Bradley, who held a two-stroke lead entering the final round, turned in a 2-under-par 70 for a 72-hole total of 272.

Dirk Schultz, the 1999 winner here by a landslide, finished second to Bradley, firing a 66 in the final round for a 273 total.

Bradley, of Louisville, Ky., and Schultz, of Hagerstown,Md., led 23 qualifiers for the second of three stages.

Salisbury’s Elliott Gealy was in contention for one of those 23 spots until a three-putt green on the final hole gave him a 71 for the day and a 282 total, one stroke off the cut.

Six players finished at 281, one stroke better than Gealy, and four of them advanced in a sudden-death playoff.

Bradley said he took a conservative approach to his final round after shooting 68, 66 and 68 in the first three rounds.

“I went at the middle of the greens and just tried to make a bunch of pars,” said the stocky New Jersey native.

“I hit every green on the front side and made eagle on 6, and made eight pars. I just played solid on the back. I made my only bogey on 13,” he said.

Bradley won a lot of money ($78,841) on the 2000 Buy.com Tour, but his 64th-place finish didn’t qualify him for the tour championship being played this week or for the 2001 tour.

“I finished off the year strong and was playing well. I was fairly confident (prior to this week’s tourney). I haven’t been doing anything well with my driver. I didn’t hit it all that much this week. You can hit a lot of irons and 3-woods off the tees. It ended up being a great course for me,” said the 26-year-old.

“I had a game plan set up at the beginning of the week how I was going to play each hole and just stuck to my game plan the whole week. It worked out well for me,” he added.

The 35-year-old Schultz, who fired a 270 at Kannapolis a year ago, was solid again with rounds of 67, 72, 68 and 66.

“Lots of birdies, lots of work and we’re all done,” said the 6-foot-7 former Shippensburg State basketball player. Like Bradley, he eagled the par-5 No. 6 hole.

“I’ll regroup, take a couple of days off and get refocused,” said Schultz. “When you’re not used to four days of golf, it tires you out a little bit mentally.”

Jay Patterson of Durham finished third at 274, while Robert Russell of Joplin, Mo., and David Bransdon of Victoria, Australia, tied for fourth at 275.

Russell had one of the second-stage berths wrapped up when he came to the par-3 17th hole, then put the icing on the cake with the only hole in one of the tournament.

“My caddy and I were talking about it, just to try to hit something in the middle of the green.If I make 4, I make 4: no big deal. Just go on and get out of there, because the wind was in our face,” said Russell.

His 5-iron shot on the 185-yard hole hit to the right of the pin, which was positioned front left.

“The slope of the green (right to left) helped it go in. It landed probably 15 feet hole high, popped up and started trickling back and went in,” said Russell.

It was the second ace of his career.

Other second-stage qualifiers were David Gunas Jr. of Hebron, Conn., and Matt Cannon of Cornelius with 276s; Don Hill of Mount Olive, Jim Salinetti of Lee, Mass., and Dan Konieczny of Mt. Pleasant, Pa., with 278s; Joe Meade of Greeneville, Tenn., and Mark Walker of Arlington, Tex., with 279s; and Dennis Zinkon of Haines City, Fla., Patrick Sheehan of Orlando, Fla., John Stone of Hampton, Va., Jeff Lyons of Brentwood, Calif., Jason Schultz of Columbia, Mo., Korky Kemp of Greensboro and Curtis Boyer of Howey in the Hills, Fla., with 280s.

The remaining four spots went to 281 shooters Chris Wollman of Strongsville, Ohio, John Patterson of Bluffton, S.C., Jean-Paul Hebert of Houston and Tony Parrish of Lillington. They won out in a sudden-death playoff over Tim Weinhart of Duluth, Ga., and Max Harris of West Sussex, England.

Weinhart and Harris received the first two alternate spots.

The other two alternate berths went to Geoffrey Sisk of Marshville, Mass., and Marion Dantzler of Orangeburg, S.C. They won out over Gealy, Jeb Stuart of Dallas, Tex., Ray Franz Jr. of Statesboro, Ga., Patrick Lee of Oxford, Miss., Steve Gilley of Newnan, Ga., and Ted Soule of Austin, Tex.

The disappointed Gealy had four straight sub-par rounds of 71, 69, 71 and 71 but didn’t have that one hot round that could have earned him advancement to the second stage. But it still came down to a missed 2 1/2-foot putt that could have earned him one of the berths.

“There wasn’t much(break) there. All I had to do was hit it with any pace at all. I just decelerated. It didn’t go anywhere and missed low,” he said of the uphill putt that broke an inch or so to the left. “I’ve done it before and I’ll probably do it again, but hopefully not in the same situation,” said the former Salisbury High School and Clemson University golfer.

Gealy says he’ll play in a few more tournaments this fall, then decide about his pro future.

“The Triangle Tour has still got tournaments going until the middle of November. There’s a points race, and I can make some money on the points race. By the end of November, I’ll probably be done with everything until next year,” he said.

“I might do some TearDrops the start of next year, because that’s the only thing that’s going on in Florida,” he added. Gealy won over $30,000 on the 1999 TearDrop Tour while playing only a couple of months.

“After that,I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.