Keegan Bradley brings star power and a magnetic quest to the Emirates Australian Open

A 10-year pro career worth a major and a cool $31 million still has a missing piece until American Keegan Bradley wins outside the US for the first time.

Chasing his first international victory is a magnetic quest for the headliner due at the Emirates Australian Open at The Lakes in Sydney from November 15-18.

Sydney galleries will enjoy a reinvigorated Bradley, the 2011 PGA champion who is back to No. 31 in the world after putting his way out of the doldrums with his arm-lock style.

Bradley, 32, was on every list of golfers hardest hit by the 2016 ban on anchoring putters until his first win in six years at the BMW Championship in the recent FedEx Cup play-offs.

“I haven’t won overseas and that would be a really great thing to put on my resume to add to my career,” Bradley said yesterday from the CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur.

“I have always wanted to get back to Australia and for the most part it hasn’t fitted in my schedule but this year I’m real excited it has.”

It has taken eight years. Bradley was an unknown pro in just his fourth event on the second-tier Web.com Tour when he played the Moonah Classic at Victoria’s Moonah Links in 2010.

The $6147.28 cheque for 21st was a huge deal for the Florida native in those days.

“I couldn’t afford to stay at the course hotel at the time so I stayed down the street in this rundown motel-type deal but we loved it,” Bradley said.

“I had the best time, a really cool experience bonding with three or four guys on that tour I didn’t know before.

“I always remember it very fondly and making the cut was big because it was a big lot of money to get over here (from the US).”

Bradley is assured of a five-star hotel this time and will be a major threat to top Aussie Cameron Smith and fellow American Brandt Snedeker at The Lakes.

The famous water-carry holes and the strategic golf demanded by The Lakes is a mystery to Bradley, who will get his crash course in tournament week.

“I don’t know much about it but I saw Ian Baker-Finch at a coffee shop, played with Jason Day at the PGA and they had nothing but great things to say about it,” Bradley said.

Bradley may not be so long between visits Down Under next time because a date with Royal Melbourne is one of his big targets for next year.

“It’s fun to realistically look at the Presidents Cup in Melbourne and say I have a good shot to be on that team whereas in the past it was not,” Bradley said.

“I would love to do that and getting back on the US team (for the first time since the 2014 Ryder Cup) would mean a lot and it’s something that really drives me to keep going.”