Brandel Chamblee reckons the United States captain has taken a leaf from Luke Donald’s book and is on way to a win
19:15, 27 Aug 2025Updated 19:16, 27 Aug 2025
(Image: PA)
Brandel Chamblee reckons Keegan Bradley has just WON The Ryder Cup for United States after his selfless and polished act.
The former professional and outspoken TV analyst believes the American captain’s moves and demeanour during his skipper’s picks announcement have the hosts’ hands on the trophy already and cited Luke Donald’s Rome speech moment as the comparison.
Bradley chose not select himself as he opted for Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns to join Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Harris English, Russell Henley and Bryson DeChambeau in line-up.
And the choice has left Chamblee feeling it was won the gold already as he said: “I thought it was a very cool thing that he did. I thought he was great in that press conference.
“Five of them were certainly no surprises. The big question mark, and the only question mark, was Keegan Bradley going to pick himself?
“When he picked Ben Griffin and then as it relates to those in the Ryder Cup list, where they finished, he skipped over himself and went to Cameron Young. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to pick himself and I think he may well have won the Ryder Cup in making that decision.
“When you start to look at a captaincy or a team, it’s never any one thing that makes a great player, or one thing that makes a great captain. It’s just an assembly of a lot of little things, like a mosaic.
“And in the same way you got the sense when Luke Donald in opening ceremonies in 2023 got up and spoke Italian for two or three minutes, you thought, this Ryder Cup’s over.
Golf golfer Keegan Bradley
“Because if he spent and thought about, in that kind of detail, how to open the ceremonies, what was the rest of the week going to be like? And how thorough had he thought about things?
“And so, Keegan and Bradley, just thinking about the decision to pick himself, that’s what a leader does, “Makes a personal sacrifice for the collective good of the team. That’s the kind of a thing that a leader would do that would get his team to sort of run through the wall for him.
“Imagine, the rest of that week, he’s going to look at them and he’s like: I stepped aside to focus on every little detail to help you guys and how empowering that must be for his team.
“So I really enjoyed the press conference. I thought Keegan was absolutely excellent. Matter of fact, I think it was one of the best press conferences I’ve ever seen a US captain give. I struggle to go back in time to find a better press conference from a US captain.
“I’ve hardly run into any [fan] over the last two, three, four months that thought it was a wise decision for the captain [to play]. This is the leader of the team, the captain of the team.
“To have cross purposes that week, to be simultaneously trying to get ready to play golf and simultaneously trying to get the rest of the team in the right frame of mind.
“I’ve heard a few people try to dismiss it and say that it’s not that difficult or it’s not that complicated and I couldn’t disagree more.
“I have the great pleasure of sitting next to Paul McGinley on LiveFrom and I’ve talked to a great many different people along the way, Paul Azinger, as well as many people who’ve played, and they talk about how the captain has done a great job of putting all of his players in the right frame of mind, talking to them about where they’re going to get paired, why they’re going to get in foursomes and why they’re in four ball and where they’re going to fall in the lineups.
“There is just so many moving pieces of the puzzle that it is, I feel like, an enormously difficult job. Group dynamics is an interesting philosophy, that’s what he’s called upon to navigate that week and it’s more difficult than playing. The ultimate pressure cooker, no doubt. I just think that Keegan Bradley’s off to a phenomenal start.”
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