If Keegan Bradley believes he made the best decision for the U.S. Ryder Cup team by choosing not to be a playing captain, then he’s done the right thing.
There is a strong case to be made that Bradley, ranked 11th in the world, should be one of the 12 players on the American roster at Bethpage Black next month and it felt like a mild surprise Wednesday morning when he announced his six captain’s picks without including himself.
For weeks, Bradley said there were contingency plans should he decide to play but ultimately he chose – take your pick, Sam Burns or Cameron Young – to get the final spot, allowing him to focus solely on his duties as the team leader.
Captains are put there for a variety of reasons but foremost is to put their teams in the best position to win. Bradley decided that he could do that most effectively by letting others play, even though the decision to deny himself left an empty feeling inside.
“Monday was tough for me. I was alongside the guys who didn’t make the team. I was moping around,” said Bradley, who couldn’t help but flash back to the gut punch he took two years ago when captain Zach Johnson called to tell him he wasn’t going to Rome with the American team.
He made this decision based on input, instinct and some combination of head, heart and gut feeling. That’s all he can do and if he’s at peace with it, that’s an early win.
Bradley’s time as Ryder Cup captain has followed an unusual arc. It started with surprise – almost no one envisioned Bradley as the team leader at Bethpage – before morphing into being a savvy choice given his passion and commitment to all things red, white and blue.
When Bradley played well enough to consider being the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer 62 years ago, the will-he-or-won’t-he narrative fueled conversations on social media, radio and television shows and in grill rooms across the land. It’s a compliment to Bradley that the golf community was invested in his decision and – with the matches still a month away – there are no wrong decisions.
“I’ve been really surprised at the attention this has gotten. I understand the weight and history that comes with it,” Bradley said.
“I never really considered playing until after the Travelers (which he won in June). It was on the table for a while but I was interested in being the best captain I could. I feel like I could best serve the team this way. I don’t care if I play or don’t play as long as we win on Sunday.”
“The last 48 hours we had the team set. We weren’t scrambling at all.” – Keegan Bradley
With six players already locked in, Bradley ultimately added Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Young and Burns. It’s easy to justify each of those picks, though Morikawa’s recent form has raised some concerns. He will be easy to slot into foursomes play, however, with his consistent ball-striking.
Bradley acknowledged that current form helped make his decision easier. Both Young – who has a win and three other top-11 finishes in his last four starts – and Burns obliged by supplementing their cases in recent weeks.
“The last 48 hours we had the team set. We weren’t scrambling at all,” Bradley said.
“There was a really tough decision. There was a point this year I was playing. These guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto the team. It was an extremely difficult decision but one I’m really happy with and glad it’s over.”
Other than Bradley himself, there were no notable absences, though Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak, Brian Harman and Chris Gotterup had reason to hope. The roster was finalized when the Tour Championship ended and, it’s fair to assume, it was effectively in place well before then.
It’s also reasonable to assume the pairings for Friday’s two sessions are already set, though there’s probably some wiggle room depending on how things are going on site early that week.
By choosing Bradley to be the captain, the PGA of America broke the mold, choosing someone fresh, not a bad idea considering the Europeans have won eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups. The contrast is sharp in the sense that European captain Luke Donald is expected to bring back 11 of the 12 players on his team that dominated the Americans two years ago in Rome.
There is an obvious selflessness to Bradley’s decision not to play because it’s in his nature to want to be out there. Rory McIlroy and others have chimed in that it’s not a good idea because of the demands on the captain but Bradley rightly responded by saying how does anyone really know since no one has tried it in this new age of the Ryder Cup.
There’s no denying the extra burden that would have come had Bradley inserted himself into the playing roster. Were the Americans to win with him as a player, it would be brilliant even if he didn’t play particularly well. If the Americans were to lose – and it’s a formidable challenge they are facing – it wouldn’t matter whether Bradley played or he didn’t, the blame would be dumped on his head.
“I was chosen to do a job, to be he captain of the team,” Bradley said. “My goal was to be the best captain I could be. This is how I could do that. I was going to do whatever I thought was best for our team. I know 100 percent this is the right choice.”