Keegan Bradley’s Aunt Just Told a Fantastic Ryder Cup Story

This is the good stuff.

GOLF.com’s Claire Rodgers sat down with Pat Bradley, Keegan Bradley’s aunt, at TPC Boston and talked about the origin of Keegan’s obsession with the Ryder Cup. It all started at the 1999 edition held at The Country Club outside Boston.

“I remember distinctly when Keegan was 12 years old, 13 years old, at The Country Club in 1999, he was at the Ryder Cup,” Pat told Claire. “And, of course, it was so huge, the gallery, he couldn’t see. So his dad put him on his shoulders and got him to see, you know, above the crowd.

“And that’s when he turned to his father and said, ‘Dad, I want to be on a Ryder Cup one day.’ And from that moment on, it was not just a dream, it was a mission.”

If you don’t know Pat, you probably should. She won 31 times on the LPGA, including six major championships, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1991, and was the Team USA Solheim Cup captain in 2000. So, you could say golf runs in this family’s veins.

“I remember when he called me, after he got the call from the PGA of America and said, ‘Aunt Pat, we’ve made history.’ And I was—it caught me a little bit by surprise. And then he goes, ‘Pat, you know, we got a Ryder Cup captain and a Solheim captain in the same family.’ And then that’s when it, it really hit home.”

On Wednesday, Keegan made his six captain’s picks for next month’s biennial event against Europe, and instead of bringing his clubs, he’s decided to focus on being the best captain he can. Instead, he picked Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay, and Sam Burns.

If you haven’t seen the video of his call to Burns, you have to check it out.