Player to Watch: Keegan Bradley at the Sony Open

Thursday marks the beginning of a clean slate for every member of the PGA TOUR. A new season is about to begin, and countless opportunities lie ahead. I don’t think anyone in golf is looking forward to that more than Keegan Bradley.

Now, that’s not to say he didn’t have one helluva season in 2025. In his first 14 starts of the year, he collected four top-10 finishes and was a constant threat on leaderboards. Then he broke through for his eighth-career win at the Travelers Championship, the New Englander’s second victory at TPC River Highlands. And after a sluggish, two-month stretch, Bradley tied for seventh at the TOUR Championship in August for a nice little payday ($1.121M).

But despite all of that success, Bradley gave himself a failing mark when asked to grade his season—those few days at Bethpage Black really did take a massive toll on not only him, but his psyche.

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No player on Earth seemingly cares more about the Ryder Cup than Bradley. It was the honor of his life to captain Team USA, and when his group fell to the Europeans on Long Island, he felt as though he’d let a whole country down.

“You win, it's glory for a lifetime,” Bradley said in October at a Travelers media day. “You lose, it's 'I'm going to have to sit with this for the rest of my life.’ There's no part of me that thinks I'll ever get over this. Since the Ryder Cup 'til now has been one of the toughest times in my life."

Over the last few months, Bradley got clubs back in his hands, playing in The Skins Game reboot on Black Friday and the Hero World Challenge in December. But on Thursday, the TOUR juices will flow once again.

Waialae Country Club, the home of this week’s Sony Open, is an old-school track. Get it in the fairway, hit as many greens as possible, and roll the rock. It couldn’t be less bomb-and-gouge if it tried. Bradley, who ranked ninth in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green in ‘25, has seen plenty of success around this place over the years. He tied for sixth last season, lost in a playoff a year earlier, and tied for 12th in both 2022 and 2020.

Add that resume to the fact I think Bradley is looking for a lick back after what happened at Bethpage, and I expect him to make a run come Sunday night.

Bradley wants to show he’s still got it. I think his No. 1 goal for the next year and a half is to show he deserves another shot at the Ryder Cup—and not as captain. He wants to bring his clubs next time around. And what better way to start an Adare Manor campaign than with a win at the TOUR’s first event of the year?

There’s a little more star power in Honolulu this week than what we’ve grown accustomed to at the Sony thank to The Sentry’s cancellation, so Bradley’s task will be a whole lot trickier. Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott, J.J. Spaun, and Tony Finau are just some of the names on the tee sheet—but I like Bradley’s chances.

He’ll play alongside Spieth and Matsuyama for the first two rounds, with their Thursday tee time scheduled for 5:13 p.m. ET.

If you don’t have a rooting interest in Hawaii, pick up a Bradley flag for the next four days. The guy deserves a W.

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