With one pick, or non-pick, Keegan Bradley might’ve reversed decades of criticism.
While particularly convenient to lob at losing U.S. Ryder Cup teams, the sentiment that Americans are too individualistic – perhaps even too selfish – in these team competitions sits in the chamber every two years, just waiting to be fired at the first sign of failure. Fair or not, this was amplified in Rome, where Zach Johnson’s visiting side got knocked down early, then were ultimately crushed by both a much more cohesive European unit and a firestorm of controversy enveloping Patrick Cantlay’s hat, or lack of.
By not calling his own number as one of six U.S. captain’s picks for next month’s Ryder Cup, Bradley put the team before himself. Not only did he dodge the likely distractions associated with being the first playing captain in over 60 years, but before a ball’s even been struck at Bethpage Black, Bradley has now potentially galvanized his band of 12 American players who will look to continue the U.S. dominance on home soil and avoid becoming the first home team to lose a Ryder Cup since Bradley and Co. collapsed at Medinah in 2012.
One by one, Bradley revealed those picks on Wednesday morning at PGA Frisco, those six team members waiting behind virtual curtains until their names were called. The U.S. skipper oozed with passion, humility and confidence; Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee called it the best press conference from a Ryder Cup captain that he’d ever seen. There were no real surprises, not even once Sam Burns was announced as rounding out the squad, solidifying Bradley’s decision to step aside to focus solely on his captaincy.
“I grew up wanting to play Ryder Cups,” Bradley said. “I grew up wanting to fight alongside these guys. It broke my heart not to play. It really did. You work forever to make these teams, but ultimately, I was chosen to do a job. I was chosen to be the captain of this team. My ultimate goal to start this thing was to be the best captain that I could be. This is how I felt like I could do this. If we got to this point and I felt like the team was better with me on it, I was going to do that. I was going to do whatever I thought was best for this team.
“I know 100% for certain that this is the right choice.”
Statistically, the argument could’ve been made for Bradley to be included on the roster. He sat in his chair Wednesday as the 11th-ranked player in the world, the eighth best American. But if he’d played at Bethpage and played poorly, looming over him would’ve been the fact that the numbers also supported other candidates – and despite what many pundits have argued over recent days, many of them more convincingly:
Ben Griffin is currently seventh in Data Golf’s rankings, which include LIV players and are considered by some to be more accurate than the Official World Golf Ranking.
Cameron Young has been inarguably the best player in the last few weeks, winning the Wyndham before blazing through the FedExCup playoffs – fifth, T-11 and T-4.
Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay have combined to go 12-6-3 in Ryder Cups.
Collin Morikawa has struggled in recent months, and yet he still finished eighth in U.S. points, two spots ahead of Bradley.
And Sam Burns, the lowest-ranked player in points (16th) among those selected, had finally stepped up in majors this year, making all four cuts while holding the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open. He’s also the top-gaining putter on the PGA Tour.
From Scottie Scheffler and the automatic qualifiers to Keegan Bradley’s six captain’s picks, here’s who will represent the U.S. at Bethpage Black.
Sure, Bradley stormed into the discourse with his emotional victory at the Travelers Championship in late June. But in the aftermath, Bradley did admittedly simmer, not notching a top-15 finish until tying for seventh at the 30-man Tour Championship. In Bradley’s words, those other guys made it easy for him; they had polished off strong resumés in recent weeks, and Bradley hadn’t. With Ryder Cup captains having so many responsibilities during the week of competition, Bradley needed to be a slam-dunk pick to feel comfortable delegating his duties to his vice captains, so he smartly passed the ball.
“If I win Hartford and continue at a really high level and I’m clearly one of the best players in the world and I can help this team win, I would have done that,” Bradley said. “I really truly felt this whole time that I needed to be the captain, from the very start. My vice captains knew that. A lot of the players knew that. Then after Hartford, I sort of had to just back off that a little bit and be more open to the idea of playing, still with the idea that I really just wanted to be the captain. I really want to leave this process knowing I did everything I could as a captain, and I was worried if I played, I might not be able to do that.”
Difficult were calls to players such as Maverick McNealy, those guys who, like Bradley when he was left angrily sitting on the edge of his sofa two years ago, had just missed making the captain’s cut. But easing that heartbreak was Bradley sharing the news to Griffin and Young that they’d made their first Ryder Cup teams, or dialing Burns, who competed in Rome but still released “a lot of emotions,” according to Bradley. Those conversations confirmed Bradley’s decision.
And the closer things get to Sept. 26, that first day of matches at Bethpage, it’s likely that the choice will be further validated.
Europe followed its 2023 triumph with a 90-minute documentary titled, “Una Famiglia.” It’s certainly easy to be one, happy family when you’re winning, but the way Europe embraced their tools for togetherness and bolstered their bond after that Saturday night dustup between Rory McIlroy and Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, was remarkable. Captain Luke Donald leaned on details and sentimentality. Meanwhile, Johnson and the U.S. team were on their back feet from the get-go. It was a week in Rome that started with Wyndham Clark chumming the headline waters, spanned with Cantlay’s dome of the center of attention, and ended with Stefan Schauffele going scorched earth on the PGA of America, suggesting that if the Ryder Cup is a for-profit venture, then players need to share in said profit: “We need to talk about it without [players] getting shamed into not being patriotic. If there is any portion of this that is unpatriotic, it’s the PGA of America that are unpatriotic.”
There’s no denying Bradley’s patriotism. And if Ryder Cup teams take on the identity of their captain, as they usually do, such skepticism will be easily shrugged off in a few weeks. If the Americans lose, they lose, and there will be questions aplenty; that’s always the case. But Bradley’s unselfishness eliminates some potential noise – it’s a heckuva lot easier for a captain to defend himself not playing when adversity strikes than for him to stand up there in front of reporters after losing a match and convince everyone that he’s still the exception to the trend that has been kept intact ever since Arnold Palmer in 1963 (the King, by the way, went 3-0-1 that week in Atlanta to lead the U.S. to a resounding win, but the job these days is infinitely tougher).
Bradley said Wednesday that his decision to not play had been settled over 48 hours ago, so he’d already had some time to digest the reality: This 39-year-old New Englander lives for Ryder Cups, and he knows from experience just how hard they are to qualify for, and yet, despite perfectly understandable reasons for him to suit up as a playing captain, he sacrificed his own ambitions so that other, very talented players could live out theirs; that kind of stuff makes guys pick up their swords and follow. And Bradley? As much as it hurt, he could do what he’d been planning to do all along – just captain.
“I know he’s gutted, and I think all of us are gutted for him,” Thomas said, “but at the same time, I would say him leading us to a victory will be cooler than any experience he could have as a player.”
Bradley already called this, “the most incredible year of my life.” And he still has a few more weeks to go until the opening ceremony on Long Island.
If you’re one of these 12 American Ryder Cuppers, how could you not be inspired by this guy?
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