Sneaking Onto Bethpage | Keegan Bradley’s Remarkable Ryder Cup Redemption

The 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black means a lot of things to a lot of people — but perhaps nobody more than U.S. captain Keegan Bradley. The Ryder Cup has always meant something extra to him. Bethpage has, too. When he first played Bethpage Black he was a scrappy college kid from a small Vermont town with a chip on his shoulder sneaking onto a closed course. So when he returns as the leader of the best Americans in the world, it’ll mean something special. This is his story.
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You want to take a final look at the frame? Yeah, sure. Thank you. Oh, man. There you go. [Music] Hi, I’m Keegan Bradley and I’d like you to welcome here to New England on a beautiful fall day. I just like to tell you I’m a hard worker and uh I know I’ll help your program if you give me the opportunity. Rder Cup this year, you’re in a good spot right now. How much is that on your mind kind of day to day and week to week? I would say it’s on my mind almost every second. Our six gentlemen that’ll be joining our qualifiers are Mr. Sam Burns, Mr. Ricky Fowler, Mr. Brooks Kepka, Mr. Colin Morawa, Mr. Jordan Spe, and Mr. Justin Thomas. I let my brain think I did it. look over at Jill, a second into the call and I go like, “No, it was devastating.” Now, it’s my honor and my pleasure to announce the 2025 PGA Ryder Cup captain, Keegan Bradley. [Applause] [Music] Where you going? Before your freshman year, how would you have characterized your chances of one day becoming Rder Cup captain? Um, I never had a backup plan of what I was going to do. Now, being Ryder Cup captain was never on my radar. I, to be honest with you, playing in Ryder Cups really wasn’t either. I was more of like, I just got to get there. I got to get on the tour and make some money. This year’s Rder Cup means a lot of things to a lot of people, but probably nobody more than Keegan Bradley. First of all, there are very few people on earth that care about the RDER Cup more than Keegan does. And the fact that it’s at Beth Page this year where Keegan spent so many hours dreaming in college, it’s almost unbelievable. We spent some time with Keegan for the latest issue of Golf Magazine to learn a little bit more about why this one is so special. There are two Keegan Bradleys. That was a central theme of the article and I think it’s central to understanding Keegan, not just the player and the captain. You could think of them as the underdog and the winner. Let’s start with the underdog because that’s the guy Keegan seems to focus on the most. I’d like to introduce you to my dad, PGA golf professional Mark Bradley. I’m Mark Bradley. I’m Keegan’s dad and I’m also a PGA golf professional. Take a look at some of his swings and uh I think you’ll see that u uh he’s got a good golf swing for this Keegan Bradley. Nothing comes easy and nothing ever has. That’s a real point of pride. I think when you grow up in the Northeast, you have a certain attitude of almost a little tougher maybe and like you need to be to grow up in that, you know, to become a professional athlete or do anything like that up there. You have to have a sense of urgency and a real a fear of failing. growing up in New England where and him, you know, Keegan in Vermont, our seasons are very short, very limited. And um we never took anything for granted. You know, you grow up in California, you grow up in Texas or Florida. You can take a day off here and there, you know, okay, maybe tomorrow I’ll but not in New England. You got to you got to stay, you know, stay true to the day that you want to work. And um uh you know, so that’s what that’s what it was. you know, we we didn’t take anything for granted. This was a kid who grew up in a small town who when his parents split, bounced around New England with his dad and they moved into a trailer at one point where the kitchen table turned into his bed. I had an incredible childhood, but I don’t think at any point in our lives we had a lot of money and uh you know I had this singular goal of making it as a PJ tour player and the next step was to play in college and you know I just I really didn’t take that lightly like I felt like especially with the short seasons up in New England that I had to maximize every second of my time on the golf course but we didn’t have a lot of money but we I never I I my childhood was incredible. level. You just got to go to work, get the job done, make money for your family, and like no one wants to hear any complaining, and I, you know, I have a pretty nice career in life, so I don’t think that would be extra annoying. There was something really powerful for Keegan about this idea that he was playing