• US PGA Championship, Round Four

What They Said

Keegan Bradley takes the applause of the crowd © Getty Images

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Keegan Bradley claimed his first major championship at his first attempt, and understandably could barely describe his feelings. He said: "I can't believe it, I'm so thankful to the PGA - my dad's a professional and I know this one will be a special one for him I'm sure.

"I had a tough finish last week [at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational] and I talked to Dr Bob Rotella and others about what happened. It's because of them that I was able to fight back.

"I kept thinking about the playoff I won at the Byron Nelson. As soon as I realised I was going into a playoff, I completely calmed down. It was the most calm I was all week. I don't know the reason why."

Jason Dufner was morose after losing a five-shot lead and then a play-off. He said: "Those are just tough holes, unfortunately - but to play them three over coming in was disappointing. There's a lot to be learned from this, and a lot to be taken from this - but Keegan just played great down the stretch. I'm so new at this situation, I don't know if I appreciate it as much as I will - soon. I might look back in 10 or 15 years and be disappointed if I never get another chance."

World No. 1 Luke Donald saw his challenge fade over the closing holes. He said: "At the beginning of the day, I thought if I could get to maybe six, seven-under, I might have a chance. There's enough wind to make it tricky but the guys out front really made it tough.

"When I got to 4-under through 12, you know, still being three back and they have the easy stretch, I thought I had to press a little bit hard and take on some pins on those last few holes, and obviously I hit a poor shot on 15. Just didn't strike it well enough, and you know, it's a tough stretch to make up for."

Lee Westwood again pinpointed his putting as he finished near the bottom of the top ten. He said: "Well, I played lovely again. Didn't miss many greens in regulation, which was tough today. And played very solidly. Missed a couple of short ones early on. I guess everybody is missing on these greens. They are very difficult to read. But hit a lot of good putts out there that didn't go in."

Anders Hansen finished third, a shot behind the two main men. He said: "Very proud of myself. Obviously you play a major, it's tough, the course is set up tough. I thought my ball-striking has been good all week. I played really, really solid from tee-to-green and the putting has been pretty solid. It has not been magnificent but it's been pretty solid so all in all, it's good for my confidence. It's good for the future."

Brendan Steele started the day in a share of the lead, but quickly fell apart. He said: "It's terrible. It's the worst day I can remember on the golf course. I'm not even disappointed that I didn't win, I'm just disappointed that I didn't give it a better round. I didn't see this coming at all and didn't feel like I even played as bad as the score showed. But we ended up in about 27 bunkers today, which you can't do, and it doesn't take much out here, I guess. But it's definitely an experience I'm going to try to learn from. But right now it hurts a lot, and I just wanted a strong finish. Didn't expect to win, but I expected to play better than this."

Robert Karlsson took the positives despite finishing with three straight bogeys to scupper his chances. He said: "After today, it's probably the first time I can say to myself, 'I am good enough to win one of these'. Obviously it helps - I know I've played against them many, many times and that I have beaten them on several occasions, so obviously it's way easier to see it, it's been done. When Darren [Clarke] does it - it's different if Tiger [Woods] does it every time he shows up and feels a bit harder, but now it is possible."

2001 winner David Toms again had a strong finish. He said: "I don't know, I just feel comfortable in Atlanta. Doesn't matter what course it is, I've always played well in this city and I love coming here. The people have been very supportive of my career along the way, and it's really all I can say about it, because I've played a lot of different courses well. So, I just like it here."

Adam Scott was exhausted after winning last week and then contending again in Atlanta. He said: "t's positive. It's a good week. It's easy to come in the week after and just play it around the golf course, but if you do that here, you're probably going to be going home Friday afternoon. I worked really hard because I wanted to build on the good finish of last week."

Phil Mickelson was left to rue his consistency. He said: "I felt like I was one good round away, 4- or 5-under par the first three days of getting in it, but just wasn't able to do it. I just really struggled making birdies here."

Rory McIlroy struggled again as he finished his tournament well down the field. He said: "To be honest I'm glad to be done. It was a struggle. I basically played 70 holes of this tournament not at 100 per cent, so it was always going to be tough. Still, some good play out there the last few days, birdied the last, so nice to come off with a positive each day. I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks off, and you know, get rested up and get ready for the end of the season."

On his wrist, he added: "It's fine. To be honest, the swelling in the tendon went down. The pronator muscle is still a little sore, and going up into the medial ligament up into the inside of the elbow, so just a little bit of rest [required]."

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