Major feat thrills Keegan Bradley

Theu00a0 name is Keegan Bradley -- not Bradley Keegan -- and he is golf's newest major champion.

How he did it Sunday night, though, is right up there with Paul Lawrie beating Jean Van de Velde in 1999 for extraordinary finishes.

For all the world it looked as if fellow American Jason Dufner was going to win the USPGA title at Atlanta Athletic Club.


Keegan Bradley poses with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning a
three-hole playoff over Jason Dufner at Johns Creek, Georgia.u00a0 PIC/AFP

He stood on the 15th tee five strokes clear of the man who would become champion, after Bradley's triple bogey there moments before.

But Dufner bogeyed the next three holes, Bradley birdied the 16th and 17th and in the three-hole play-off the 25-year-old, with a birdie and two pars, took the trophy by one, with Dufner going par-bogey-birdie.

Bradley follows Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke in that list.

"It feels unbelievable," Bradley said. "It seems like a dream and I'm afraid I'm going to wake up here in the next five minutes and it's not going to be real."

Having finished badly at the World Championship event in Akron a week earlier, Bradley's triple bogey - he chipped into the lake -- had him thinking "here we go again". But then he reminded himself of what a tough finish it is. "No lead is safe. I kept trying to tell myself that and, man, it was so exciting," Bradley said. "I also kept telling myself, 'Don't let that hole define this tournament'. "I'm very proud. It's the best golf I've ever played."

The most exciting moment was his curling 40-footer on the 17th first time round. "I'll never forget it the rest of my life. I scared it twice from long range earlier in the day and that thing went in dead centre -- unbelievable.