American Keegan Bradley boosted his hopes of earning a Gleneagles ‘wildcard’ pick by forcing his way to the clubhouse lead with a six under par 65 on the opening day of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston.

And at the end of the first round the 2011 PGA winner was lying just two shots from the lead behind fellow American Ryan Palmer who posted an eight under par 63.

Bradley, currently ranked 14th and five spots outside of the top-nine automatic qualifiers, is looking to impress USA Team captain Tom Watson in the final event before Watson names his three ‘picks’ at 7pm US Eastern time next Tuesday.

KeeganBradley – sleeping, dreaming and awaking thinking about Ryder Cup. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)

And while Bradley’s played in just one Ryder Cup and that being two years ago at Medinah, he’s admitted he can’t get thoughts of travelling to Scotland from his mind.

“Every second. When I’m sleeping, I’m dreaming about it. When I wake up, I’m thinking about the Ryder Cup,” he said.

“When I’m on the course, I’m thinking about it.

“But I’ve just made the decision that it’s going to come up and I’m not going to try to block it out. I’m just going to try to embrace it and be aware of those thoughts. The more I try not to think about it the more it comes in. I’m just embracing it. Today felt good.”

And with a good showing this week the 2011 PGA Champion is hoping it will be good enough in Watson selecting him in his USA  Team.

“I think if I go out and shoot good scores, yeah, I think I’m in good shape,” he said.

“But there’s so many great players that aren’t on this team.

“I think this is one of the deepest American years ever as you’ve got guys that are 17, 18 on the list that could be on the team. I don’t take anything for granted. I don’t think I’m a lock, by my means.”