Pat Bradley Celebrates a Putt Early : A Little Pitter-Patter Does Not Help Putter

Pat Bradley isn’t one to jump around or do a little inventive dance with her putter after a good shot. Usually, a simple tip of the cap will do.

But on the final two holes of Kyocera Inamori Tournament at Bernardo Heights Sunday, Bradley just had to jump a little. She had to show some emotion in an emotion-packed final day.

As it turned out, however, maybe she could practice when to show it.

On the 17th hole, Bradley raised her right arm and thrust it toward the cup in an effort to help a 25-foot putt birdie putt drop--a putt that would have given her the tournament lead. It rimmed out.

On the 18th, Bradley raised both arms after hitting a 20-foot birdie effort that would have put her one stroke ahead of Patty Sheehan. This time the ball went in the cup. Or did it?

“I saw it disappear and I was jumping for joy,” Bradley said. “Then, I heard the gallery sigh. I looked up and the ball was back out of the cup.”

Moments later, Sheehan dropped a 18-foot birdie putt on 18 to win by a stroke.

“I can’t tell you how much I thought both of those shots were in the cup,” Bradley said. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m a very emotional person. Sometimes I tend to save them up and at 17 and 18, I had to react. I was so sure I made them.”

Bradley, a member of the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. tour since 1974, said she couldn’t ever remember two shots like the ones Sunday failing to drop in the cup. At least the thought didn’t ring a bell, she said.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the only bell that didn’t ring. Bradley’s parents, who live in Westford, Mass., go out on their back porch and ring a bell, regardless of the hour, whenever their daughter wins an LPGA event. They have carried out that tradition 17 times during Bradley’s career including after last Sunday’s Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament in Rancho Mirage.

Bradley missed a chance to win back-to-back tournaments for the first time in her career--a career in which she was won nearly $2 million to rank second on the all-time LPGA money list.

“That was something I badly wanted to do,” Bradley said. “But when those two putts rolled out, I knew it just wasn’t to be.”

Bradley started the day three shots behind Sheehan after shooting a two-over-par 74 in Saturday’s third round. Sunday she had four birdies and 14 pars for a 68.

At the par-3, 182-yard 12th hole, Bradley nearly made a hole in one, her tee shot bouncing within a foot of the cup. She tapped in from there to pull within one shot of Sheehan.

“I can’t be upset with the way I played,” Bradley said. “If there was anything I could blame it on it would have to be my performance on Saturday. I played poorly. So (Sunday), I just went out there and tried to forget about it. I just tried to follow my own game plan.”

It worked. Birdies at the second, sixth, 11th and the tap-in at 12 pulled Bradley back into contention. Everything, in fact, was going along nicely until the putt on the 18th that wasn’t.