND off the golf course.”
Those guys surrounded Bradley in the dim light on the 18th green, lining up to offer congratulations to their youngest, oldest teammate. Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa and more, the best players in the world, his peers. They knew how much it meant for him to be there, not just participating, but contributing. Being here means more to them, knowing how much it means to him. Three hours from where he grew up. Right at home.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
