A comeback that ranks among the best. A collapse that few saw coming. There was even a player in a red shirt, pumping his fists with each clutch putt in the final, frenzied hour of the USPGA Championship. That player wasn't Tiger, of course. Woods had left the scene 48 hours earlier, having missed only his third cut in a major. The player in question was Keegan Bradley, a 25-year-old PGA Tour rookie, whose name sat amid a leaderboard littered with unfamiliar names. And it was he who delivered a memorable finish.
Bradley was five shots behind the equally obscure Jason Dufner with only three holes to play after sculling his chip shot through the 15th green and into the water, leading to a triple bogey. He looked dead and buried, but reminded himself that no lead was safe on the final four holes of Atlanta Athletic Club, one of the most penal courses to have hosted the US PGA.
"I just kept telling myself, 'Don't let that hole define this whole tournament,'" said Bradley.
True to his word, the rake-thin Bradley, nephew of LPGA Tour great Pat Bradley, made back-to-back birdies, including a 40ft monster on the 17th, which put the heat well and truly on Dufner, who, quite simply, capitulated.
Unflappable all afternoon, Dufner had been cruising. Finding nearly every fairway and hitting crisp iron shots to the heart of nearly every green, the 34-year-old, who had never won a tournament despite 10 years on the PGA Tour, was grinding out the kind of performance that Nick Faldo in his heyday would have been proud of. Until, that is, he reached the tee at the 15th, a gruesomely long par-three with water fronting the green.
It was the water Dufner found, and although he managed to get up and down for a gutsy bogey, the tide was already turning. Knowing Bradley had birdied the 16th to cut his lead further, Dufner made two more bogeys – for three in a row – and only a good two-putt par at the water-laced 18th hole saved him from losing the championship in regulation play.
While Dufner's fall wasn't as spectacular as Jean Van de Velde's at the Open at Carnoustie in 1999, it was surely just as painful, although the man himself put on a brave face after finishing a shot behind Bradley in the three-hole play-off.
"Everyone struggled on them," said Dufner of the closing four holes. "Unfortunately, I had the lead and I struggled on them ... That was the deciding factor, and Keegan made a couple of birdies. But there's a lot to be learned from this and a lot of experience to be gained from this."
But to the victor goes the spoils and Bradley, who became only the third player in a hundred years to win a major on his debut, shared his joy with a spot of social networking. With the enormous Wanamaker Trophy at his side, Bradley took out his phone and snapped a picture of it. Before long he had posted the item on Twitter with three hash tags – "pgachampion. triplebogies. happiness."
It feels unbelievable," Bradley said. "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."
The final major of the year was hard to believe for so many reasons.
For a start there was the belly putter that Bradley was using. Traditionalists will balk at the thought of a man in his mid-20s using such a club, but in doing so Bradley became the first player in history to win using a long putter. (Angel Cabrera used a longer than normal putter when he won the Masters in 2009, but the crucial difference, say the experts, is that Cabrera didn't anchor the club to his body, a la Keegan).
Secondly, it was Bradley who ended the United States longest drought in a major that had reached six. It wasn't Dustin Johnson and it certainly wasn't Tiger Woods that lifted American spirits – rather, it was the then No. 108 ranked Bradley who saved the day.
And what of US Open champion Rory McIlroy, the pre-event favourite and most popular player in the world right now? Well, on just the third hole of the tournament, and with his ball resting very close to – if not actually on – a tree root, the 22-year-old decided to take a good old whack at it. Bad move. In attempting the shot, McIlroy injured his arm so badly that it needed to be taped up. He carried on and made the cut but finished 19 shots off the pace.
Bradley's win makes it seven straight majors by players who had never before captured a Grand Slam event, the longest streak ever.
"I don't want to be one of the guys that kind of disappears," said Bradley, in reference, perhaps, to the likes of Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel who have won this championship and precious little else. "I would love to be up in a category with the best players and be mentioned with Phil Mickelson, one of my idols. I hope I don't disappear. I don't plan to."
Mickelson had been the last American to win a major at the 2010 Masters, and perhaps it was only fitting that one of his protégés ended the drought. Mickelson has been playing money games during practice rounds at the big tournaments with Bradley, wanting him to be prepared to play for something more prestigious than cash. Bradley clearly took the lessons to heart.
2011 US PGA Championship Results
1 Keegan Bradley* USA 71 64 69 68 272 US$1,445,000
2 Jason Dufner USA 70 65 68 69 272 US$865,000
3 Anders Hansen DEN 68 69 70 66 273 US$545,000
4= David Toms USA 72 71 65 67 275 US$331,000
Scott Verplank USA 67 69 69 70 275 US$331,000
Robert Karlsson SWE 70 71 67 67 275 US$332,000
7 Adam Scott AUS 69 69 70 68 276 US$259,000
8= Lee Westwood ENG 71 68 70 68 277 US$224,500
Luke Donald ENG 70 71 68 68 277 US$224,500
10= Kevin Na USA 72 69 70 67 278 US$188,000
DA Points USA 69 67 71 71 278 US$188,000
12= Charl Schwartzel RSA 71 71 66 71 279 US$132,786
Bill Haas USA 68 73 69 69 279 US$132,786
Nick Watney USA 70 71 68 70 279 US$132,786
Gary Woodland USA 70 70 71 68 279 US$132,786
Steve Stricker USA 63 74 69 73 279 US$132,786
Sergio Garcia ESP 72 69 69 69 279 US$132,786
Trevor Immelman RSA 69 71 71 68 279 US$132,786
19= Matt Kuchar USA 71 71 68 70 280 US$81,214
Phil Mickelson USA 71 70 69 70 280 US$81,214
* Won following three-hole play-off
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