Rookie Keegan Bradley wins PGA
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Five shots behind with only three holes to play, and a triple bogey on the 15th, left rookie Keegan Bradley with a mountain to climb in his first major at the P.G.A Championship in Atlanta.
“I just kept telling myself, ‘Don’t let that hole define this whole tournament,’ said the 25-year-old from Vermont who at that moment was facing odds of 270-1 to win and haul back leader Jason Dufner.
What followed was straight out of Hollywood.
Back-to-back birdies, a par on the final hole, and he had improbably clawed his way back.
Dufner, 34, who had been so comfortable up till then, imploded. Three straight bogeys and he faced a three-hole playoff with Bradley.
The momentum was with the younger man, and Bradley birdied the 16th hole in the play-off to take the outright lead, winning the major by one and became only the third player to win a major on his first try.
"It seems like a dream and I'm afraid I'm going to wake up here in the next five minutes and it's not going to be real," said Bradley.
As well as his eight-under 272 total, Bradley walks away with a jump in 74 places in the world rankings moving up to 29th and a check for $1.455 million.
He also ends the United States’ longest drought at major championships becoming the first American to triumph at the most prestigious events on the tour since Phil Mickelson’s win at the 2010 Masters.
"I don't want to be one of the guys that kind of disappears," said Bradley.
"I would love to be up in a category with the best players and be mentioned with Mickelson, one of my idols. I hope I don't disappear. I don't plan to."
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