a game that was built for warm weather, rich kids, and that he was going to take it to them. I think he really relished that challenge. Um, I moved to Boston in my senior year of high school and I really improved dramatically that year. Like I I look back on that year as being the year I really took a big jump in my golf and I got noticed by St. John’s and URI were the only two schools that really had any interest in me. And um I went to URI and they offered me like 10% scholarship which wasn’t an option for me financially. And I went to my recruiting trip with St. John’s with Frank Darby and we finally asked what was the scholarship offer or whatever it was. And he said we’re going to give you a full scholarship. And my dad and I we like acted all cool. And then we left the restaurant. We were like high-fiving. So the reality of it is is it was because of the full scholarship. St. John’s was the perfect place for Keegan because they were an underdog, too. Coach Darby’s vote of confidence went a long way and Keegan arrived hungry, ready to prove everybody else wrong again. I would go hit in the batting cages at St. John’s of where the baseball people uh practiced and like there were these metal bars on the batting cages and if I hit a perfect shot it would hit the metal bar and come like firing back at me. It was it was probably like an eight or seven iron. Um but like we were like we did the best we could. We we we would get a call from our coach at about 1:00 every day to a course that we could go play where we would keep our head down, no warm up, start on the second hole, don’t look at anybody. But, you know, in saying that, we played some of the best golf courses in the world, you know, around Long Island, Westchester, the Hamptons. St. John’s was also where Keegan met Beth Page Black. And there’s a road at Beth Page that’s the perfect metaphor for Keegan in golf. the perfect dividing line. Okay, here you are. You have access to this major championship golf course, but you can’t be seen at the clubhouse and you can only play when it’s closed and you’re only allowed on like 12 holes. Would you guys ever play all 18? Was it just because the course was wasn’t really even open and you could just sneak out there? What was the deal? So Craig Courier, he’s asked me not to tell this story, but like that was like 15 years ago. Now I’ve told it, you know, a hundred times, but he was the superintendent at Beth Page Black. He’s at Glenn Oaks now. and the black was closed on Mondays and he let us so we the the inside loop you’re on you’re on the other side of the road so no one can see you when you’re out there and when you cross over the road of 14 to 15 you’re on the other side where the clubhouse is and people can see you everywhere so they would we would sort of play you’d play that inside loop so no one saw you because the course was closed and you know I’m sure you weren’t supposed to do it and then you know it was just so horrible not to go over and play those holes. And then finally my senior year, my buddy George and I, we went and played it and we got in so much trouble. Like we we it was really bad. Like that’s as bad as I’ve ever seen my coach. Like we were like finally our senior year we’re like screw it. We got to go do it. And uh it was ugly. So what happened? They they just someone spotted you then coming into the closing holes and flipped out. Yeah. I mean imagine you’re I’m at St. John’s for four years and you never get to play 15 through 18 at Beth Page. It’s just like torture. So we we were talking about it during the round and then we finally like screw it, we’re going to go do it. There’s something significant and something symbolic about this time that Keegan and his teammate decide that wait a minute, we’re not just content with our side of the road. We’re going to push the limits even if it all went to hell. Craig Courier got in trouble. Frank Darby got in trouble. the po a police officer came like it was like because people thought we just snuck on the course and it was a huge mistake but people don’t realize if you’re not from New York just how important Beth Page Black is to the locals like they they Wingfoot’s great Shikok’s amazing but if you talk to a real New Yorker Beth Page is is the home course like for a golfer it’s almost like a religious experience when you’re out there cuz you’re every hole is its own hole so you don’t see really other holes And not many people ever get to play Beth Paige with no one on it. Even, you know, even for practice runs of the US Open. There’s even if there’s no crowds, there’s still other players. And you know, so we would show up there and have the course to ourselves. We would hitting shots, hitting chips, and like it was really, you know, you really