Keegan Bradley will not play at the Ryder Cup after all.
The U.S. captain made his final six picks for the team on Wednesday, omitting himself despite plenty of speculation.
Bradley chose Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young and Sam Burns to round out his squad ahead of the Sept. 26-28 tournament at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Russell Henley, J.J. Spaun and Harris English automatically qualified for the team on points.
“It broke my heart not to play, but ultimately I was chosen to be captain of this team,” Bradley said at a press conference in Frisco, Texas.
In all, there are four rookies and eight veterans on the American team.
There has not been a playing captain since 1963 when Arnold Palmer did it at East Lake.
On his record alone, the 39-year-old Bradley made an easy case as a pick. He is the eighth-best American in the world ranking. He has won twice in the last 13 months against the best players — only Scottie Scheffler has more PGA Tour wins in that span.
But he’s the captain, and there’s a lot on his plate.
Palmer did it in a far different era. There were no captain’s picks back then. Palmer played six times that week (there are only five sessions now).
And the Ryder Cup was a mismatch, the Americans against Great Britain & Ireland, which did not have the depth just two decades after World War II ended. Continental Europe joined the side in 1979, and it has dominated this competition for the last 40 years.
European captain Luke Donald makes his six picks on Monday, with the expectation that 11 of 12 players from the winning group two years ago could return.
–with files from The Associated Press
