5 things about Keegan Bradley I learned writing our magazine story

In advance of next week’s Ryder Cup, U.S. team captain Keegan Bradley graced the latest cover of GOLF Magazine. You could argue that Bradley has become the face of this year’s Ryder Cup — because of his captaincy, because of his passion for the event, because of his run at making the team and because of his connection to the host course — so it was only fitting that he serve as the face of our preview issue, too.

You can read the cover story in its entirety here. You can also watch the video version below. Or you can read on for a few things I learned about Bradley in the process of writing and reporting our story.

1. He wasn’t just a competitive skier — he was a really good one.

Like Bradley I grew up in small-town New England, less than 100 miles south and west from his home in Woodstock, Vt. Like Bradley I grew up a competitive skier with a summertime love for golf. When I was in college my golf teammates and I also played semi-frequent rounds with Keegan’s uncle John, an ex-pro ski racer and low-handicapper who lived in town. I remember him saying at the time that Bradleys learn two things early on: how to ski fast and how to make birdies. And I’d read about how Keegan had had to decide as a kid which path he’d go all in on.

So it was with great eagerness that I dove into the newspaper archives to try to figure out just how good Bradley’s ski career actually was. Bradley’s of an age where his high school results are mostly pre-social media (plus Vermont may not have been first to the internet era), so it wasn’t like his skiing exploits were particularly Google-able. Thankfully, the Valley News was particularly useful in tracking down some race results. The findings: Keegan was fast! He wasn’t just a competent skier — he was one of the fastest in Vermont, a hotbed for ski racing.

One newspaper excerpt highlighted a league-race victory in both runs of the giant slalom which was described as “his third victory in five races.” And much was written about his third-place finish at Vermont’s 2003 state championship race. A quote stuck out from that performance from Woodstock’s coach Steve Foley: “…Keegan Bradley did himself proud with his third place,” Foley said. “A lot of those Northern guys run in weekend programs, and Keegan’s was an exceptional performance.” Even in Vermont, Bradley liked his role as the underdog.

2. He’s always been a blend of “outsider” and winner.

I wrote in the magazine about the idea that there are “two Keegan Bradleys.” One was a lifelong winner — the guy who was a multi-season, multi-sport athlete, a guy you’d want in your corner, a natural leader and a born contender, born the son of a PGA professional and the nephew of LPGA legend Pat Bradley.

But the other side is this small-town kid with a chip on his shoulder who feels he’d better outwork his competition because they have certain built-in advantages; he was from a modest background in a cold-weather state playing a sport built for warm-weather rich kids. The year he won the Massachusetts high school state title was the same year he and his father Mark moved into a trailer where the kitchen table doubled as a bed. And that was the year Bradley earned a scholarship to St. John’s, where the next chapter began…

3. The Bethpage connection is very real.

You’ll hear enough about Bradley and Bethpage in the coming days that you may start to wonder if the background is real, if the connection is real, if Bradley and Bethpage really do go way back. Rest assured: they really do, indeed. Bradley was excited to play Bethpage before he’d even enrolled, and once he got there, he played regularly on the state park’s other courses, like the renowned Red plus the Yellow. But on Mondays he and some teammates would get access to Bethpage Black — part of it, at least. It was the perfect metaphor for Bradley’s entire relationship with golf: at the very edge of greatness, close enough to taste it, but not yet welcomed in.

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You can hear it in Bradley’s voice when he talks about Bethpage. He said he feels “a real sense of obligation to represent Bethpage the proper way,” by which he means protect its People’s Country Club origins.

“Winged Foot’s great, Shinnecock’s amazing, but if you talk to a real New Yorker, Bethpage is their home course,” he said.

4. “He’s just kinda into everything.”

My favorite quote from reporting the piece — the one I found simplest and most instructive — was from St. John’s college coach Frank Darby, who recruited Bradley and was drawn to his general eagerness.

“He’s just kinda into everything,” Darby said. “He has this contagious enthusiasm that just brings people along with him.”

They say that how you do anything is how you do everything, and that checks out for Bradley, who appears to have gone at this captaincy with his characteristic cocktail of devotion and nervous energy. He’s into it, indeed.

5. He may let loose more now than in college, though.

Bradley’s teammates called him “grandpa” for a reason: he wasn’t exactly leading the charge to the New York city nightlife. For one thing, he was so laser-focused on his golfing future that there wasn’t time to do everything else. For another, going out on the town in NYC is an expensive proposition.

But that doesn’t mean the St. John’s squad was a bad time by any means. Bradley describes them as a tight-knit, ragtag bunch living out some of the best years of their lives in a team house in Queens. The way Bradley described it, if there was an extra guy on the team roster then they’d find a way to put a mattress in the living room. That typified their approach — once you were on the team they’d find a way to make it all work. Everything except playing the final four holes on Bethpage Black, of course.

That’s one way Bradley’s U.S. team will differ.