Everything about the evening of June 26 was validation of Keegan Bradley’s decision to buy a second home in which to spend summer months in his beloved New England.
Correction. Make it “their” beloved New England because Keegan’s wife, Jillian, is his quintessential soulmate. Like Keegan, Jillian is a Vermont native who embraces a true New Englander spirit. Like Keegan, Jillian has famed New England-raised sports bloodlines.
Keegan’s Hall of Fame aunt, Pat Bradley (the pride of Westford, Mass.), who counts six majors among her 31 LPGA wins? Impressive. But Jillian can counter that with her Hall of Fame uncle Carlton Fisk (raised in Charlestown, N.H.), arguably the most durable catcher in MLB history.
So, this purchase of a home in Newburyport, a seaport town (population 18,000) just 35 miles northeast of Boston was magnanimously agreed upon and oh, how it all shined through on the evening of June 26.
Sultry summer weather had blanketed Newburyport and adding to the warmth was a gathering of the Bradley family on the patio.
Keegan’s father, Mark, was in from Jackson Hole, Wyo. His mother, Kaye, had driven all of four miles from her home in neighboring Newbury. (Mark and Kaye divorced years ago but maintain a warm relationship.) From her home a mile-and-a-half away, sister Madison and her husband, Pat, were there with their children Aiden (13) and Brielle (10).
Check a huge box in your life, Keegan Bradley.
“We’ve missed New England so much and really want to be near our families and have our boys (Logan (6) and Cooper (3)) be close to their cousins when school is out in the summer,” Keegan explains.
“Jupiter (Florida) will always be a home for us. But we’ve wanted to get back to New England for a few years, so we’re thrilled this has happened.”
A few days removed from a T-39 finish at the Travelers Championship and ready and eager for a three-week break, Keegan relished his duties as host.
Proving he’s comfortable in “The Port,” Bradley has his favorite pizza joint, Nick’s, and when he returned with the pies, the first order of business was to feed the children. That task completed, Keegan suggested the playroom for Logan, Cooper, Aiden, and Brielle.
The news he had was for adult family members only and it brought a momentary silence. Stunned looks were shared. Did Keegan Bradley just tell his family that he was going to be the Ryder Cup captain in 2025?
“We were amazed,” says Kaye. “We just said, ‘What?’ or ‘Oh, my God.’”
Mark Bradley nearly fell out of his chair. “Are you kidding me?”
Keegan and Jillian assured them it was for real. The news had been delivered a few days earlier, the Sunday (June 23) evening after the Travelers had ended. The clincher was this: “He had kept it under wraps,” Kaye says, “but now he was telling us that we couldn’t tell a soul. We promised him we wouldn’t.”
For about 10 days, Kaye Bradley said she had to bite her tongue whenever she saw her sister. “It took a lot not to blurt it out,” she laughs.
Therein percolates the feel-good ingredient of the Keegan-Bradley-Ryder-Cup-Captain story. So many sidebars are out there—how Bradley, a Ryder Cupper in 2012 and 2014, was devastated to be passed over by captain Zach Johnson in ’23; how Bradley will be carrying out his captaincy at Bethpage Black where he played frequently while at St. John’s; how Bradley was the stunning choice after Tiger Woods said no; how at 39 in September of 2025, Bradley will be the youngest U.S. Ryder Cup captain since 34-year-old Arnold Palmer in 1963.
Worthy storylines, no question.
But had Bradley been in Jupiter, Fla., when he got the call and had he then relayed the news via cell phone to his parents and sister, well, it would have still felt glorious. A sense of awe would have been lacking, however, because there was something about the setting in which he got the news and told his family.
You see, no matter the distances Keegan Bradley has gone with his golf talent, he is forever anchored to New England.
Born in Vermont, he has lived also in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. His most significant junior golf was played with The Challenge Cup based in Rhode Island and it was in Maine where he won for the first time, the Herbert Bracy junior golf tournament at York Golf & Tennis Club. Oh, and his victory at the 2023 Travelers Championship in Connecticut? It might not match the 2011 PGA Championship for stature, but good gracious did it have all the trappings of a golf story that involves both sides of his family.
Deep as the golf ties are to Pat Bradley and her brothers—Mark, Chris, Tom, and John—who are equally passionate about the game, there are layers to the family story that are on Kaye’s side.
Admittedly a pair of hippies who were living in Jackson Hole, Mark and Kaye decided to move back to New England. When Vermont entered the picture, give credit to Kaye who bought her husband a membership to the golf club at the Woodstock Inn.
That opened a new chapter to Mark Bradley’s life. He pursued his PGA career and “if Kaye didn’t buy that membership, who knows,” he says.
Given his genes, it’s no surprise Keegan picked up golf quickly. But it wasn’t like Kaye’s side didn’t have a sense of the game. Her late father, Robert Hansen, grew up in Michigan and played hockey at Michigan State, “but loved golf most of all,” says Kaye.
It was Robert Hansen’s avid golf pursuits at the York Golf & Tennis Club that pointed Mark and Kaye to enter Keegan into that junior tournament and while no one would ever signal that as the turning point in his golf career, it serves yet another flavorful note to his strong ties to New England.
“There were a lot of emotions that night,” says Kaye, who smiles to herself, then waves and laughs as she drives past her son’s home, even if it’s for summers.
“I never thought in a million years this would happen.”
She was either talking about Keegan being named Ryder Cup captain or buying a summer home virtually next door? The emotions are so strong in both cases.
