Dan Bradbury’s goal was to make the cut at the DP World Tour’s FedEx Open de France. He did a lot better than that.
On Sunday, Bradbury carded a 5-under 66 in the final round to win the title by one stroke at Le Golf National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. The 25-year-old Englishman reeled off four birdies on the back nine to finish at 16 under overall for his second career win. Trailing by two strokes heading into the final round, Bradbury recounted that he looked over at the trophy on the first tee and thought, “it’s one of the ones you want.”
Asked if he had a place for the trophy, he smiled and said, “I’ll find one.”
Bradbury emerged from a bunched up leaderboard as 11 different players held or shared the lead on Sunday. Swedish golfer Jesper Svensson surrendered a one-stroke overnight lead, ballooning to 5-over 76 and tumbling down to a share of 27th.
Bradbury caught a break at No. 15 when his ball managed to stay dry and he proceeded to sink a 15-foot birdie putt.
“Straight out pushed it,” he said of his approach. “Luckily it stayed on, and I hit a horrendous putt that went in. Sometimes you just need that. Once I’d done that it felt like ‘there’s definitely something going for me.’”
Bradbury staved off Denmark’s Jeff Winther, who closed with a bogey-free 64. The win lifted Bradbury from worrying about being keeping his card for next season to inside the top 25 in the Race to Dubai.
“The goal was to make the cut so I didn’t have to go to Korea to keep my card,” Bradbury said. “I guess I will be looking for flights to Dubai.”