Pat Bradley

ELIGIBILITY CODE: 1, 5, 6)

Born in Westford, Mass., Bradley was the only daughter among six children of Richard and Kay Bradley. Her father was an avid golfer, and her brothers include Mark, a PGA club professional in Jackson Hole, Wyo. whose son Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship in 2011.
Started playing golf at the age of 11. Bradley won the New Hampshire Amateur in 1967 and 1969 and the New England Amateur from 1972-73. As a member of the Florida International University golf team, she was named an All-American in 1970.
Bradley joined the LPGA Tour in 1974 and got her first win at the Girl Talk Classic in 1976 and she also finished second six times that year. Her breakout year was 1978, when she won three times. Bradley's most fertile years came in the early to mid-1980s. She led the LPGA in wins in 1983 and 1986. Her first major came at the 1980 Peter Jackson Classic, then she added the 1981 U.S. Women's Open and the du Maurier Classic in 1985.
In 1986, she won three of the four LPGA majors - the du Maurier Classic, Nabisco Dinah Shore, and LPGA Championship. She finished fifth in the U.S. Women's Open, three shots back, to narrowly miss the grand slam. Bradley won the money title and Vare Trophy that year. In 1988, she was diagnosed with Graves' disease, and she played 17 tournaments but made the cut in only eight. But she returned to form in 1989, winning once. Three more wins followed in 1990.
Bradley won four times in 1991 and captured her second money and scoring titles, and also was named LPGA Tour Player of the Year for the second time. She was also inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. A New York Times survey of other LPGA Tour players published July 22, 1992, ranked Bradley as the tour's best long putter and best course manager as well as the best player on tour. The last of her LPGA victories came in 1995 at the HealthSouth Inaugural, almost 19 years after her first win in 1976.
Bradley played full time on the LPGA Tour between 1974 and 2000. She played a total of 700 events, making 639 cuts and finishing in the top- 10 316 times (45%). Bradley played on three U.S. Solheim Cup teams (1990, 1992, 1996) and captained the team in 2000.
This week will be the culmination of a dream that Bradley has had to see the USGA have a Women's Senior Open championship. "I've been waiting 17 years for this moment," said Bradley to a Lowell Sun reporter. "I'm thrilled. I wish it was 17 years ago when I turned 50, but it is what it is. I am thrilled that the USGA has recognized this void in the major championship calendar." Since the start of the Ladies Legends Tour Bradley has played in most of them, making around 50 starts. It's been fun but all the time she goes back to the wise of possibly winning a U.S. Women's Senior Title to go along with her 1981 U.S. Open win. That win came at LaGrange C.C., which is 20 miles from Chicago Golf Club, site of the U.S. Senior Women's Open.