ATLANTA — Keegan Bradley is here competing in the Tour Championship, vying for a $10 million winner’s check and the FedEx Cup title, just like everyone else. Except he’s not. Bradley’s mind is elsewhere.
“I’m more worried about the Ryder Cup than my game,” Bradley told The Athletic, standing in the bowels of East Lake’s clubhouse, after bogeying his final two holes to shoot even par Thursday. “Yeah, just trying to get through the week here, get the team set, and go from there.”
One round gone, three to go.
This is the last chance. This is the finale of the mad scramble to complete the back-half of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and the Tour Championship is its arena. Bradley, the American captain at age 39, is not only at the helm of the decisions that’ll determine the Ryder Cup future of roughly nine players in the tournament’s 30-man field. He’s also choosing his own destiny. And the fact that he’s more concerned about his duties as captain than this event says something.
“I think it’s going to be the biggest decision of my life, one that I’ll probably look back on — I don’t know how I’ll look back on it. Hopefully, I look back and I made the right choice, but you never know how this ends up. It’s gonna be the right or wrong choice. We’ll see how the Ryder Cup plays out, and what decision we make on Wednesday,” Bradley said.
At 12:38 p.m., Bradley teed off at East Lake Golf Club alongside Andrew Novak, an up-and-coming American who made a convincing Ryder Cup case during the first half of the season. Just in front of him on the tee sheet were 2023 team members Sam Burns and Brian Harman, and just behind Bradley was New York native Cameron Young, who launched himself into the Ryder Cup conversation with his first PGA Tour win last month.
It’s all happening here in Atlanta with six days to go until Bradley takes the podium at the PGA of America’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas, to make perhaps the most important decision of his career. There’s the question of the hour: Will Bradley select himself to make the team, becoming the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963? What about the rest of the team?
Six men on the U.S. team are locked in as automatic qualifiers, as of the conclusion of the BMW Championship: Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau.
At No. 7 and No. 8 in the U.S. standings, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa — both tied for third at 6-under after Round 1 at East Lake — might feel like they’ve made it, but you don’t stop pushing until you know for sure. “I don’t think you’re ever comfortable until you get that call and you’re on the team,” Morikawa said.
Patrick Cantlay, historically a match-play machine, sits at No. 15 in the standings after a season below his usual standard. Cantlay might not admit it outwardly, but he knows what he needs to do. He played a practice round with Bradley at last week’s BMW Championship, and he started this week well: Cantlay also shot 6-under on Thursday, three behind the leader, Henley.
Ben Griffin, a two-time winner this year and No. 9 in the standings, shot 66 in Round 1 and would be a Ryder Cup rookie. The steady Maverick McNealy is 10th in the standings, and Harman floats along at No. 12. Burns, the best putter on the PGA Tour, lurks, as does Chris Gotterup — a New Jersey native who became a potential wildcard after his win at the Scottish Open, and his third-place finish at The Open.
Then there’s Bradley, at No. 11. It’s the same spot he sat in when Zach Johnson, the 2023 Ryder Cup captain, passed over him for the team in Rome.
Will Bradley the captain do the same thing to Bradley the player? It’s the kind of rare situation that comes with appointing a 39-year-old as Ryder Cup captain.
“I think he’s got one of the most difficult decisions anyone has ever had to make,” Morikawa said Thursday. “He’s put more hours than we could even ask and know about into this Ryder Cup, and he still has played great golf. He is one of the best Americans as of right now. But I truly do not know where his head sits, and I don’t want to be in that position.”
Collin Morikawa is looking to make his third Ryder Cup team. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
It feels like everything is on the line for the guys on the cusp, but realistically, a performance at this tournament won’t make or break someone’s chances to be on the team. If a player is relying on the Tour Championship to move into real consideration, he wasn’t that high on the captain’s list to begin with. These conversations have been happening for months, and yes, they’ve been ramping up in recent weeks. But Bradley and his team of assistant captains, statistics gurus and advisors are not just talking about who is playing the best golf right now. They’re talking about chemistry between potential pairings — who plays which golf ball for alternate shot. They’ve begun to get into the weeds.
And in those conversations, which are complex to begin with, Bradley is attempting to sit back and evaluate himself. The pressure of selecting a team is one thing. The added pressure of deciding whether or not you are fit to be on it is another.
“My vice captains and our analytics team know how to talk about me as if I’m not there. I can handle the negative. I actually would be upset if they held stuff from me,” Bradley said. “I have to be like that in order to put the best team on the course at Bethpage.”
It’s a strange predicament, and a mighty one. Many, especially on the European side, have warned that there’s simply too much on the plate of a modern-day Ryder Cup captain, and serving as a playing captain could lead to both a weaker captain, and a weaker 12th player. But Bradley is hearing from left, right and center that he should pick himself: “Pretty much everyone outside of our bubble tells me to play.” But Bradley, more than anyone, appears to be aware of the potential ramifications of making the wrong decision, whatever that might be. That’s why Bradley is increasingly thankful that he has Tiger Woods on his side, who, according to the captain, has guided him through the process.
Bradley is treating the decision — both about himself and the rest of the team — with the type of commitment that has left him unable to think about anything else.
“It’s really tough,” he said. “The past month has been really tough for me to detach.”
(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
