Rookies Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele bags the Franklin Templeton Shootout title
PGA Tour rookies Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele pulled in a stunning victory at the Franklin Templeton Shootout on Sunday, December 11, edging past some of the grizzled veterans of the tour. The duo have remained in contention in the previous rounds of
the event and romped to a big win with a 13-under, 59 in Scramble Play format on the final day. This is the first time that the rookies on the tour have gone over to win the shootout.
"We played well," Bradley said. "We got off to a slow start, kind of like we did all three days, but we played this last stretch of holes really well."
Steele added: "We had so much fun that it made it a lot easier for us."
Steele and Bradley surged to the top of the leaderboard in the first round of the event, sharing the lead with tour veterans Mark Calcavecchia and Nick Price with a staggering nine-under. They lost the lead in the second round to Rory Sabbatini & Jhonattan
Vegas who pulled in an amazing 12-under at the scenic Tiburon Golf Club at Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples. The final day of the event turned out to a one-sided affair as the young rookies posted a mammoth 32-under, 184 to win the challenge by three shots.
Sabbatini and Vegas finished one stroke behind, trailing the leaders by one shot and were joined for a joint second by Calcavecchia and Price.
Steele and Bradley took control of the final round earlier in the day when Steele pulled in an eagle on 14th and a birdie on the next, to move ahead of the approaching contenders. Calcavecchia, who had an impressive year so far despite of his
age, birdied the 18th to finish for a 61. Charles Howell III and Justin Leonard, and 2009 champions Jerry Kelly and Steve Stricker finished for a joint fourth trailing the leaders by four shots.
"We didn't hit a lot of good iron shots today," Price said. "We didn't put the ball close enough to the hole. We put a lot of pressure on our putting. They played really well together," he said referring to the winning pair. "They didn't make any mistakes."
Bradley and Steele will also share whooping prize money of $3-million.
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