Pat Bradley: Keegan's win 'gave me flashbacks'

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Keegan Bradley's win at the PGA Championship gave his Hall of Fame aunt flashbacks to her finest day as a pro.

Sitting glued to her TV late Sunday afternoon in her home in Cape Cod, watching her nephew orchestrate an improbable comeback win at the PGA Championship, Pat Bradley kept thinking about the past. Specifically her own past, which includes six major wins on the LPGA Tour en route to a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

When Keegan Bradley rolled in a seemingly impossible-to-make birdie putt from 35 feet on the 17th hole in regulation -- a putt that would prove to be the defining highlight at Atlanta Athletic Club -- Aunt Pat couldn't help but reflect on her own career-defining putt 30 years earlier at the U.S. Women's Open.

Tied with playing partner Beth Daniel down the stretch, Bradley holed a putt of nearly 70 feet for birdie on the 15th hole, eventually winning by one stroke at La Grange (Ill.) Country Club.

"I saw a lot of situations that gave me flashbacks on Sunday," Pat Bradley said. "That putt that Keegan made on 17 was a lot like the putt I made in the 1981 U.S. Open against Beth Daniel."

Obviously, the Bradley family has a flair for the dramatics. They also have the kind of tenacity and resiliency to win major championships. Keegan certainly showed that by bouncing back from a late triple bogey by making two straight birdies, eventually claiming the season's last major by beating Jason Dufner in a three-hole playoff.

"The way he fought back after that triple on the 15th, you could just see it in his eyes," Pat said. "Winning the PGA Championship just never left his eyes."

To his family and friends, Keegan's ability to overcome that hurdle is something they've seen from the TOUR rookie his whole golfing career.

Coming from Woodstock, Vt., Keegan wanted to stay in the Northeast for his college career, and committed to playing for coach Frank Darby at St. John's University. Bradley was dominant in the Big East, needing just five starts to win his first college tournament, and completing his collegiate career with nine wins and three first-team All-Big East selections.

But compared to the "big time" college programs, Bradley wasn't receiving the kind of attention other players around the country were, which pushed him to become even better. That resiliency paid off on the final stretch on Sunday at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

"Keegan has been resilient his whole life," Pat said, "and that was just another moment where he had to be resilient -- and he was."

Just like you can't teach that competitive attitude that runs in the Bradley family, Darby saw another intangible characteristic that has allowed Keegan to succeed so early, and so often, in his rookie year on the PGA TOUR.

"The one thing that separates Keegan is how explosive he is," Darby said. "He's always been explosive and that's just something you can't teach."

Darby joked that though he was Bradley's coach for four years, it felt like he didn't see him play often because other guys on the team needed more help.

"If Keegan would wave me over during competition, I'd think 'Oh he wants my advice' and then I'd get over there and he'd ask me for a bottle of water or something," Darby laughed. "I was more his hydration specialist, which was just fine with me."

Now that Bradley has made a name for himself in the PGA TOUR history books -- he's just the third player to win a major in his first major start, and only the second on U.S. soil (the other being Francis Ouimet at the 1913 U.S. Open) -- don't think he's going to forget where he came from.

"Keegan actually texts some of the younger guys on the team that he has never met to encourage them," Darby said, "and he actually just sent an e-mail to the entire team encouraging them to play well this season."

Staying humble and hungry is easy when you have such a solid support system. Along with Aunt Pat, his dad, Mark, is a PGA Professional in Wyoming and a highly sought-after ski instructor.

Pat, though, offers advice when she thinks she could help. So guess who text-messaged Keegan on Saturday night prior to the biggest round of his career?

"Keegan and I text, and though I don't give him a ton of advice, I did tell him Saturday night to have patience and to trust," Pat said. "He has the right people around him from his dad to his swing coach to his mental coach, he doesn't need his aunt."

It's doubtful Keegan agrees with that last statement. After all, what could be a better congratulations phone call than from one major champion family member to another?

If we've learned anything about the Bradley family this week it's that settling is never an option. For now, Keegan hasn't let the Wanamaker trophy out of his sight, but give it a few days and he'll be back grinding away in an effort to continue making his own name and legacy. After all, there's the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup looming out there in the coming weeks.

Could that trophy also have his name on it? Perhaps.

As Pat says, "It's time for Keegan to make his own history in the game."