Once the initial surprise surrounding the announcement Tuesday that Keegan Bradley will captain the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black settled in, the implications of the surprising choice have taken hold.
Bradley is an inspired choice, just enough out of the box to shatter the perception of the American Ryder Cup squad being a closed shop, open mainly to players of certain pedigrees and insiders in perceived cliques.
Once Tiger Woods decided not to be the captain at Bethpage, likely preferring to lead the U.S. team at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027, the door was opened to change.
Stewart Cink was probably the leader in the clubhouse as the speculative choice if Woods said no, and Cink would have been a predictable and solid choice.
But after what happened in Rome last fall, the U.S. team didn’t need safe. It needs fresh eyes, new blood and a fire hose of passion.
That’s where Bradley checks all the boxes.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be more surprised by anything in my life,” Bradley said at his introductory press conference Tuesday.
Part of that surprise is because he was never asked by anyone in an official capacity if he wanted the job. When Bradley got the call on Sunday evening, June 30, he was gobsmacked.
“I felt funny after the call,” Bradley said. “I don’t think I reacted the way they thought. I was in complete shock.”
It’s true that Bradley’s Ryder Cup experience is limited – he played in 2012 and 2014, meaning he’s been on the outside for a decade – but he understands the event and what it does to players. Bradley was the 13th man on a 12-man team last year, and the depth of his disappointment about not being picked by captain Zach Johnson cut deep.
It was Johnson who told Bradley that he had been selected as the next captain.
“I’m so honored that he is the one who called me,” Bradley said.
This isn’t about soothing any hurt feelings that are lingering. This is about finding the right person to win back the Ryder Cup.
This isn’t a make-up call for leaving Bradley off last year in favor of Sam Burns or Justin Thomas, and Bradley said as much. This isn’t about soothing any hurt feelings that are lingering. This is about finding the right person to win back the Ryder Cup.
European captain Luke Donald will point to his players as the reason his team dominated the Americans in Rome, and he’s right. The team that plays the best – particularly the team that putts the best – wins the Ryder Cup.
For all the talk about finding the right pairings, matching up players who use the same brand of ball and reading through the reams of analytics, the Ryder Cup comes down to which side plays the best.
Pádraig Harrington’s European team was overmatched three years ago at Whistling Straits. Last year, the same was true of Johnson’s team, many of whom had been away from tournament golf for more than a month and ran into a European team that played its way into the Ryder Cup.
Bradley’s charge and challenge will be putting the players in the best position to succeed. Every captain tries to do that, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
The intangible is where the captain can shine. Paul Azinger did it in 2008 with his pods and tapping into personalities as much as playing ability.
Bradley will run to the moment and embrace the noise, the tension and the expectations. Long before any conversations about his being the captain in 2025, Bradley talked about how much he wanted to be part of what happens at Bethpage next September.
As a member of the St. John’s University golf team, Bradley played nearby Bethpage Black regularly and loves the beastly layout. Despite his love of Boston’s pro sports teams as a native New Englander, he has been embraced by the New York galleries when he’s played there, probably because they sense how much he cares.
When the U.S. Open was played at the Country Club in Boston two years ago, Bradley was teary-eyed talking about the experience of playing the national championship so close to his Vermont home. It’s where the 13-year-old Bradley ran onto the green to celebrate the Americans’ 1999 Ryder Cup victory.
He feels it, and he shows it.
He’s not a corporation. He’s a player.
Bradley, who has a 4-3 record in two Ryder Cups, has not opened the bag he brought home from the 2012 Ryder Cup loss at Medinah and vowed he won’t open it until he is part of a winning team. The Americans have lost eight of the past 11 Ryder Cups.
At age 38, Bradley skews the captaincy younger than it has traditionally been. He would be wise to have one vice captain who has been through the Ryder Cup grind before to help him with the process, but this is also the time to bring in new faces – maybe Lucas Glover or Kevin Kisner – to get their input.
This is Keegan Bradley’s moment. His PGA Championship victory in 2011 has defined his playing career. Becoming captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team now defines his place in the game.
Regardless of whether there is an agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV, the American team should be open to LIV players. Imagine Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka at Bethpage Black.
The thought of Phil Mickelson, Bradley’s playing partner in his two Ryder Cups, being a vice captain already has been floated. That would not be a good idea.
Mickelson has burned too many bridges since winning the 2021 PGA Championship, and his presence would be a sideshow. The U.S. team does not need any more internal friction – whether it was real or imagined last fall – and including Mickelson would create that.
This is Keegan Bradley’s moment. His PGA Championship victory in 2011 has defined his playing career. Becoming captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team now defines his place in the game.
The Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black always figured to be unlike any other. It’s going to be raw and raucous and right up Keegan Bradley’s alley.
No surprise there.