GOLF:AMERICAN KEEGAN Bradley won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf by a shot from Charl Schwartzel in Bermuda yesterday, after Rory McIlroy went from three ahead to four behind with a second-round 75.

With 12 holes to play in the 36-hole event between the year’s four Major winners, Northern Ireland’s US Open champion was firmly on course to be the first European winner since Ian Woosnam in 1991.

But he bogeyed the next three, did not have a birdie all day and instead it was South African Schwartzel who mounted the biggest challenge to Bradley. From seven strokes adrift at the start of the day, the Masters champion drew level with a sparkling front-nine 31, but could not get back on terms after Bradley birdied the 10th.

They finished four under par and three under respectively, while McIlroy was level par and Darren Clarke, never a factor from the time he bogeyed three of the first four holes, nine over.

That still earned the British Open champion more than €143,000, while Bradley took home nearly €434,000.

Bradley, who made a five-foot par putt to win, commented: “It feels great. It was a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be – coming down the stretch it felt like any other tournament that I played in. “To beat some of the best players in the world makes it even more special. It’s a really nice way to kind of cap off the year, although I’ve still got a lot of golf to play.

“If you would have told me at the beginning of the year I would have won the Grand Slam of Golf tournament I probably would have laughed at you.”

McIlroy said: “I didn’t quite have control of the golf ball like I did yesterday. The wind was tough, I just didn’t do enough when I needed to.”

Clarke, who has decided to stay on in Bermuda for a holiday rather than play in Spain next week, said: “Obviously I haven’t played well the past two days. I’ve just been making a few changes and getting way too steep on my backswing.”