TROON, Scotland — On Monday, several days before the start of the 2016 British Open at Royal Troon, Keegan Bradley and a couple of his golf buddies surreptitiously scaled the giant yellow scoreboard perched atop the sprawling grandstand at the 18th green. Bradley and his companions, whom he did not name, did a bit of dreaming.

“We put our names up on the leaderboard,” said Bradley, the 2011 P.G.A. Championship winner, who has yet to add a second major to his résumé. “It’s so cool seeing your name up there. But I probably shouldn’t have said that — going to get in trouble for that.”

Or perhaps Bradley will be cut a little slack, since his name was legitimately on the leaderboard Friday evening. Bradley was tied for third place, three strokes behind the second-round leader, Phil Mickelson.

“It was fun to see my name up there next to Phil’s,” Bradley said with a giggle. “For real.”

Forgive Bradley his giddiness. His journey back into contention at a major has been long, checkered and replete with taxing failure. His slump seemed, at times, on the verge of knocking him off the rails entirely.