Emotional Keegan Bradley ends drought at ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP

Keegan Bradley was a happy wreck.

He had shot 68 to win the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP by a stroke over Andrew Putnam (68) and third-round leader Rickie Fowler (70), and he thought about how he’d played with Tiger Woods and watched him win this very tournament in 2019.

Bradley, 36, thought about how long it had been since he won – four-plus years – and how hard he’d worked. He thought about the unconditional support of his wife, Jillian, and their two young sons, who had never gotten to share a trophy with him.

It was all too much; Bradley lost it.

“I’ve been crying since I finished,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time I cried. I talked to my wife on the phone a second ago, FaceTime. I can’t keep it together; I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

In the end, nothing was wrong with him, although there were some shaky moments. Bradley, who won the 2011 PGA Championship despite a late triple bogey, likes to say he never makes it easy on himself. He’s not joking.

At the ZOZO, where he ended a win drought of 1,498 days, it wasn’t easy, either.

Bradley took control with birdies at the fifth, sixth and 11th holes, but started to slip with bogeys on 14 and 16, the later with a shank out of the bunker. He called the shot “bizarre” and added, “I’ve never done that, I don’t think, ever.”

He did well just to two-putt for bogey, then fought back with “one of the best birdies of my life” on 17 to take a two-shot lead with one hole to play. Par on 18 was enough even when playing partners Fowler and Putnam birdied the finishing hole.

Bradley said he already had a spot picked out for his celebratory dinner, most likely with his caddie, Scott Vail, and maybe even pal Brendan Steele (T40), who was the first-round leader at the ZOZO but didn’t get much going after that.

“We’re going to hit it tonight, for sure,” Bradley said. “We’re going to go out to dinner at a steakhouse in Narita and we’ve got the Patriots playing at 2:00 a.m., so could be a long night.”

As for those who weren’t in Japan, wife Jillian and their two boys, Logan and Cooper, he said they were watching. Logan was just a baby the last time Bradley won, at the 2018 BMW Championship. Cooper wasn’t born yet. Now they’ve seen him win with their own eyes, even if it was just on TV, from thousands of miles away in Jupiter, Florida.

“Yeah, I got a billion text messages on my phone from everybody staying up until 3:00, 4:00 in the morning,” Bradley said. “I was able to FaceTime with my wife. Actually, my mom is at my house with her right now randomly, so I got to FaceTime with them.

“Winning with a family on your side is so much more special,” he continued. “I mean, winning majors and stuff like that is so amazing, but being able to share a win with your family is something I never thought of, and I never knew it would be so amazing.”

How did he do it? His putting at the ZOZO, he said, was spectacular all week, highlighted by his mid-range birdie putt on 17. That hasn’t always been the case the last six years. Although he made the 2012 and 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup teams, and the 2013 U.S. Presidents Cup team, Bradley was thrown for a loop by golf’s anchoring ban, which went into effect in 2016. His putting suffered, and the stress of it all crept into other facets of his game.

He sought help from putting coach Phil Kenyon, and they began working together at THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT a year ago. Their work has paid off. Although he took a tough loss at the Wells Fargo Championship (T2) last May, Bradley led the field in putting that week and finished the season in positive numbers for Strokes Gained: Putting.

If he keeps it up, that could go a long way this season and beyond. So could his victory at the ZOZO, which marked the fifth time in five PGA TOUR victories that he came from behind to win. Still, this one felt different because he had the lead for much of the front nine.

And, of course, because Bradley’s boys were old enough to relish it with him.

“It means a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. Even if you play perfectly, doesn’t mean you’re going to win. But for me, I feel like I should be contending for tournaments, I want to be contending to play on Ryder Cup, Presidents Cups teams, majors. You know, this is going to go a long way.”