Get In The Hole!

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Keegan-ing it in the family

Keegan Bradley wins the PGA Championship

Before the 2011 PGA Championship, if anyone was to ask you about a "Bradley" playing golf, you would have most likely thought about Pat Bradley, the woman who won 31 tournaments and 6 majors on the LPGA circuit.  Finally, there's a been a crossover.

All the way up through fourteen holes in the final round of this year's PGA Championship, Keegan Bradley -- Pat Bradley's nephew -- was playing well but, was still tracking to be yet another "shoulda-coulda" contender.  When tourny-leader Jason Dufner placed one into the pond from the tee on the 15th, however, Keegan would have his chance.  Then, exchanging birdies for his opponent's bogies, Keegan would catch Dufner to force a three-round playoff.  In the first two playoff holes, Keegan would birdie-birdie while Jason would par-bogey.  In the final playoff hole, Dufner would finally get a birdie but, alas, it would prove to be one-stroke short when Bradley two-putted a par for the victory.  When it was all over, Keegan Bradley would be the one hoisting the Wannamaker Trophy making him the first American to win a Major since Phil Mickelson's victory in the 2010 Masters.  

HackMan takes the fourth event

There was only one double-dipper in this year's running of GolfUnlimited and that was HackMan.  Last month, HackMan won the third event -- the British Open -- having secured the tournament winner -- Darren Clarke -- among his foursome.  Here in August, Clarke was replaced with Dufner for Hack's write-in and, while Jason fell short in winning in regulation, Dufner's performance gave HackMan a one-stroke better total (1110) than DuffMan's (1111).  Interesting that with a name like "Duff-Man" that "Duf-ner" wasn't on that particular roster.  But that's tears in the sand trap for DuffMan who couldn't keep HackMan from winning his second consecutive tournament.

MasterBators yanks the win!

When the first event ended, PuttThis-3 was the winner with a four stroke lead on the rest of the field.  In the second event, sister PuttThis-2 took the trophy but, failed to capture the top spot where PuttThis-3 remained and into which MasterBators would climb.  When the third event was over, there would be no change at the top with PuttThis-3 and MasterBators both holding on with, now, a six-stroke advantage on the field.  And what looked to be a head-to-head challenge going into the fourth and final event was just that.

When you look at the foursome selections, you'll note that PuttThis-3 and MasterBators selected three identical group golfers: Stricker, Furyk, and Crane.  This left just the write-in golfer as being a place where there might be some deviation.  And that there was.  PuttThis-3 went with Scott Verplank while MasterBators went with Wannamaker Winner Keegan Bradley.  Keep in mind that, before the fourth round commenced, only one stroke separated these two golfers. 

When it was over, we would witness a bit of an oddity here at GU.  The first two events went to PuttThis.  The second two events went to HackMan.  Not a single event was won by MasterBators.  Well, unless you count the season championship, that is.  See, while Bradley was winning, Verplank was watching from the clubhouse.   This meant that Verplank would finish the day three strokes behind which then meant that PuttThis-3 was would finish three stokes behind in the overall standings thereby making way for MasterBators to be crowned the 2011 GolfUnlimited Champion!

Thanks and we'll see you next year

This concludes GolfUnlimited for 2011.  Thanks to everyone would participated and special thanks to MasterBators and PuttThis-3 for keeping it interesting.  Be sure to keep your putters clean and, come April 2012, it'll be time again to Get It In The Hole!

To view Standings and Results from the first event -- The Masters -- Click Here

To view Standings and Results from the second event -- The U.S. Open -- Click Here

To view Standings and Results from the third event -- The British Open -- Click Here