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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM

February 11, 2011

Keegan Bradley

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

NELSON SILVERIO: We welcome Keegan Bradley to the media center at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Keegan, thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
69 today at Spyglass. Just maybe get us started talking about your round, general thoughts on your round.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I got off to a pretty fast start. I birdied two out of my first three. Then I kind of ran into some trouble and made some bogeys. Almost bogeyed a par-5. Things weren't that great at that point.
But then making the turn, I got a good break on the first hole. From there on it was really good.
NELSON SILVERIO: What were the conditions out there like today?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Perfect. Spyglass is in immaculate shape. There's not one blade of grass out of place. Superintendant has done a great job. The weather speaks for itself. It's like a dome out there. It's unbelievable.
NELSON SILVERIO: Questions. Please use the mic for transcription purposes, please.

Q. (No microphone.)
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Probably my family, to be honest with you. I got a lot of people that follow me, a lot of people from New England that are out here. It a lot of fun.

Q. Can you give me a little background on going from college to here?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I graduated from St. John's University, who beat Yukon yesterday by 18. It was fun to watch. (Laughter.)
But, yeah, I graduated from St. John's in 2008. Went to Q-School; didn't get through. Played the year on the Hooters Tour, which is great. Then I went through all three stages of Q-School and missed my tour card by two -- thankfully, again. I'm glad I got to spend a year on the Nationwide Tour. Then I finished 14th on the Money List last year.

Q. What stage did you miss in Q-School?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I actually missed the first, my first stage.

Q. At what age did you first realize how good your aunt was at golf? How much, if any, did she teach you when you were a kid?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, she taught me a lot. I was born in 1986, which was her year where she won three out of the four majors and won a bunch of times. So my whole life I always remember Pat at star and great player.
She's always helped me through my career. Even the other day, she's giving my hand signals and nodding her head. She's always there for me. She knows exactly what I'm going through out there, which is good person -- nice to be able to talk to.

Q. She was known as a really tough-minded, very steely competitor. Did you inherit any of that or is that in the genes?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I hope I did. Pat and I have a lot similarities in our game, in our approach to the game, our work ethic. I look up to her in a lot of different ways, and that's one of the ways try emulate her is her toughness and her work ethic.

Q. You made three cuts and a top 10 so far. Does that surprise you? You look like you feel very comfortable with this right now.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I feel very comfortable, to be honest with you. I feel more comfortable through these first three than I did in my first three last year on the Nationwide. I don't know why.
But I feel like I belong out here. It's fun to look around and see the boys I've been watching on TV forever. It's fun to play in front of galleries. It's fun to play for the big purses.
It's just a dream come true. I've been training to do this my whole life, so this is kind of what I've been getting ready for.

Q. How about the newness of playing with a partner? Have you done something like this before?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I actually last year in a pro-am I had my best finish of the year. I finished second.
And this past year I had a top 10 at the Hope. There's something about these pro-ams. Maybe it's a different mindset.
But, yeah, I feel very comfortable out there. Great partner, too.

Q. At the Hope you talked about your skiing, et cetera. I know you talked about St. John's. That's not a golf school in most people's minds. How did you end up going there?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, as you guys know, I'm from New England and I'm a northeastern kid. I really was disappointed, I guess you could say, with some of m y friends and the better players up there that would leave the Northeast and the programs up there would suffer.
That's not saying that I -- I was in a situation where I needed the proper scholarships and all that, and St. John's was there for me. I felt like I owed it to them to play there for four years and not leave.

Q. (Question regarding what courses he played.)
KEEGAN BRADLEY: We played all over Long Island. We played a lot at Bethpage Black, Wheatley Hills. We played out in the Hamptons, too, but the clubs out in Long Island were especially good to us St. John's guys. A lot of the pros went to St. John's, so we got to play some of the best courses in the country.

Q. Like what?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: We played Shinnecock, we played Friars Head, we played Meadowbrook, we played National. We played in Westchester a lot, too. We played Winged Foot, Fenway.
Well, I mean, we got Andrew Svoboda down on the Nationwide Tour, too, that's going from St. John's. So we got some really good players coming up. I think you guys are going to hear more from St. John's guys.

Q. (No microphone.)
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I mean, Shinnecock. Bethpage I think it was 2009. It was U.S. Open, and I missed that U.S. Open by one. It was devastating, but it really helped me. I knew I needed to improve, and that was kind of a point in my career where I decided I needed to get a little better.

Q. (Question regarding his round at Spyglass.)
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, jeez, I hit a terrible drive off the 10th hole, first hole. I hit a big hook, which is the opposite of where I normally hit it if I'm going to miss it to the right.
I luckily found it and made a pretty good par from where I was.
Then birdied the next two. The birdie on 12, the par-3, was a really good birdie. I was psyched about that.
Then I kind of went through a stage where I wasn't hitting very good shots. Things were not good. I bogeyed two out of next three and got up and down a couple times, including the par-5 I almost made bogey on.
Then, like I said, I made the turn. 1 was my 10th hole. I didn't hit a very good drive there, and somehow went through the trees, didn't hit a thing, right in the middle of the fairway. I mean, it could've hit the tree and went out of bounds. Ended up make birdie.
Then I just really settled in. I shot 33 on the back, and I had a good look for birdie on my last hole that I didn't make. But I really played solid from there on in. No trouble.

Q. Have you played on this course?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: I played the Callaway Pro-Am out here. Completely different. Basically different courses. When we played, it was 40 degrees, raining, greens were wet. Completely different.
So I have played here, but it's a completely different experience. Not even close to same course.

Q. When?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: That was in November, yeah.

Q. You're are the, if not one of the longer hitters on the Nationwide; is that correct?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, length is definitely one of my strengths. You can use it out here for sure. You can hit the driver, and length is always going to help you. It's never going to hurt you. Even if I'm not hitting driver, it's always still going to help me.

Q. You had a unique pairing with Brandy Chastain and Mrs. Ueberroth. Talk about that a little bit.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, those girls are a lot fun. Good players, too. Competitive. Brandy is very competitive.
And Heidi -- they're both just very nice people. I get talk a lot about the Celtics with Heidi. She's a big executive with the NBA, and we get to talk about that.
It's relaxing to be out there with those two because they're very nice and good players, which is helpful to us pros.

Q. Just curious, Billy Andrade said he was looking forward to playing with you yesterday, you know, New England kid. First time you ever met him? I'm just curious how that went.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, it's actually pretty cool. My dad is a head pro up in New England when I was younger and I was at Wyoming at a place called at Crown Point Country Club. Bill Andrade held the course record there -- I think he still does. He shot 66.
I mentioned it to him and he remembered. He's a New England man. Us New Englanders seem to get along well. It was very fun to play with Billy. He's such a nice guy.
It was a cool thing for me to meet him, because he is a name growing up in New England you hear a lot. I've gotten lucky with my pairings this year.

Q. (No microphone.)
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yes.

Q. How did the Celtics do?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Celtics didn't do so well, but we don't need to talk about that. (Laughter.)

End of FastScripts

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