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Keegan Bradley Wins The 2011 PGA Championship In A Playoff

10. Oct, 2011 0 Comments

Keegan Bradley PGA Champ 2011

The swing in momentum was clear as Bradley and Dufner headed to the first playoff hole. Bradley nearly made birdie on 18 to win outright while Dufner was left to figure out what went wrong. Heading to replay three of the toughest holes in PGA Championship history, the big question was “could Dufner recover”?.

It didn’t take long for our question to be answered. Like he did in the final round, Bradley made a birdie on 16 to take a one stroke lead over Dufner who made par. It was more of the same on 17 but this time it was Bradley needed only par to take the one stroke advantage as a tired looking Dufner made a bogey. The 18th hole was anything but routine when Bradley, with a two stroke lead, decided to go for the green over the water guarding the front. His shot carried the hazard by a whisker and left himself about 20 feet for his first major championship.

Keegan Bradley holding the PGA championship Trophy

For Bradley, the win came in just his 24th career start and the first major of his career. It is his second win of the 2011 PGA TOUR season, he won the HP Byron Nelson Championship earlier this year and finished in the top 10 at the Valero Texas Open and the Bob Hope Classic. The 25 year old rookie moved from 24th to 4th in the FedEx Cup standings and 29th in the Official World Golf Rankings, he was previously ranked 108th.

A triple bogey on the 15th hole by Keegan Bradley looked to be the end of his PGA Championship dreams. Little did we know, it was only the beginning. Bradley responded with back to back birdies on 16 and 17 while Jason Dufner, the leader at the time, made back to back bogies. The combination of the two caused the players to finish the 72nd hole tied for the lead and head into a three hole playoff.
The swing in momentum was clear as Bradley and Dufner headed to the first playoff hole. Bradley nearly made birdie on 18 to win outright while Dufner was left to figure out what went wrong. Heading to replay three of the toughest holes in PGA Championship history, the big question was “could Dufner recover”?. It didn’t take long for our question to be answered. Like he did in the final round, Bradley made a birdie on 16 to take a one stroke lead over Dufner who made par. It was more of the same on 17 but this time it was Bradley needed only par to take the one stroke advantage as a tired looking Dufner made a bogey. The 18th hole was anything but routine when Bradley, with a two stroke lead, decided to go for the green over the water guarding the front. His shot carried the hazard by a whisker and left himself about 20 feet for his first major championship.

For Bradley, the win came in just his 24th career start and the first major of his career. It is his second win of the 2011 PGA TOUR season, he won the HP Byron Nelson Championship earlier this year and finished in the top 10 at the Valero Texas Open and the Bob Hope Classic. The 25 year old rookie moved from 24th to 4th in the FedEx Cup standings and 29th in the Official World Golf Rankings, he was previously ranked 108th.