In the unlikely event that Keegan Bradley ever forgets his record winning score in the Travelers Championship last year, all he has to do is check out the vintage Fenway Park blue wooden seat that the tournament gave him.
“That’s truly one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten,” he said on media day.
On the top board of the back of the seat is the number 23. The seat obviously came from section 23 at Fenway, but Bradley also shot 23 under par in 2023 to win the Travelers last June.
Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer Andy Bessette and tournament director Nathan Grube also presented Bradley with Red Sox jerseys for his young sons Logan and Cooper with their names on them.
Bradley lives most of the year in Florida, but he grew up in Vermont, lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts for a while and has a summer home in Newburyport. So he is a big Boston sports fan.
“I’m on the road by myself now, my kids are at school, and Boston sports sort of keep me sane,” he said.
Bradley will begin defense of his title Thursday, and he said he looks forward each year to playing in the Travelers in front of the New England fans at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
“This is my chance to feel what it’s like to play in Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium,” he said. “I could really feel it, and it means a lot to me.”
Bradley’s family moved to Hopkinton prior to his senior year at Hopkinton High School, and he was medalist while leading his high school golf team to the Division 2 state championship in 2004.
Bradley, who turned 38 on June 7, has won six PGA Tour events, including the PGA Championship as a rookie in 2011. He’s ranked 15th in the official world golf rankings, but believe it or not, when the Hopkinton High girls’ golf team played a match against Wachusett Regional and Notre Dame Academy at Bedrock Golf Club in Rutland in April, two Hopkinton girls said they had never heard of him.
When I informed Bradley of that, he smiled and said to tell the Hopkinton girls that he was rooting for them.
The PGA Tour hasn’t held an event at TPC Boston in Norton since 2020, so the Travelers is the only PGA Tour event in New England. It’s become a sort of homecoming for Bradley, and it meant so much to him to win it last year, he showed up at the Travelers media day in April. Some defending champions meet with the media on media day via Zoom.
“Everybody that comes over to my house, they want to see the Travelers trophy,” he said. “They don’t want to see the PGA Championship.”
The Travelers also awarded trophies to Logan and Cooper last year. The tournament does whatever it can to impress the golfers and keep them coming back.
Bradley remembers the first time he attended a PGA Tour event at TPC River Highlands as a young fan. He watched David Duval warm up on the range and then followed him for all 18 holes.
“It was such a far dream,” he said. “I knew this was what I wanted to do, and I had no other dreams in my life other than to play on the PGA Tour, but being out here seemed really just a fantasy, and then to fast forward I don’t know how many years, 20, 30 years later, and I’m going to be the winner here. It’s literally what dreams are made of. It’s really special.”
The Travelers is one of eight limited field signature events on the PGA Tour that offer increased prize money and FedExCup points. Last year, such tournaments were called designated events.
Only 72 golfers will tee off, and there will be no cut with $20 million in prize money up for grabs.
Because the field is half the size as in past years, the Travelers will make courtesy cars available to caddies as well as the players.
Bradley said his sons would be upset if he decided not to play in the Travelers because they wouldn’t get to play in the Wiffle Ball game held on site with a miniature Green Monster.
“My kids talk about it all year long,” Bradley said.
Winning the Travelers earned Bradley $3.6 million, but he had to overcome a battle of nerves.
He led after three rounds at the Travelers and had to calm himself down entering the final round.
“You wake up, and as soon as you open your eyes, it’s like you have electricity going through you,” he said. “Something’s just different. I remember waking up and being a little bit scared of how nervous I was.”
Fortunately, his sons came to his rescue. He calls them and his wife Jillian his secret weapons for keeping him grounded. He played basketball with his sons at the home he rented near TPC River Highlands to get his mind off the upcoming final round. It worked even though fans recognized him.
“People are driving by, honking their horns, sticking their heads out, waving to me,” he said. “I remember thinking about how calming it was. This was like a normal morning in my life and what I’m about to go do is the opposite of normal, and it helped a lot.”
The week before the Travelers, he admittedly played poorly and missed the cut at the U.S. Open. So he traveled to his summer home in Newburyport and spent U.S. Open Sunday playing mini-golf with his two sons in nearby Salisbury.
“It was so great,” he said. “It sort of reset me.”
Bradley used the putters that the mini-golf courses provided.
“I think it would be a little strange if I brought my own,” he said. “When I’m out there, I get some looks like, ‘Gee, you look like the golfer, but surely that can’t be you.’ ”
Bradley was disappointed that he wasn’t selected to play for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup last year, and he’d love to make it next year when it will be held at Bethpage Black on Long Island. When he attended St. John’s University, he played Bethpage Black on Mondays.
“Playing the Ryder Cup at Bethpage would be one of the coolest things I could ever do in my life, just alongside winning majors,” he said.
But he doesn’t want to become obsessed with making the Ryder Cup team like he was last year.
“I want to play on these teams as much or more than anybody,” he said. “What happened last year took so much out of me and my family. It was crushing. It was really on my mind every second of every day, and I can’t do that again.”
In 2024, Bradley has finished second twice, including losing in a playoff in the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.
“It’s the one time in my career where I really felt I should have won,” he said.
He also placed second in the Charles Schwab Challenge last month.
Bradley said he hears a new rumor about the future of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf every day, but he said most players believe the two will eventually come together. He said it would be fun to have a PGA Tour golfer and a LIV golfer battle it out down the stretch of the Travelers or any other signature event.
He said he had no problem with golfers taking big money to leave the PGA Tour and join LIV and that he also feels “very grateful” with his share of the $750 million that will go to the top 36 players based on career performance, the last five-year performance and player impact program results. Bradley didn’t say how much he received.
Bradley said he was informed of several changes to TPC River Highlands when he arrived for media day on April 29.
“They don’t sound like anything very major,” he said. “I think courses are always trying to improve slightly, and I just love the flow of this course. I don’t think they need to do a lot.”
After Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters by 12 strokes, Augusta National added 500 yards in what was called an attempt to Tiger proof the course. So was TPC River Highlands “Keegan proofed” with changes to several holes after Bradley set the tournament record?
“I would be very honored if they did that, but I don’t think that’s the case,” he said.
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—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @BillDoyle15.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Defending champion Keegan Bradley enjoys ‘home’ advantage at Travelers
