There was a time when Keegan Bradley seemed destined to be part of the dominating class of players on the PGA Tour.
He won the 2011 PGA Championship in his first major-championship start, one of two victories in his rookie season, and he added the 2012 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational the next year, setting himself up for fiery appearances in the 2012 and 2014 Ryder Cup.
And then the winning stopped.
Until his grind-it-out victory over Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam on Sunday in the Zozo Championship, Bradley had won only the 2018 BMW Championship in the past decade.
“There's a lot of hard work that goes into it. Even if you play perfectly, doesn't mean you're going to win. But for me, I feel like I should be contending for tournaments. I want to be contending to play on Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup teams, majors,” Bradley said.
“This is going to go a long way,” said Bradley, 36. “Of my five (wins on the PGA Tour), I haven't really won that many leading the entire day like I did today, and I really learned a lot, and I think I can take a lot of that going forward the rest of the year.”
Fowler, who led by one stroke entering the final round, hasn’t won since 2019 as he has worked through a slump that may be ending. Putnam’s only victory came in the 2018 Barracuda Championship.
Bradley held a slender lead through the day and separated himself with a birdie on the par-4 17th, giving him a two-stroke advantage playing the final hole.
Three years ago, Bradley played the final 36 holes with Tiger Woods when he won his PGA Tour record-tying 82nd title at Narashino Country Club near Tokyo. Bradley used what he saw that day to guide him on Sunday.
“Anytime you play with Tiger, it's really great, but to watch him win up close was spectacular, and I learned a lot,” Bradley said. “I was thinking about it the whole day today, just kind of remembering Tiger and how he walked a little slower than I noticed in the past, and I tried to do that.”
This is a different version of Bradley from the 25-year-old who won twice in 2011 to become the hottest newcomer in the game. He still fidgets over shots and, as a Vermont native, still has a searing passion for Boston-area sports teams, but he’s married now and has two children.
“I've been crying since I finished,” he said. “I can't remember the last time I cried. I talked to my wife on the phone a second ago, FaceTime. I can't keep it together; I don't know what's wrong with me. I never experienced emotions like that after winning a tournament.”
Fowler shot a final-round 70. The runner-up was his second top-10 finish in the three starts in the new season, underscoring his progress since returning to work with swing coach Butch Harmon.
“Kind of bittersweet,” Fowler said of his finish. “Obviously wanted to get the job done, and I felt very good going into (Sunday). (I) felt probably as good as you can feel out there.
“Final round, haven't been there a whole lot in the last couple years, really just didn't give myself many opportunities until the end. And I hit some darn good putts that it was like there was a cover over the hole. Gave it our all; left it all out there.”
Ron Green Jr.