Whether it’s rightfully warranted or not, Keegan Bradley has long been looked at as the king of the northeast among PGA Tour players.
With this week’s PGA Championship being contested at Aronimink just outside of Philadelphia, it didn’t take long for the 39-year-old to be asked about the geographical location of the year’s second major. To his credit, Bradley delivered a unique answer to a question about a topic he’s been asked about countless times in his career.
“Definitely,” Bradley began after being asked if he feels a different energy when playing in the Northeast. “Yeah, I even went out on my deck today when I was at my house, and I could smell, like, the northeast. I could smell the grass. It was different.”
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If this isn’t a sign that Bradley has officially been asked about golf in the Northeast one too many times, I’m not sure what is.
Bradley hails from Vermont, played collegiately at St. John’s in New York, and claims Boston as his pro sports city, checking all of the Northeast boxes available. He also won the 2018 BMW Championship held at Aronimink and has won the Travelers Championship twice, which is held in Connecticut.
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“I take extreme pride and I feel a lot of weight to represent New England and the northeast in the golf world, because there’s not that many of us,” Bradley continued. “I feel like I have a duty to the younger generation and people that are growing up to show them that, you know, we can compete from being around here.
“It’s difficult, but I do feel when I come here, not just the courses suit me a lot better here and my career, because this is how I grew up playing. But I do feel a duty to represent the area. Philly is a little bit south for me but I’ll take it. It’s northeast to me.”
Bradley’s last significant trip to the Northeast did not go as planned.
Tasked with being the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black in 2025, Bradley’s American side was embarrassed during the opening two days of the biennial event before putting together a near comeback for the ages during Sunday’s action.
The Americans ultimately fell to the Europeans 15-13.
