	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 24, 2015

Keegan Bradley

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

MARK STEVENS: We'll go ahead and get started. You just got done playing the Pro-Am. If you kind of want to talk a little bit about the course and your thoughts coming into this week for a semi home game for you?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, the greenskeepers and grounds crew here at Travelers has done an unbelievable job getting this course ready. The greens are as good of greens as we've played all year long. I think they should be really proud of the course they're presenting to us this week. It's awesome.

MARK STEVENS: Just some thoughts, this is kind of a home game. Do you enjoy coming back here every year?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, it's funny coming back to New England, whenever I come back here. It always brings back good memories. It's hard to believe it's my fifth-year coming back here. It seems like I've still just started. But the people at this tournament especially Travelers, treat my family and I probably better than any event out here. So they mean a lot to me and this tournament does too.

Q. Along those lines, can you give us a little synopsis? I know you grew up in Woodstock. How long were you there, and when did you move?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I grew up in Woodstock, Vermont. I lived there until I was 16 or 17, probably 17. Then I moved to a place called Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where I played with Jon Curran, and I lived there for two or three years. This was always the tournament that I came to. TPC Boston when I was younger hadn't even been around yet. So this was the first TOUR event I ever came to, and it was the GHO Member following David Duval when he was World No. 1. So a lot of memories of this golf course.

Q. Is it a breath of fresh air coming here (Indiscernible)?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, you can kind of walk here and take a deep breath. The course is in such good shape, but after coming from last week, the course looks so green. The greens look so perfect. Just to see the ball rolling on the greens is amazing. So there are also negatives too. It's tough to get going, especially like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday after, you're just exhausted because I was at Chambers the Friday before, so a long week. The biggest challenge is getting yourself ready to play.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, absolutely. The U.S. Open takes so much out of you, and especially Chambers Bay, physically and mentally it was a grind. So, again, coming here, it doesn't take me much to get worked up and ready to go. But definitely this is one of the tougher weeks of the year to get yourself excited and get ready to play.

Q. There is a fun stretch of opposing holes here. What is your mindset as you get to 15, 16, 17 particularly as you play these holes?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Here at Hartford, you've got to paddle down the whole time. But almost every hole, especially on the back, they're birdie holes, but you can make bogey or worse on every one of them. So you have to be smart, but, again, on those last holes you're going to have to make birdies in order to win the tournament. So it's important to be aggressive on those holes in particular.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: In Vermont, I couldn't play golf in the winter, obviously, and I couldn't ski in the summer, so that was kind of what I did. I played golf until I couldn't anymore, and then I skied until I couldn't ski anymore and played golf. So for a while my golfing and skiing abilities were about the same, and skiing I was almost maybe a little better at skiing for a while. Then when I was about 15 my golf really went higher than my skiing. I always loved golf a lot more than I loved ski racing, so once I got to that age, it was easy for me to totally 100% focus on golf.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I don't know why I enjoyed golf more. My parents did such a good job of letting me love the game as opposed to forcing me into it. I always tell that to parents, let your kids love golf first bring them to the golf course. They don't even have to play golf. I used to go to the golf course with my dad who was a club pro, and I'd parked the cars or pick the range, so going to the golf course was fun for me. And I think I just loved the game so much that I looked forward to practicing and playing, and that is one of the reasons I got better and better.

Q. Talk about (Indiscernible)?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, I think that the Travelers people and TPC River Highlands are model sponsors and golf courses for events, because they really do take a personal touch to the event. I think this is probably one of the hardest spots to have on the tournament, because after the U.S. Open you're dead, let alone on the west coast, like you said. But they gave us a charter to get here. Then you get here and the food is amazing. The people, they do little things. Like when my sister had her son, Aden, he was just a little baby, and they let my family park their car right outside of the front door so Aiden could actually sit in the car with the air on and go check on him, just like little stuff like that that you don't see as much at tournaments. They have a personal touch here, like it's a home event. It really is a fun tournament.

Q. How much has Aunt Pat influence you? And (Indiscernible)?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, my Aunt Pat was my hero growing up. She still is. But I looked up to obviously Tiger and Freddy and Freddy Couples and all those guys. But my Aunt Pat was my inspiration to be a TOUR pro. I idolized her growing up. Any chance I could get, I would come out and watch her play. I always thought that the way she handled herself and played golf, I was just in awe of the way she did it. It just made me want to be a professional golfer even more so than most people, I think, because I got to watch her doing it. Then Phil, he sought me out, really. He invited me and Brendan Steele to play a practice round at THE PLAYERS my rookie year on Monday, which I doubt that Phil has played on a Monday in 15 years out here. I haven't. That is probably the last time I did. He went out of his way to invite us out, and for no reason other than to just help us. Ever since then we've become friends. It's very strange when you become friends with an idol of yours. He's just always there for anything I need, golf or not. Yeah, and we've been lucky enough to partner up and play and do well together, which is ridiculous. It's hard to even believe still.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297