Brave Bradbury Prevails

By Danny Lockwood

 Wakefield’s Dan Bradbury had the tongues wagging in more ways than one, when he showed nerves of steel to land his second DP World Tour title and cement his place in the Race to Dubai.

Having bagged three birdies in his previous four holes to edge a shot in front of a packed leader board, Bradbury charged his first putt on the 72nd hole a good 8ft past. This from a man who hadn’t three-putted all week.

With the world watching – including Hallowes man Sam Bairstow back in the fairway, in the group in second place – Bradbury calmly rolled the clutch putt in to add the Open de France title to his maiden Joberg Open victory at the start of last year.

Bradbury had already had the Spy Sports commentary box in stitches coming down the stretch. Taking off his trademark Ping cap, he coolly remarked to his caddie Asa Phillipd that he’d have had a haircut if he’d known he’d be in camera shot quite so much.

But it was that putt – or rather the putter – that caused controversy as more than a few American pundits basically accused him of cheating – of anchoring the club to his body.

Having struggled all year with his putting, trying a range of approaches including a claw grip, he switched to a long putter ahead of August’s D+D REAL Czech Masters.

Using a Ping Oslo XL at Le Golf National in Paris, he finished the week 11th for strokes gained putting and he was one of 12 players to play all four rounds without making a three-putt over the Albatros Course.

The broom-handled custom-made putter was originally made for former player turned commentator Wayne Riley.

Bradbury was quick to hit back at his critics however, telling them to blame the law, not the bloke sticking to it.

A player is deemed to be anchoring their putter if they intentionally hold it or their gripping hand against any part of the body other than a hand or forearm.

Players found to be anchoring their putters are usually hit with a two-stroke penalty, but Bradbury was not punished. During an appearance on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, he issued a passionate defence of his putting style.

“The way I grip it, my thumb is at the top of the grip,” he explained. “You’re not allowed [the putter] to be touching your chest or any part of your body. That would be classed as anchoring.

“Obviously as a bigger lad, I have a lot of space up there, I wear baggy shirts. It’s allowed to touch your shirt. That’s absolutely fine. I have mine, put it this way, I can sweep down my body and not touch my hand so there’s at least this much there [showing a gap].

“I know that, the rules officials know it. Everybody that I’ve played with, everyone knows it. If you’re there in person you can see it, but some people want to sit at home and comment on it and that’s fine, but it’s within the rules.

“I get the stigma against it, 100 per cent. Fine. I had that stigma until I tried it and realised how much it’s helped me. It’s within the rules so if you have an issue, change the rule, no? It’s not my fault… well, please don’t change the rules!”

Out on the course, Bradbury began the day two shots behind overnight leader Jesper Svensson from Sweden, who had somethnig of a meltdown.

There had been very much a Yorkshire feel to the top of the leaderboard for much of the tournament with Bairstow and Joe Dean both in close contention going into the final round.

Bairstow couldn’t get the required birdie on the last to force a play-off but his closing 68 earned him a four-way share of second place and almost €200,000, while Dean closed with a 73 and ended in an eight-way tie for 18th and just shy of €34,000.

Alex Fitzpatrick finished in the middle of the field on -6 while Danny Willett was one of a host of big names who didn’t make the cut. Daniel Gavins withdrew.

The crucial part of the day was Bradbury’s run of three birdies from the 14th – but which included a stroke of good luck on the 15th.

Afterwards he said said he was due some good fortune as he watched his tee shot on the 15th stop just short of the water hazard.

“Obviously [I] got lucky off the tee, but I feel like I’ve had a few bad breaks this week so quite nice to get a good one there,” he told Sky Sports.

“And then I just pushed it [the second shot], straight up pushed it, and luckily it stayed on [the green]. [I] hit a horrendous putt that went in and sometimes you just need that.

“Once I’d done that, I was like ‘it doesn’t feel like my day, but there’s definitely something going for me’.”

His birdie at 16 edged him in front and that nerveless hole out at the last to sign for a 66 which left him watching the final group.

“I remember looking at one point, playing with Gunner (Wiebe) and Joe (Dean), they were both two shots behind me and I was second and they were, like, 14th. Part of me was just thinking, ‘well, don’t drop a few!’.

“It was just, stay in it – we all know the finish round here, anything can happen, and it almost did.”

The 25-year-old edged out Bairstow, Thorbjorn Olesen, Yannik Paul and Jeff Winther.

Victory earned him his biggest ever payday of £420,000 and having been worried about a tense end to the season, he soared up to 25th place in the Race to Dubai, also ensuring his qualification for the season-ending play-off events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

He added: “The goal this week was to make the cut so I don’t have to go to Korea and try to keep my card, to be honest with you, so to hear that sounds pretty good,” he said.

“I guess I’ll be looking at flights to Dubai then!”

It also meant he could take a week off to go attend a friend’s wedding in the USA before heading to the Middle East.

It was Bradbury’s second win on the DP World Tour, following last season’s Joburg Open.

He was third at that same event this term but had only one top-10 finish since then, at the Italian Open.