Rookie Bradbury earns life-changing Joburg win
England’s Dan Bradbury finished three strokes ahead of Sami Valimaki at the Joburg Open to win his maiden DP World Tour title.
Bradbury finished at 21-under-par with rounds of 63-66-67-67 to also earn a spot at The Open Championship next year. Bradbury, who just turned professional in July, was playing in only his third tournament on the DP World Tour and without any tour status.
Dan Bradbury (Credit: DP World Tour)
The 23-year-old played on a sponsor’s invite and made the most of the opportunity at the Houghton Golf Club.
“It will not sink in for a couple of days, I do not assume,” said Bradbury.
“It is simply loads of strain taken off your again – that is good. I simply loved it, loads of good golf, it was only a nice week, all spherical. Simply drawing on experiences from school golf, simply performed stable golf, did not attempt to do something I could not do.”
As an amateur Bradbury attended Lincoln Memorial University from 2017 to 2021, where he was the 2021 South Atlantic Conference Men’s Athlete of the Year. He played his final collegiate season at Florida State University in 2022.
WITB: Dan Bradbury
- Titleist Pro V1 Golf Ball
- PING G425 LST Driver
- PING G425 LST Woods
- PING i230 Irons
- PING Glide 4.0 Wedges
- PING PLD Milled Prime Tyne 4 Putter
After turning professional in July he made his first start at the Cazoo Classic, played at Hillside Golf Club in Southport where he missed the cut.
Finn Sami Valimaki, who closed with a 69 finished in second position with South Africans Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Daniel van Tonder sharing third place, one stroke behind Valimaki.
The Joburg Open is the first tournament of the DP World Tour’s 2023 season, with two more events in South Africa in December.
