Patient wait over as Wakefield’s Dan Bradbury takes first steps DP World Tour at Cazoo English Open

The magnanimous nature of Rory McIlroy’s defeat at the Open, for instance. Or Barclay Brown’s gallant bid for the silver medal. Or Sam Bairstow’s mother in tears as she watches her son putt out on the 72nd green at St Andrews.

Or another feelgood story, that of Dan Bradbury taking his first steps as a professional golfer.

For the 22-year-old from Wakefield tees off at 2.20pm today in the opening round of the Cazoo English Open at Hillside Golf Club in Southport.

It will be a significant moment in the life of Bradbury, a young man who first picked up a club aged three, visited a driving range for the first time when he was five and joined Wakefield Golf Club a few weeks short of his eighth birthday.

“I’m looking forward to it, I cannot wait,” says Bradbury, his eyes wide open to the opportunity that presents itself.

“I’ve only had a small taste of it but if it’s like this every week I could get used to it.”

Bradbury has been building towards this moment for some years. He represented Yorkshire for the first time when he was 13 – “my foursomes partner that very first round was actually Barclay Brown,” he says.

He captained Leeds Union and then Yorkshire Boys and by the time he was 18 knew exactly the next step he wanted to take to further his prospects in golf.

“I didn’t want to go university over here, it was never something that appealed to me,” he says.

“I always said I would do an apprenticeship unless I got a place in America. I just wanted to play golf, I just wanted to enjoy it.

“Once I spoke to a few coaches, I was set on going to America and making it work.”

Bradbury spent four years at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee and then spent a final year at Florida State University, on the same programme that produced serial major winner Brooks Koepka and regular PGA Tour winner Daniel Berger.

“Covid hit during my junior year (third year) at Lincoln Memorial, so the season got cut short and it made me feel like I have unfinished business.

“But by the time I got back in 2021 I was ready for a new challenge. It was either turn pro or get another year somewhere else. I’m very glad I did.”

His intention was always to turn professional after finishing college and he does so emboldened by that final year at FSU, a golfing programme renowned for creating winners.

“You’re treated like a professional, everything you do is within a professional environment, you’re not treated like a schoolkid,” says Bradbury – nine times a winner as an amateur – of the college system. “You’re an athlete, you have all the resources you’re ever going to need, especially at these top schools, anything you need that is going to make you a better player. They are preparing you for Tour life and they prepare you well because they’ve seen it before. Players like Daniel Berger and Brooks Koepka went through just a few years before, they’re reporting back to the coaches that this is what it’s like and they build off that.”

Bradbury turned professional at the start of the month and joined Octagon Sports Agency who got him an invite into the English Open and seven starts on the Challenge Tour up until the end of the year.

Getting on the DP World Tour is the aim and Bradbury is ready for the transition.

“This game will frustrate you, there are no guarantees, you’ve got to be prepared for anything, but I think it’s a matter of believing in yourself,” says Bradbury, whose new sponsors are Delta Commercial Roofing and Xenon Workplace.

“I’ve played with a lot of great players and for me the big difference between those that make it and those that don’t is belief.

“You’re going to have some bad results, there are going to be days when you play badly, that’s just golf, we all know what that feels like.

“You don’t stand on a tee knowing you’re going to shoot 66, it doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to battle some days and I’m prepared to accept the bad with the good; hopefully we get more good.”