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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

PGA champ Bradley keen to defend Nelson title

By: Stephen Hawkins

Posted: 05/17/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Keegan Bradley (CP)

IRVING, Texas -- Keegan Bradley sometimes looks at the PGA Championship trophy sitting on his mantel and starts laughing.

"It seems so bizarre that the Wanamaker Trophy, it's in my room," Bradley said. "Definitely, sometimes I have to ask myself, 'Is this really real?' ... It's cool to be living with it."

One thing that helped set up Bradley to win that major in a three-hole playoff last August came nearly three months before that, when he got his first professional victory in a playoff at the Byron Nelson Championship.

"I went from an unknown rookie trying to keep his card to winning a PGA Tour event and locking up my future a little bit," he said. "I was able to draw on my experience here, especially at the PGA playoff, and this tournament will always be special to me. ... This tournament might have set up my whole career."

Things certainly have changed the past year for the nephew of LPGA great Pat Bradley.

Keegan Bradley is back at the Nelson to play as a defending champion for the first time. The opening round is today at TPC Four Seasons with a field that includes Matt Kuchar the week after he won The Players Championship.

At the Nelson last May, Bradley didn't even stay in the resort hotel adjacent to the No. 1 tee near Lord Byron's statue. He went basically unrecognized on the course and wasn't asked to sign many autographs. He was even overshadowed during the final round by the local teenage amateur who was his playing partner.

Bradley initially wasn't even planning to play at the Nelson last year.

His initial plan last year was to play at Colonial instead of the following week at the Nelson. The Texas two-step was in a rare reversed order, but this year is back to the more traditional schedule with the Nelson preceding Colonial.

Bradley is sure glad he took caddie Steve Hale's advice.

"I was done, I had made my decision and Pepsi, my caddie, said, 'Look, I think you should play (Nelson)' -- he's never said anything like that in my career," Bradley said. "He said Nelson fits your game better, and sure enough, we came here and won. Pepsi knew something I didn't."

Kuchar, No. 5 in the World Golf Ranking, and 10th-ranked Phil Mickelson are the only top 10 players from that list at the Nelson.

Winning a tournament the magnitude of The Players Championship was about the only scenario Kuchar could have imagined that "could throw a little bit of a wrench" on his plans to be at the Nelson. But there was no indecision.

"My caddie is from the Dallas area, my instructor is from the Dallas area," Kuchar said. "Staying at the Four Seasons is special, it's beautiful, where you don't have to get in your car. There's a lot of great things about coming to Dallas for me."

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 17, 2012 C12

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