knew like this is you weren’t that far off from playing the tour. You’re right. You’re on the course, you’re seeing the shots, and you know, that was the closest I had I had ever felt to being, you know, where I wanted to be. Kid growing up in Vermont, you know, is it’s tough to even, you know, to think about playing golf at a collegiate level at division one is ridiculous. And then to get to the PGA Tour, so I’ve sort of had to from a very young age sort of take charge and, you know, be the leader of my own story. There is this other side to Keegan too. A side that was a winner and a leader from the beginning who was good at everything he ever did. Like the guy was an allstate skier in Vermont. Um and he was a quick riser in golf. He won the first major championship he ever played in. He was a leader at a very early age. He led He was a leader with his cousins. He was a leader on the ski slopes. He was a leader in college. And so he he’s a natural. He was made for this moment um since he was a little boy. That’s the funny thing about Keegan’s obsession with being an outsider. They picked him to be the Rder Cup captain, the youngest one ever, the ultimate insider position. They picked him because he’s this obsessive, competitive, passionate guy. But their pick also sent a clear signal that, hey, we want you on the inside. Just about everybody loves the guy. They love rooting for Keegan and they want him in their corner. So I think when Keegan shows up at Beth Pagent isn’t just allowed to cross the road but is greeted as an American hero when he does, that’s going to be a special moment when finally these two Keegan Bradleys converge because for all these years he’s tried to reconcile these two guys. He’s going to have that chance. For so much of the summer, the focus was on whether Keegan would serve as player and captain. And there’s something heartbreaking about the fact that if Keegan wasn’t captain, he may well be on this team living out his playing dreams. But when he shows up there and sees the reception that he’s going to get and the fact that he’s the people’s golfer and this is the people’s country club and this is where he played before any of this seemed possible, it makes him the perfect leader for this team, the perfect representative for this place. And there’s something really meaningful about that. You know, I just want him to uh I want him to do, you know, what he does best. Of course, I want him to win and I believe he will. I believe Keegan will bring the Ryder Cup home. Uh but it’s a big week and it’s a big process and it all comes down, you know, to the end and and uh so I’m I’m I’m nervous. I’m all, you know, it’s like going to the first tea, you know, it is nerve-wracking. Um but I can’t wait for that first te. I can’t wait to hear his name announced. I mean, I’m going to have goosebumps and I’m going to be so proud of this young man. um because his journey started at a very young age. I remember distinctly when Keegan was 12 years old, 13 years old at the country club in 1999. Uh he was at the Ryder Cup and of course it was so huge the gallery he couldn’t see. So his dad put him on his shoulders and got him to see, you know, above the crowd. And that’s when he turned to his father and said, “Dad, I want to be on a RDER Cup one day.” And from that moment on, it was not just a dream. It was a mission. It’s like sometimes I feel like I’m living a dream. Like I I can’t figure out how all this has happened. And you know, when I think about the RDER Cup at Beth Page, when they announced it at Beth Page, I I had this like overwhelming I just hope I can be in a position to hopefully play, but you know, who knows? But I was like, you know, I I would just love to be the vice captain of get the guys coffee. I don’t know. I just wanted to just desperately be there. I couldn’t believe that they were going to have a Rder Cup at Beth Pitch. And to think, you know, back when they announced it, to think that that was going to be me, it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And, you know, I I feel a real sense of obligation to represent Beth Page the proper way, the way it deserves to be, but also the way the locals represent Beth Page, the people that grew up there. Um, not just on the black, but on the red, the green. You know, this is where people spend time with their families. This is where they learned to play golf from their dad and their grandfather. They slept in the car that, you know, everyone’s got stories of just a lot of crazy coincidences to get to this spot. But, you know, I’ll I’ll I’ll remember, you know, when I’m at Beth Page, I’ll be standing there and I’ll just have this vision of like us all us St. John’s guys walking down the fairway and like it really is powerful.