Born in Melbourne Australia February 10 1967.
At the age of 15 Bradley Hughes was thrust into the golfing spotlight by qualifying as the youngest player ever to play a major Australian tournament- the 1982 Victorian Open.
After a distinguished amateur career which included numerous representative teams for Victoria and Australia- leading amateur in the Australian Open and The Australian masters and victories in the Victorian Amateur 1987-1988 and the New Zealand Amateur 1988 Hughes turned professional at the age of 21 in October 1988.
Three weeks later he had started his professional career with a bang- 7th Tasmanian Open 12th New South Wales Open and a win 1988 Western Australian Open to show he had what it took on the professional stage.
Throughout his career Hughes played 3 seasons on the European Tour- 4 seasons on the Japan PGA Tour- 4 seasons on the Web.Com tour and 9 seasons on the United States PGA Tour.
Hughes competed in all four of golf major championships- The Masters (1)- US Open (4), British Open (4) & PGA Championship (1) – 10 Major Championships with his highest finish a 16th place in the 1997 US Open at Congressional GC won by Ernie Els.
Hughes finished runner up in the 1992 KBC Daiwa Open (Japan) losing in a playoff to TM Chen. He also finished runner up twice on the USPGA Tour- 1998 CVS Classic in Boston & the 1999 Kemper Open in Washington DC. He has also finished runner-up in the Victorian Open, NSW Open, Tasmanian Open, Palm meadows Cup, Players Championship, NZPGA Championship & the Australian Masters in Australian PGA competition also.
His professional victories amount to 7- 1988 West Australian Open, 1991 South Australian PGA, 1996 Players Championship, 1993 & 1998 Australian Masters and the 2004 Wichita Open (Korn Ferry Tour.)
Hughes represented Australia on two occasions in The World Cup of Golf - in 1996 Cape Town South Africa and in 1997 at Kiawah Island South Carolina. His golfing highlight was being a member of The International Team in the very first Presidents Cup in Washington DC in 1994.
Since scaling back his competitive golf in 2008 Bradley Hughes has now become one of the world’s leading golf instructors. His YouTube videos have amassed over 8 million views & his thread at golf forum Secret In The Dirt is the highest read forum with over 1 million views to date. His social media content on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook is one of the go to pages the true golf enthusiast uses to enhance their understanding of the game.
His professional students include Brendon Todd, Peter Malnati, Harold Varner III, Brandt Snedeker, Scott McCarron, Mark Hensby, Bill Haas, Vaughn Taylor, Robert Allenby, Ollie Schniederjans, Greg Chalmers, Cameron Percy, Ben Martin, Tom Power-Horan and several other PGA players have looked for his assistance. He has also helped European Tour players Luke Donald, Russell Knox, Jason Scrivener, & Brett Rumford and worked with Major Champions Vijay Singh Steve Elkington and Shaun Micheel as well as over 75 Korn Ferry Tour and mini tour players and collegiate golfers.
Hughes was instrumental in the comeback of PGA Tour player Brendon Todd. Todd was moments away from quitting the game where in the seasons from 2016-2018 Todd had missed 37 cuts in the 43 official events he had competed in on Tour. He held no status on any Tour, except for a past champions category that dated back to 2014 when he had won The Byron Nelson Classic. Todd had been told my a friend to read Bradley Hughes's e-book The Great Ballstrikers and it reasonated with him to seek out Hughes' assistance. They first met on the driving range in August 2018 for a last gasp attempt at resurrecting his game. Within 12 months Todd had made 8 of 11 cuts and finished high enough on the PGA ranking to be exempt into the final qualifying series of events. With a runner-up finish in the first event Brendon Todd had now regained his PGA Tour card for the 2019/2020 season.
Not surprisingly to Hughes, Brendon Todd went out and won back to back PGA tournaments in November 2019- just over one year since their comeback plan had started. Todd would go onto finish in the top 30 on the Fed Ex Cup that season and gain exemption into the upcoming Major Championships and also gain exempt status through the next 4 seasons due to his back to back wins and subsequent Fed Ex Cup ranking.
Todd has gone onto a level of consistency that few PGA players have established only missing a dozen cuts in his next 100 events on Tour. He currently ranks 54th in the Official World Golf ranking. When the Todd/Hughes journey began he was ranked outside the top 2000 in the world and second last on the list of players that had ranking points.
Within 4 weeks of starting work with Peter Malnati, Malnati went out and won the 2024 Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour- claiming his first win for 9 seasons.
Known as one of the best ballstrikers ever to come out of Australia- Hughes has been able to transfer his striking ability to the golfers he has worked with. In the 2020/2021 PGA Tour season Hughes' students led two of the most significant ball striking statistics for the season. Brendon Todd led the fairways accuracy stat and Cameron Percy led the greens in regulation stat. High honour for his students and for Hughes' ability to teach his players to excel from tee to green. Hughes' work with Luke Donald in 2021 also saw Donald record a personal first- when he hit every green in regulation during a tournament round- something he had never achieved in his 15 seasons on Tour. He also recorded his first top 10 in an official event for over three years, during his time with Hughes.
His inspired instruction thoughts have also attracted the attention of established sports stars in other fields including cricketers Dean Jones & Alan Border, footballers Sam Fisher & Michael Roberts and the icing on the cake 14 time Major Tennis Champion Pete Sampras- whom has visited Bradley in Australia for lessons as well as Hughes spending time with Sampras at his residence in California.
In March 2015 Hughes was installed as professional instructor for Australian Major Champion Steve Elkington’s Secret Golf online site- alongside golf's oldest living Major Champion- Jackie Burke Jnr
Hughes prides his instruction on being simple and imaginative with the focus on being able to allow the student to feel and understand what the true fundamentals of the golf swing are. All based on his experiences as a high calibre player and from playing with, asking questions and learning from over 145 Major Championship winners including Greg Norman, Gary Player, Tiger Woods, Nick Price, Seve Ballesteros, David Duval, Angel Cabrera, Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Payne Stewart and many others throughout his career.
Hughes also passes on information about course management- equipment- the mental game and the short game from his vast experience as a player on the world stage- an experience few instructors can offer.
Bradley Hughes' e-book 'The Great Ballstrikers' - released in January 2018- has received rave reviews with some people claiming it to be "absolutely the BEST golf instruction book I have ever read".
Hughes' book The 430 Path To Great Golf which runs through his famous "drill series" and released in June 2020 is now being hailed as the new benchmark for golf instruction.
The third book in Bradley's collection is now available Ben Hogan - The Secrets To His Success. Find the most in depth analysis of Ben Hogan's wondorous golf swing and follow along to find the tools for you to learn to recreate the dynamics that Hogan used. Learn the real "secret(s)" to his swing. A must have addition to any golfer's libray of golf learning.
Hughes is also the creator of the DownUnder board- a training tool used to help golfers understand and train the correct ground forces in the golf swing. The DownUnder board is now used by over 140 professional players on every tour around the world. The DownUnder Board has been labelled "the hottest training aid in golf" and regarded as the Best Instruction Aid for 2020 from golf's top testers and correspondants.
Personal Instruction- Online Instruction- Skype Lessons and Corporate Golf Outings are all part of the package of opportunities to learn from Bradley Hughes Golf
Its the one place in the golf instruction world where experience truly does count.....
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