Keegan Bradley gets long-awaited ‘fairy tale’ moment, clinches winning point for U.S. Presidents Cup victory

MONTREAL – Forgive Keegan Bradley for not closing it out sooner. Ten years of pent-up nerves are hard to shake.

Of course, the Presidents Cup came down to Bradley, the 38-year-old incoming Ryder Cup captain who spent a decade desperately hoping, praying and pleading to get another crack at this moment. Why not? He had resigned himself to believing it would only come with an earpiece and clipboard in hand – that his chance to play on a U.S. side might be done. But a late win at the BMW Championship in August earned him a nod from Captain Jim Furyk.

So perhaps it was only fair that the frequent bridesmaid of these U.S. Teams was the one to close it out. Fittingly, though, he had to wait longer than he hoped.

Bradley missed a 4-foot par putt on 17 and an 8-foot birdie putt on 16, both of which would have clinched the Cup. But when Si Woo Kim missed a 6-footer on 18, it was assured – Bradley secured a 1-up victory along with his triumphant moment as the player who clinched the Presidents Cup.

“It's a fairy tale. It's a movie almost,” Bradley said, who went 2-1-0 this week. “I just can't believe it. You just have to work as hard as I can, and good things happen.”

The last time Keegan Bradley played Sunday Singles, it ended in heartbreak. He missed a putt on the 14th hole at Gleneagles in 2014, pushing his match dormie with Jamie Donaldson, securing Europe the winning point at the Ryder Cup.

Bradley has played that moment – and dozens more from that week in Scotland – in his head for the last decade. There are no events he wants to play more than the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup He famously still hasn’t unpacked his suitcase from that week in 2014. He was in play for a captain’s pick for the 2018 Ryder Cup but fell a bit short. He was the last man out a year ago, too. The phone call with Zach Johnson where he learned he was left off the team was captured for hundreds of thousands of eyes to see on Season 2 of Netflix’s “Full Swing.”

All that left Bradley believing his chance was over. He was selected to be Ryder Cup captain this summer and vowed he still wanted to earn a spot on the team. This year’s selection was actually a bit of a surprise. Bradley didn’t play well for much of the summer. He snuck into the BMW as No. 50 in the FedExCup, then got hot and won. Furyk pointed to it as the reason Bradley was selected.

“I’m still trying to figure out how all this happened,” Bradley said. “A month ago I wasn't even in the BMW, and then we were here and then the Presidents Cup point.

“I really took for granted how special these weeks were. I watched a lot of these things on TV and was really sad to not be here.”

The fire still burns in Bradley to make another team and avoid being a bystander again. But he stood on the 18th green in peace, knowing he’s OK if it doesn’t happen. This week did that.

“If this is my last round as a player, I'm happy with that,” Bradley said.

Bradley wiped away tears as he hugged Sam Burns and Jim Furyk moments after the Americans won the Cup. Bradley has caught himself being emotional a few times this week. He secured a point on that same green three days earlier, a 1-up victory in Thursday’s Four-ball that cemented a 5-0 sweep. In the press conference after, he said looked up to the younger players around him, inspired by their ability to be what he wasn’t when he was their age. He treated his fellow peers as his enemies back then, unable to cultivate friendships outside the ropes because of it.

“I really regret that,” Bradley said. “These guys care about each other. They want to beat them inside the ropes bad, but when they get outside the ropes, they're friends, the wives are friends. It's a much happier way to go about this life.”

That’s the life he lives. He was serenaded in cheers by his teammates when answering a question in the winners' press conference on Sunday night. Now, he fully assumes a role he’s always dreamed of having: U.S. Ryder Cup Team captain. Bradley was relieved of his Presidents Cup captain’s assistant duties after he was selected as a captain’s pick, but he learned plenty playing. He was a sponge, soaking up every aspect of the process. He saw what it was like in a younger generation’s team room, what they liked and what he liked. He watched from afar as the captains put together pairings. He observed how leadership cultivated a tight bond with players. He commended Furyk for having the players play matches against each other in practice rounds and how they arrived a day early to give them more time to acclimate.

“We're going to copy a lot of what Jim Furyk did this week,” Bradley said.

More than anything, he’d like to copy the result. He won’t have to wait long for that opportunity.