When he stepped to the 18th tee trailing Jim Furyk by one shot, Keegan Bradley had one thought running through his mind.
“This is the moment that I live for.”
When Furyk stood over a 5-foot putt on the 10th green that would have given him a 4-shot lead if he made it and Bradley missed from 20 feet, Bradley told himself the same thing.
“This is the moment that I live for.”
When his playing partners birdied the 16th hole, Louis Oosthuizen chipping in from behind the green and Furyk sinking an 18-foot putt, Bradley heard the same voice.
“This is the moment I live for.”
The stunning winner of the $8.5 million World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday, Bradley seems to be hard-wired differently than most. In pressure situations, when others would wither, Bradley, a 26-year-old from Woodstock, Vt., thrives.
He rolled in a 15-foot par-saving putt at 18 after a plugged lie in the bunker to turn up the heat on Furyk.
Shockingly, Furyk missed a 5-footer for bogey that would have forced a playoff and suffered a heart-breaking loss after leading for 71 holes.
Bradley is a mélange of weird habits, like backing off his shot after a few practice swings, then readdressing and immediately hitting it. When he steps back, he draws groans from those who haven’t seen him play. When he’s lining up a putt, he angles his head and gawks at it with his left eye forward, almost protruding.
“It’s something I’ve done since I was a little kid,” he said. “I’m trying to see the line. I know it looks really strange. But you know what? I’ve come to realize that a lot of the stuff that I do is strange.”
Furyk, Jason Dufner and Ryan Palmer, the victims in Bradley’s three victories, might put his fearlessness under fire in the same category. In all three of his victories in his two years on the PGA Tour, Bradley has come from behind.
Furyk led Oosthuizen by 1 and Bradley by 4 after 54 holes at Firestone. The margin swelled to 6 after five holes on Sunday, when Furyk opened with three consecutive birdies.
Dufner led Bradley by 5 with three holes to play at the PGA Championship last year at Atlanta Athletic Club, then lost to Bradley in a three-hole playoff.
Palmer held a 4-stroke margin over Bradley after 54 holes in the 2011 HP-Byron Nelson Classic and lost to Bradley on the first playoff hole.
Bradley’s rally Sunday was the largest in Bridgestone Invitational history, which includes only its years as a WGC event. Tiger Woods (2009) and Hunter Mahan (2010) shared the previous comeback mark of 3 strokes.
So when Bradley was making a google-eye at his 15- footer on No. 18, he couldn’t wait to hit it.
“I just kept telling myself that this is the exact moment that I live for, that you play golf for, that you grow up your whole life, and I’m living it,” Bradley said. “It’s just an amazing feeling to be in that moment and just loving every second of it.
“I didn’t think for a second I was going to miss it. It was unbelievable. I got behind it, and I barely even had to read it. I knew the exact way it was going to break. I just needed to hit it hard enough. I knew that. And it was dead center.”
Bradley is the nephew of World Golf Hall of Famer Pat Bradley and has had such feelings since he was a “little kid” squaring off in match play.
“I used to love coming down the last hole having to make birdie,” Bradley said. “And you know, I’m still just a little kid out there playing. I love it.
“To be there at Firestone, playing against Jim Furyk at the World Golf Championship, I just was reveling in it. I’m so lucky that I love it, because it’s a weird feeling out there, and I seem to thrive on it a little bit.”
Bradley had come through in trademark fashion earlier in the round. At No. 10, he made his 20-footer, and Furyk missed.
“It was a huge swing in the momentum of the tournament,” Bradley said.
At No. 16, Bradley calmly sneaked his 11-foot birdie putt into the right side of the cup to match the feats of Oosthuizen and Furyk. Oosthuizen, who finished fourth, was so fired up, he tossed his ball into the stands.
“Again, I was in the moment,” Bradley said of the putt on 16. “At the beginning of the year, I kind of took it for granted. I was there so much, and I didn’t realize really what was going on, and I lost it for a little bit, and I just missed it so much. And to be there and be hitting the shots and executing the way I did, I just enjoyed every minute of it.
“I love that Jim made that putt. I loved it, because it meant that I had to make mine.”
Bradley had been stewing that he gave away tournaments earlier this year at Doral and Greenbrier. He had a chance in Akron last year but shot 43 on the back nine and finished 15th. On Sunday, he shot 31 and carded a 64.
It might be too soon to declare Bradley the next big thing. But with this triumph, he virtually assured himself of a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, moving up to fourth in the standings, with the top eight qualifying after the PGA.
If American captain Davis Love III is looking for a man to close it out on the final day in September, he might have to consider Bradley, even though he will be competing in the event for the first time. The pressure-packed matches against the Europeans would fit perfectly with Bradley’s mantra.
“This is the moment that I live for.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
