Torn ligaments don’t keep Bradshaw away

Bradshaw
SHEPHERDSTOWN — There isn’t a ski slope in downtown Bakerton. Maybe there should be. Jefferson High School and Shepherd University graduate David Bradshaw was back in the state earlier this week to participate in the 87th West Virginia Open golf tournament, an event he had won 11 times, including the last four years in a row. The 37-year-old Bradshaw tore two knee ligaments while skiing in March, and has not had surgery to repair the injury. While playing at the Resort at Glade Springs near Beckley, Bradshaw said he has scheduled knee surgery for early July.
After posting another win in the 2019 Open held in Parkersburg, Bradshaw had moved within six victories of Sam Snead’s all-time West Virginia Open record of 17 wins.
The slender, long-hitting Bradshaw continues to play professionally on tours in Canada and California.
Last year in Parkersburg, Bradshaw nearly ran away from the competition, winning the 54-hole event by eight strokes.
It was expected that the competition might do better here in 2020, because Christian Brand was back in the field after not playing in the event since 2015, when he bested a field that included Bradshaw. Bradshaw then posted Open wins in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Brand
Brand is also a professional golfer who plays on circuits in this country.
Since tearing the knee ligaments, Bradshaw has played in only one tournament, finishing in third place two weeks ago in a tournament in California.
The Resort at Glade Springs is a familiar course for Bradshaw, who has two West Virginia Open victories at the private course.
This past Tuesday in the tournament’s first round, Bradshaw was in a threesome, along with veteran amateur Pat Carter and Philip Reale, which teed off at 12:30 p.m.
Of the 86 previous West Virginia Opens, Snead and Bradshaw have accounted for 28 of the event’s wins.

Carter
Snead was a professional golf Hall of Fame luminary who has an all-time record 82 professional victories. He often played in West Virginia at The Greenbrier and was the host professional at a course in Hot Springs, Va., not far from Greenbrier County.
Bradshaw is a member of the Shepherd Athletic Hall of Fame. The West Virginia Open is the only tournament in the state he participates in on a yearly basis.
- Bradshaw
- Brand
- Carter
- Reale
- Snead

Reale

Snead