What happens if Keegan Bradley makes his own Ryder Cup team? One vice-captain has revealed all
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Keegan Bradley has been in the form of his life since being handed the Team USA captaincy for the Bethpage showdown. So how will it work if he heads to New York as a player as well as a leader?
There is only one certainty about Keegan Bradley at this year’s Ryder Cup. And that is that he will be there.
Whether that’s as a captain or playing captain remains to be seen.
Bradley was the surprise choice to lead Team USA into the firepit that is New York’s Bethpage State Park this September. When Tiger Woods turned down the role, the PGA of America felt they had few options.
Just months before, Bradley had been publicly humiliated by his predecessor Zach Johnson, who opted not to take his old friend to Rome for the 2023 matches in a heartbreaking scene that was played out for all the world to see on Netflix’s Full Swing documentary.
The announcement was made more peculiar when you consider that Bradley’s last involvement in the Ryder Cup was more than a decade ago – when the American team was thrashed at Gleneagles – two years after he top-scored for his side in the Miracle at Medinah. He has not even served as an assistant.
But his passion for the tournament has never wavered. Bradley was so disheartened by that defeat in his debut, when Europe overturned a four-point deficit in Sunday’s singles to retain the trophy, that he still hasn’t unpacked his suitcase from that week. “I promised myself I wouldn’t open it till I won a Ryder Cup,” he explained.
There’s a good chance that zipper’s being pulled later this year. Luke Donald’s Europeans have an almighty task to overcome a US side that’s been so dominant on home soil since that famous weekend in Chicago.
There’s also the very real possibility that Bradley is pulling on the red, white and blue as a player once more. At the time of writing, the 38-year-old is 19th in the world rankings and has been as high as 11th this year. He is 22nd in the Ryder Cup standings.
The US team hasn’t had a playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Not that it seemed to affect the King, who went 4-2-0 that week in a whopping 23-9 victory for his side. But the Ryder Cup was different back then. It’s a different beast these days, and the role of captain requires so much more.
So what will happen if Bradley makes his own Ryder Cup team?
Well, Brandt Snedeker – the newly-appointed Presidents Cup captain – is on hand to explain.
“Keegan’s talked about this,” Snedeker, who will serve as an assistant at Bethpage, said. “I don’t think you can do both. I don’t think it’s possible to be able to do both, just with how much stuff goes into being a captain.
“I think Keegan will probably lean on Jim [Furyk], obviously, who’s going to be in that room as well. There’s a bunch of guys that can step up and hopefully fill that void.”
Since being named captain, Bradley has claimed his seventh PGA Tour title – at the BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, no less – as well as bringing home two points from a possible three at the Presidents Cup in Canada.
“The way he played last year at the Presidents Cup really showed that this guy is built for team competitions,” Snedeker explained. “He’s a great guy in the team room. He played fantastic.
“A big reason why we were able to pull it out in Montreal was the way he played. I think the guys loved seeing his [passion]. They got to see his competitiveness come through. They’re seeing that now as his way as a captain and the amount of care he has for these things comes through with the way he plays and the way he captains and the way he talks about it.
“I think everybody on the team wants Keegan to play great and make the team. I think that’s something that the players have spoken about quite openly, that they think Keegan is one of the 12 best players in the world now on the American side, and he needs to go prove that and play great leading up to the majors in the summer.
“With regards to who would be the captain in that scenario, we have four other guys in the room right now that are perfectly capable of it, and I’m sure there will be some collaboration between all of us to take over that role for Keegan even though this is going to be Keegan’s team.
“No matter if he’s playing or captaining, his fingerprints are going to be all over it. Our job as assistant captains will be to make sure that we carry out his wishes and carry out the team thing the way he wants it done.”
One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be a fascinating major season. Bradley hasn’t recorded a top-10 in one of the big four since the 2022 US Open, and missed the cut last time out at Augusta. But the PGA Championship is where he is most confident – and the tournament in which he burst onto the scene, for want of a better phrase, at Atlanta Athletic Club in 2011.
“He’s got to play great golf the rest of the year,” Snedeker concluded. “I know he will. He’s working hard at it. We’ll see how it all shakes out.”
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US captain Keegan Bradley has a very real chance of making his own Ryder Cup team.
