HARTFORD, Connecticut – It was hardly unexpected, but former champion and current U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley committed to the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell this week.
Bradley, who grew up in Vermont and New Hampshire and went to high school in Massachusetts, has seven PGA Tour victories, including being one of only six players to win his major championship debut in the PGA Championship in 2011, when he was Rookie of the Year. But his most cherished title is the 2023 Travelers Championship when he had hundreds of faithful fans watching him build a six-stroke lead on the back nine before it shrunk to one and increased again as he finished with a closing 2-under-par 68 for a 72-hole total of 23-under 257 and a three-stroke victory over Zac Blair.
Bradley, 38, set multiple tournament records along the way, and his 23-under total is the best ever at TPC River Highlands. He said he planned to remain a winter resident of Jupiter, Fla., to keep his golf game sharp, but he is a New Englander through and through, and the Travelers win was on home soil for the home fans at a tournament that he grew up watching as a kid.
“When I got my PGA Tour card in 2010, the first thought in my mind wasn’t to play the majors, whatever, it was ‘I get to come play Hartford,’ ” Bradley said, exuding regional pride. “This is for all the kids in New England who have to sit through the winter to play golf. I’m so proud to be from this New England area, this seems like a dream.
“One of my favorite things about myself is where I’m from. The bond that you have with people from New England is different than anywhere in the world, so to hear the fans cheer for me like they would a sports team, it meant a lot.”
It was a light years from his days living at the Crystal Springs Campground, an RV park in a small central Massachusetts town, Bolton. It is where Bradley as a young teenager lived with his father/club professional, Mark, in a 28-foot trailer that they affectionately called “Tin Cup II.” His turnaround culminated on July 8, 2024, when he was named U.S. Ryder Cup captain a year after he was crushed by not being a captain’s pick by Zach Johnson. Team Europe cruised to a 161/2-111/2 victory in Rome.
“Keegan is such a passionate person, which made his win at the 2023 Travelers Championship in front of his family and friends so special,” Andy Bessette, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Travelers, said in a release. “We’ll see that passion on display again this year, not only at TPC River Highlands later this month, but also when he captains the United States team at the Ryder Cup. We’re thrilled that Keegan is playing in our tournament, appreciate the support he has shown to us since joining the PGA Tour and look forward to celebrating him as one of our past champions.”
Tournament director Nathan Grube added: “It’s been impressive watching Keegan play so well this year while balancing his responsibilities as U.S. Ryder Cup captain. With the Travelers Championship as the only PGA Tour event in the Northeast, Keegan has always had a lot of fan support here since he’s from New England and went to college in New York. It will be fun watching him try to win this tournament for a second time.”
Bradley has an outside chance to be a Ryder Cup player/captain as he is 16th in the points standings thanks mainly to making 12 of 13 cuts, including a tie for fifth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The top six finishers through the BMW Championship on Aug. 17 earn automatic Ryder Cup bids, and Bradley will then have six captain’s picks to play Europe on Sept. 26-26 at Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y. Bradley competed in the 2012 and 2014 Ryder Cup and 2013 and 2024 Presidents Cup.
Bradley has played in every Travelers Championship since 2011, with his best finishes being the win and a tie for second in 2019 behind Chez Reavie. He attended St. John’s University before joining the mini-tours and is now 16th in the Official World Golf Rankings. His aunt is former LPGA player and World Golf Hall of Fame Pat Bradley, and as a child, he attended some of her tournaments and called her an inspiration. Keegan is an avid fan of all Boston-area teams (Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins), and his dream golf foursome includes his father, Ben Hogan and Tom Brady.
Bradley is the latest marque player to join the Travelers field June 19-22 for the last of the PGA Tour’s eight prestigious Signature Events ($20 million purse, $3.6 million first prize, no cut, low 70 players in the rankings). Earlier entries already included defending champion and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who won his third PGA Tour event this, the Memorial, on Sunday; No. 2 Rory McIlroy, No. 3 and 2022 Travelers and 2024 Open Championship titlist Xander Schauffle, No. 4 Collin Morikawa, No. 5 Justin Thomas, No. 6 Russell Henley, No. 7 Sepp Straka, No. 8 Ludwig Aberg, No. 9 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 11 Maverick McNealy, No. 12 Shane Lowry, No. 13 Tommy Fleetwood, N. 14 Viktor Hovland, No. 15 Patrick Cantlay, No. 23 and 2023 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, 2017 Travelers champion Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler and Tony Finau.
www.TravelersChampionship.com.
