DANIELS, W.Va. — At age 32 and having lost two playoffs at Greenbrier qualifiers, David Bradshaw admitted time was running out.
So when he found himself in yet another sudden-death opportunity Monday at Glade Springs, and then found himself in the No. 18 bunker on back-to-back shots, the familiar frustrations overflowed.
He slammed his wedge into the bag, and then pounded it on the ground, sensing elimination. But when Garrett Osborn and Mike Van Sickle missed their birdie putts, Bradshaw salvaged his dream by making an 8-foot do-or-die par to extend the playoff. Two holes later, the Harpers Ferry native secured the last of four qualifying spots, clinching his first invite to the Greenbrier Classic.
“That’ll be cool, finally,” said Bradshaw, a seven-time West Virginia Open champion who’s making his first PGA event. “I have a good local following and a lot of people have wanted me in this golf tournament for a while, so I’m fired up. It’s official.”
Former Virginia Tech golfer Garland Green of Tazewell, Va., shot a 7-under 64 for the day’s low score, and Patrick Newcomb of Benton, Ky., advanced at 6-under.
Osborn, of Birmingham, Ala., also survived the three-way playoff of the 5-under players, sinking a birdie on the fourth playoff hole. Van Sickle, the McKees Rocks, Pa., resident, was the odd man out. He missed a short birdie putt on the third playoff hole that sent Bradshaw scrambling.
“I felt bad for him. That putt on 18 sucked,” Bradshaw said. “He should’ve made it.”
Bradshaw’s putter saved him after he twice swung from the sand.
On the first bunker shot, Bradshaw’s club made contact with nearby rock—“I’m sure everybody heard the clank of it”—and the ball barely advanced a few feet. He lifted the next shot out of the sand but sent it well past the hole.
“It was a long 8 feet,” Bradshaw said. “In that situation it was make or go home. So I just picked a line, stroked it and lo and behold the thing went in. My putter’s been really rough, but today it saved me.”
And it saved him a spot Thursday on the Old White course, a years-long mission fulfilled at last.
“Hopefully I play well enough to make the cut and get into the weekend,” Bradshaw said. “And God forbid I get into the mix—that would be unbelievable.”
Newcomb embraces unknown role: After his runner-up round of 65 clinched a qualifying spot, Newcomb joked about his small-town Kentucky roots and said “nobody knows me.” A few minutes later that became apparent when a course official mistook him for one of the three golfers who finished 66 and were headed to a playoff.
But Newcomb, 25, likes letting his golf game make the introduction. He topped 300 pounds as a player at Murray State but dropped down to 230 at the insistence of his swing coach.
“He told me you’ll hit it a little longer, and you’ll even putt it a little better because you’re belly will be out of the way,” Newcomb said.
At Murray State, he teamed with basketball coach Steve Prohm to win a fundraising scramble. Now Prohm is at Iowa State, and Newcomb is hoping to give his alma mater some publicity by making noise at the Greenbrier.