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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPENFebruary 1, 2012Keegan BradleySCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Keegan Bradley in. Keegan, it's been a heck of a year for you, maybe just talk a little bit about what's transpired in the last year plus for you since we last saw you a couple tournaments ago. KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, a lot of‑‑ last year at this tournament I had to try to Monday qualify, so pretty big change from this year to last year. Really happy to be here. Great week so far, great course, great people. Look forward to playing. JOE CHEMYCZ: Talk about the golf course. You got to see it today in the pro‑am. KEEGAN BRADLEY: The golf course is awesome. I love it. I think it's perfect for me, and it's a lot of fun to play those last nine holes, very fun to play. A lot can happen. 16th hole is very fun. It's bigger and more intense than I thought it was going to be. It's just going to be a really fun week. I look forward to it. Q. Are you over the shock of what happened to you last year at particularly the PGA? KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I am. I feel a lot more comfortable this year, kind of getting into a nice groove out here. Got to know a lot of the guys a lot better, and I just feel a lot more comfortable and able to know what's coming a little more this year, and that's been‑‑ I've been able to play better golf because of it. Q. Shortly after the PGA when you were talking about how you wanted to sort of forget that so that you could really stay focused on what you were doing that got you there, is this new perspective that you have‑‑ are you beyond that now, too, or are you still just going to be Keegan Bradley right before the PGA? KEEGAN BRADLEY: I'm still trying to be the same. And to be honest with you, I still am. I still freak out before the first round. I still‑‑ the same person that's still trying to keep his card type of mentality. I still feel like I've got a lot to prove, and I think that's what keeps me motivated to get better. I don't feel like I'm sure at all, so that's a good sign, I think. I just keep trying to remind myself that I've still got a lot to prove, a lot to play for, and I can do a lot in a game. Q. Last year was that kind of your goal, just to try to keep the card, or did you have higher goals than that? KEEGAN BRADLEY: I had higher goals than that, for sure, but the main goal as a rookie is to keep your card. But I had goals to win, to win Rookie of the Year and make the TOUR Championship, a few other things. But you know, if you would have told me to start the year that I would have kept my card, I would have been very happy, definitely. All that other stuff is a bonus. But I had high goals, high expectations, too. Q. When you missed qualifying here, what was your mindset? I know it was early and everything, but do you remember what you shot? KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I remember I shot 68. 67 got in. I had like 15 feet on the last hole. I didn't think I had any chance, but I missed it. I was bummed, and it's very difficult to play on TOUR and then go do a Monday qualifier. I finished in the top 10 at the Hope and played well at Torrey, and then on Monday I'm in a money qualifier at some course, and I was playing with two guys that were not that‑‑ it's kind of a shock to the system, and I told myself, I remember getting done and saying, this will hopefully be the last Monday qualifier I'll ever participate in. But it is a good reminder of how far I've come, this tournament, because I didn't get in‑‑ I wasn't even close to getting in this tournament, and I had to try to Monday. Q. Did you try any other Mondays, or was that the last? KEEGAN BRADLEY: That was the last one. I didn't get into Riviera, Northern Trust, and the people at Northern Trust gave me an exemption in, and so I was signed up to play in that one and luckily didn't have to. Q. Jim McLean told me yesterday that after you won that Hooters Tour event, then you went on to get into the Nationwide, got your card, your mental attitude changed drastically in like three or four stages. Do you think it's a little bit of that? KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I saw Jim McLean, and I took three weeks off from playing tournaments and just worked on what we were working on, and I ended up winning a Hooters event my second week back. It's kind of been like a steady climb up since then. I've always kind of had a chip on my shoulder a little bit, and I keep that with me still today, and I just think it pushes me to improve. You know, I got to play on the Hooters Tour and played in college events that weren't that great, so being out at this tournament is very special to me, and I don't take it for granted. It's helped me along the way to kind of keep working at it and get better. Q. Do you still hear from a lot your teammates back at St.John's? KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yes, I do. They all have moved to Jupiter. They all live at my house pretty much every day. Q. Drinking your beer? KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, playing golf with them every day. We were sitting around the other day, and I was looking around, and we would have had to sit a guy if we had a team in my house. I still see them pretty much every day. Q. One of the things that was so impressive about your PGA win was that last stretch from the 15th hole when you chipped it in the water and you just stayed in this state of fierce determination all the way till the end. Can you kind of describe how you get into that mind state, and in the face of that kind of disaster, just stay there? KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah. It's hard to really describe because you're in a major championship, you're coming down to the end, you've got a chance to win. So you're in a different state of mind. It's almost like an out of body experience, really. It just was a time where ‑‑ Camilo Villegas had sent me a text message the night before the final round and said there's going to be a time in this round that's going to challenge you, and it's how you respond to that that will be how you play in the tournament. I just kept thinking about that. I just thought I had come too far to let that hole melt me down. It was amazing how little it affected me, barely even affected me at all. I mean, I've made triple bogeys in the past, and since then, where it's been like I really was hurt. But for whatever reason, it didn't affect me at all. It was just a great state of mind I was in. Q. If you ever figure that out‑‑ KEEGAN BRADLEY: I will. I'll let you guys know. JOE CHEMYCZ: Keegan, thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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