UPDATE: Seems only fair to post this update on top since Keegan Bradley addressed one of his issues on Twitter this afternoon. @Keegan_Bradley tweeted: "Id like to apologize for my spitting It's like a reflex,I don’t even know I’m doing it, but it's a longtime habit I’ve got to try to conquer"

That's the kind of contrition that can change opinions. Still this is what I wrote before his apology.

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Despite a yearning desire to be able to embrace a rising American golf star with the winning combination of personality and talent, it’s becoming almost impossible to get onboard the Keegan Bradley bandwagon.

Six months ago, the 25-year-old New Englander who went to St. John’s stunned everyone with a remarkable victory at the PGA Championship in Atlanta in his first career attempt at a major championship. He bounced back from what by all accounts should have been a crushing triple bogey on the 69th hole to rally from five down with three to play and eventually win in a playoff.

“Judging from his guts and his charisma, he better get used to being America’s newest golfing sweetheart,” I wrote in the aftermath of his riveting victory at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Now before he even shows up for his second career major in the same state where he won his first, Bradley seems to embody everything that’s wrong with golf at the moment. He’s still the same charismatic and gifted golfer, but he’s got so many bad habits that he’s the poster child for all the game’s problems.

If Bradley’s only strike was utilizing the long putter that is so repulsive to golf purists, he might be forgiven as the catalyst that finally prompted golf’s governing bodies to take a look at legislating against anchoring clubs against the body. But that’s the least of his unsightly sins.

Sunday’s final round alongside Phil Mickelson and three-way playoff loss to Bill Haas at Riviera brought Bradley into sharper focus to a golfing public that might not have taken much notice of him outside his PGA heroics. The glare wasn’t very flattering.

First of all, Bradley is slow – glacially slow. Watching him think and rethink and rethink again every single shot is more excruciating than watching Jim Furyk in a putting contest. Pace of play is perhaps the biggest problem in modern golf, and Bradley is one of the biggest miscreants on a long list of fellow practitioners. He is so painfully deliberate you want to scream at the television or pray they’ll show another erectile dysfunction commercial or three before Bradley finally is ready to pull the trigger.

Alas, the cameras stayed on Bradley’s interminable intense pre-shot routine, and that has only exposed yet another flaw in the young man’s arsenal – the spitting.

Bradley is a veritable fountain of flowing saliva. He is such a consistent loogey launcher that tournament officials should walk behind him ready to mark casual water. It is a tic that is as repulsive to viewers as it is inconsiderate to peers.

I am not remotely a prude about expectorating. I believe that if you have to spit, spit. Just keep it away from the greens and off the beaten paths. There are plenty of golfers in today's game who have been caught on camera spitting. Dustin Johnson and Pat Perez made cameo roles in that category Sunday at Riviera and Tiger Woods made headlines and was fined for spitting on the green in Dubai last year.

But Bradley obviously is an uncontrollable and habitual spitter. During the moments when the lens was focused on Bradley’s stuttering preparation for his bunker shot on the second playoff hole, Bradley let fly three wads of spittle in rapid succession. CBS analyst Gary McCord even marveled (not in a good way) that he even had anything left in his salivary banks to get out after more than six hours syringing the course at Riviera.

Bradley's habits had social media all atwitter with criticism. The widespread rants prompted Bradley's sponsors Cleveland golf and Srixon to actually issue a vote of confidence in their young representative: "we support @keegan_bradley if he spits or not!" came a rebuttal tweet from @ClevelandGolf.

The PGA Tour isn’t inclined to do anything about either Bradley’s slow play or over-active salivary glands. So just imagine how long he might take and what kind of juices he’ll get flowing if the USGA takes away his putting crutch.