KEEGAN BRADLEY

Who is the most prominent and accomplished athlete or sports figure from Vermont on the national or international stage?

I have my own candidate.

It’s not skier Mikaela Shiffrin, though she loves Vermont, wins a lot of races here, and Vermonters certainly love her. She was born in Colorado, however, and was raised in New Hampshire. She did go to high school in Vermont — at Burke Mountain Academy.

And it’s not Olympians Elle Purrier St. Clair and Ilana Maher, though their Vermont bona fides are legit, and they often express love for their home state. While they ply their wonderful athletics skills and express their scintillating (though very different) personalities continually, as Olympians the spotlight is mostly on them quadrennially.

Given my proclivities, I give high marks to baseball man Buster Olney, who was a print journalist for a long time (New York Times, and other publications) and is now a baseball commentator with ESPN. Olney grew up on a dairy farm in Randolph Center, and, proud of his roots, speaks frequently about being raised in Vermont.

So … the mantle of sporting preeminence, I believe, is worn by golfer Keegan Bradley. At age 38, he’s ranked No. 12 in the world at the moment and has competed at the top level of the sport, the PGA Tour, since 2011. In his first year, he won one of golf’s four major tournaments, the PGA Championship, held in Atlanta that year.

In his PGA tour career, Bradley has finished among the top ten in tournaments nearly 50 times and won seven outright (and has been second ten times). His career earnings total $48 million.

Perhaps Bradley’s greatest accomplishments are happening in the present. Just last month, he won the BMW Tournament in Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado, defeating Adam Scott in a playoff to earn the $3.4 million winner’s share and qualify for the Fed Ex Championship the next week, a competition that included the top 30 players in the world.

His play this year has earned him a spot on the U.S. team competing for the President’s Cup later this month, a biennial event that pits a dozen Americans in match play against top international players (outside of Europe), being held this year at the Royal Montreal Club.

Perhaps most impressive of all in Bradley’s stunning 2024 is his selection as Captain of the 2025 U.S Ryder Cup team. The Ryder Cup matches the best American players against the best from all of Europe.

This leadership position isn’t merely honorific. Bradley will have the responsibility of determining the lineup for the American side in the various match play formats of this fiercely contested competition, which has been held in odd years since 1927. Keegan himself has represented the U.S. twice on Ryder Cup teams.

Now to the point: Keegan Bradley is a Vermonter!  And his Green Mountain credentials are really solid.

He was born in Woodstock and was raised there into high school (Woodstock Union). He lives most of the year now in Florida, but grew up in Vermont and New Hampshire, and now has a summer home in Newburyport, Mass.

Bradley was born into a golfing family: His dad Mark is a PGA Professional, a club pro, who worked at various New England courses in Vermont and New Hampshire. His aunt is legendary women’s tour golfer Pat Bradley, who won 31 tournaments and is in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

As a child, Keegan fell in love with both golf and skiing — he was an outstanding skier. Mark Bradley spoke to a reporter last spring of his son’s introduction to golf: “When Keegan was born I coached skiing and was a PGA professional. We skied in the winter and played golf in the summer.

“Keegan came to work with me every day at the golf course for years. He practiced, and played, and played some more.”

“Count all your strokes and stay patient,” Mark Bradley advised his boy.

Keegan is married to a Vermonter, Jillian Stacey (now Bradley), who was born in White River Junction, attended Hartford (Vt.) HS, and met Keegan in high school. After a long-term relationship, they were married in 2016 and have two young boys, Logan and Cooper.

He calls Jillian and his sons “his secret weapons … they keep me grounded.”

Keegan is a passionate sports fan and follows the Red Sox, Celtics, and Patriots with keen interest. “I’m on the road by myself now, my kids are at school, and Boston sports keep me sane,” he told Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram last spring.

His “Dream Foursome” would have him playing with “my dad, Ben Hogan, and Tom Brady.”

In 2022, when the US Open was played at The Country Club in Brookline, Ma., Bradley told Doyle it was his “chance to feel what it’s like to play in Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium.” On the Tuesday before the tournament, he threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game at Fenway.

On his golf shoes at the Open, he wrote “27” on one shoe and “Uncle Pudge” on the other. Jillian Bradley is the niece of former Red Sox star and Baseball Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, a New Hampshire boy.

One of Keegan’s seven Tour wins was the 2023 Travelers Tournament in Cromwell, Conn. It was like a “home game” for the Bradleys. “To win in front of the New England crowd, in front of both our families,” Jillian said, “it was perfect.” The Travelers is the only PGA Tour stop in New England.

Vermonter Keegan Bradley is a proud son of New England; he loves to ski, fish — and play golf. He does us proud.

Karl Lindholm Ph.D., Middlebury ’67, is the Emeritus Dean of Advising and retired Assistant Professor of American Studies. Contact him at [email protected].