There has not been a more consistent performer or dedicated individual in Ladies Professional Golf Association history than Pat Bradley. This is a woman who made it on course management, patience and dogged determination, who experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and then came back to become the 12th woman enshrined in the LPGA Hall of Fame. “Commitment was the key,” Bradley said. “You can have success, failure, setback and defeat, and rise above it.”
During her prime, Bradley competed in 627 tournaments, posting 312 top-10 finishes, with 208 of those in the top five. She became the first woman golfer to surpass the $2 million (1986), $3 million (1990) and $4 million (1991) marks in career earnings and was the first woman to win all four of the modern Major Championships. In 1986, she won the Nabisco Dinah Shore, the LPGA Championship, the du Maurier and finished fifth at the U.S. Women’s Open, three strokes out of the Jane Geddes-Sally Little playoff.
That was the year that defined Bradley’s career. “I have been a very consistent and very good player, but I really believe that in 1986 I was tapped to be a little bit more distinguished than the other players,” Bradley said. “I think somewhere, someone up above picked me to have a year that will go down in golfing history and will make me just a little more special than other people. I honestly wish everyone could experience what I did in that dream-come-true year. I was invincible.”
