USA captain Keegan Bradley has drawn on his own Ryder Cup experience to fire up his men as they prepare to take on Luke Donald’s ‘best ever’ European side at Bethpage.
Not many know the heartbreak that the Ryder Cup can bring quite like Keegan Bradley.
Thirteen years ago, the Vermonter looked set to become a part of US teams for years to come when he formed an unbeaten partnership with Phil Mickelson that included a 7&6 thrashing of the usually formidable Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia.
While the team went on to lose what became known as the Miracle at Medinah, it was enough to earn Bradley a call-up from Tom Watson at Gleneagles two years later. He once again played with Mickelson, and they picked up where they left off with a victory over Garcia and Rory McIlroy to take their pairing record to 4-0-0, but that afternoon they fell to their first defeat at the hands of Graeme McDowell and Victor Dubuisson. Bradley was benched for the second day and would not be seen again until Sunday’s singles, where he was comfortably beaten by Jamie Donaldson in what proved to be the decisive match.
Somewhat inexplicably, shaking Donaldson’s hand on the 15th green would be Bradley’s last involvement in the Ryder Cup until he received the phone call last year telling him he would be the captain for the 45th matches at Bethpage.
Before that there was, of course, the heartache of missing out on making the 2023 Ryder Cup, when Zach Johnson opted to take Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas to Rome in a brutal moment caught by the Netflix cameras.
It ultimately led to one of the more questionable captain appointments in recent memory, and while Bradley – a two-time winner in the qualification period – decided in the end to concentrate on leading the team, he will use his rollercoaster relationship with the competition to his advantage.
Eleven of his 12 that will line up in the red, white and blue at the end of the month are in Napa this week for the Procore Championship, with 10 in the field, LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau joining for team-building exercises, and Xander Schauffele at home for personal reasons.
Bradley won’t be teeing up at Silverado, though, choosing instead to keep an eye on his players.
“It’s great to be around those guys, hear what they’re saying, really kind of finalizing pairings and figure out how to send them out,” he told reporters.
“And it’s really fun for me to be the captain in front of the guys and not be playing because, when I’m out there playing, I have to be focused on that job and practicing and getting ready to play. Now I have one job and that’s to prepare them and to do whatever they need this week to help them play better.
“We have a wide range of rookies, veterans, Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, but we really have a group of a great team. These guys really care about one another, they treat each other with respect. It’s the closest team I’ve ever seen.”
It’s something on which Bradley is keen to promote as they prepare to come up against what he called “maybe the best European Ryder Cup team ever“.
“They’re really deep top to bottom,” he added. “They’ve got major champions, Rory’s playing, having an historical year.”
But, Bradley insisted, “I really don’t care what Europe is doing. I only care about our 12 guys, our caddies, the wives. I only care about what we’re doing.”
He continued: “They’re a confident group, they should be. They won the last Ryder Cup, their team is solid, Luke Donald is maybe the best captain ever, and somebody that I’ve always looked up to, so they should be confident.
“But I really don’t care what they say about us, I only care about our team.”
Touching on his own experience, Bradley has managed to compact his own Ryder Cup experience into just nine words to motivate his team.
He explained: “What I’ve been telling them is, ‘You never know when your last Ryder Cup is.’ My last Ryder Cup was the deciding point with Jamie Donaldson and I certainly didn’t think that was my last shot in a Ryder Cup. You really want to enjoy every second of these because you never know when it’s done.”
With that in mind, Bradley says he has turned to “one of the best ever” US captains for advice.
“I have leaned on Paul Azinger,” he said. “I text him all the time, talk to him all the time. I think when you talk to the players, you look back, a lot of guys say he was just a phenomenal captain, one of the best ever.”
Azinger, of course, oversaw a five-point victory at Valhalla in 2008.
“I really lean on stuff that he did that week, stuff he said to the guys, his mentality, his mindset for the week,” Bradley added. “I just really love Paul Azinger as well, I think he embodies the Ryder Cup energy that the US team needs.”
About the author
News editor and writer. Probably entertainer third.
He is a keen golfer who claims to play off 12 and enjoys traveling the world to try new courses. His three favorites are Royal North Devon, the Old Course at St Andrews, and Royal Portrush – with special mentions for Okehampton and Bude & North Cornwall, where he first fell in love with the game.
He uses a combination of Ping, TaylorMade and Callaway gear, and once bought the Nike SQ driver which he absolutely did not immediately regret.
