Keegan Bradley Interview | Saturday | 2025 Ryder Cup

Keegan Bradley Interview | Saturday | 2025 Ryder Cup

United States Rder Cup captain Keegan Bradley joins us now. Keegan, what was your message to the team tonight? Um, the message was I was at that 28-3 game against the Falcons. I was there. I was also at the game when Malcolm Butler intercepted uh Russell Wilson against the uh Seahawks. Um, but my message was if you were a 16-year-old kid and you were going to get to go play for your country in singles at New York at Beth Page Black, you’d be so excited. Um, of course I want to go out there and make history tomorrow. Um, they all do. But I think you got to relish in the opportunity to to get out in the course tomorrow and play for your country at a course like this, at a venue like this. Uh, I think it’s something that you got to look forward to. Thanks, Keegan. We’ll take some questions starting right here on mike 7. Keegan, you’re a man who famously wears his heart on his sleeve. How are you feeling honestly right now? We we we feel good. Like we the Europeans have played incredible. It’s been really impressive to see. This is, you know, for me being up close, I think it’s, you know, one of the best performances of a road team in any sport. They’ve played incredible. They’ve hit they’ve they’ve played great. They’ve puted even better. um they’ve come into a hostile environment and played great golf. And you know, sometimes as a competitor, as an athlete, you have to take a step back and just again sort of tip your cap to something like that. Um they’ve been a tough team. They’ve partnered great. Luke is an incredible captain. He’s done a great job this week. You mentioned the hostile environment. What was your perspective on that? The behavior of some of the fans. Do you feel as though it crossed the line? I I didn’t see I mean I thought the fans were passionate. I mean their their their home team is getting abs getting beat bad. Um you know they’re passionate fans. I I think you know I I wasn’t at Rome but I heard a lot of stories that Rome was pretty violent as well. Um but the fans of New York have that I all I’ve seen have been pretty good. You’re always going to have a few people that cross the line and that’s unfortunate. I I really was happy to see our players trying to quiet down some people that were like that, but you know, part of it is is our fault. You know, we’re we’re not playing up to the standards that they want to see and they’re angry and they should be. Cameron, I know the rain on Thursday probably changed a little bit of how maybe you guys anticipated the course playing, but how closely is it playing to the way maybe you wanted it to or expected it to? Oh man, the Greens are are not where we want. They’re super soft. The greens are great. They roll great, but you know, they’re you’re actually you’re actually better off out of the rough and in and uh to a bunch of these flags, a bunch of these pins. Um you know, sometimes when I would see our guys in the right rough, I would radio back. That’s actually going to be great. You need it out of the rough so it doesn’t spin off the green. Um I’ve never seen Beth Page Greens play this soft ever. Even when we’ve played here and it’s rained, this is like this is something that I’ve never seen. Chip shots are like spinning backwards. Is that something that’s maybe been a little bit hard for your guys to adjust to even after a couple of days? I think it’s been difficult, but I, you know, the the course is in incredible shape. The the people here at Beth Page have done such a great job. What an incredible venue Beth Page Black is. It’s really such a grand stage and a place that we all really look forward to playing. I I hope we come back here for more RDER Cups, more majors, more playoff events, whatever it is. Ryan on three. Everything that happened on 15 green with Justin, Tommy, Scotty, Bryson. Is that all put in the past? Did everyone Yeah, I think so. I’ve spoken to everybody in involved. I mean, I think it was a little bit disrespectful, but I mean I Justin told Rose told me after on the green that they had talked it out. I talked to Bryson. We in sports you like golf it’s a blown into this huge thing. It happens in sports all the time. Um they seem fine after the round. um you know it’s it’s super passionate out there especially for um well for both sides but you know from what I understand uh everything was fine after the round um these sort of things happen when you’re playing for your country up to Paul Keegan when you look at the deficit that you faced you simply view it as they’ve played better or are there strategic things that have played into kind of the deficit that we Well, I think anytime uh you know at a Ryder Cup, the captain is is is to blame or to be celebrated. So, you know, I we all have to do a better job, but most importantly, I have to do a better job as a captain. And um you know, who knows? I I I feel like the guys have played pretty well. The Europeans have just played like way better. And sometimes that happens. But we still got another day. Who knows? You never know. I didn’t We can go out there and win. We got to What? We got to win. 10. Sports. Wild stuff happens in sports all the time. Up to Mike Nine, please. Keegan, you you said the way your players have played is maybe partly to blame for some of the fans crossing the line. I I did not say that. That’s not what I said. Okay. I said the fans are probably upset that their home team is losing. I did not say that. Okay. Sorry. But do you think maybe do you you you bear some responsibility in terms of some of the words that you and your players use beforehands in terms of stoking up the fans to bring a hostile. What words were those? To bring chaos and just talking up the atmosphere. Yeah, I mean there’s uh Ryder Cups are wild. I don’t appreciate those words that you just said. I know what you’re trying to do. Um the the the RDER Cup is full of passionate fans. Um, they’re full of passionate players and that wasn’t right. Shane, on 10, Keegan, going back to the putting, um, this, hopefully it’s not an ignorant question, but we’ve heard this a lot that you guys would like the greens to be faster. What is it about faster greens that you felt your team would be better on, if that makes sense? Um, I think historically we play faster greens in the PJ tour than they do. Um, you know, obviously when we go over to the British Open, it’s, you know, the Greens are considerably slower than what we play on an average week. I think like British Open, they’re around 10, 10 and a half, maybe 11. You know, for us when we we we play at faster greens and then they generally quicken up as the week goes on, if the weather is good. But, um, that’s normally what happens. Um, the greens have been perfect this week. Perfect. Uh, the the the golf course is stunning. Uh, real quick as a followup that I think that was the point of my question is that most of those guys are playing on the PGA Tour quite often too. But is it the case that you know when they grow up they’re constantly playing slower greens and so maybe naturally even if now they play on the tour that maybe they’re more used to them? Yeah, it could be. Could be. I mean, um, I know I have a I struggle a lot when I go over to the British Open and the Greens are slow. Like I’ll I’ll have five footers and leave them short. Um, so it’s an adjustment period. But good good golf doesn’t matter if the greens are really slow or really fast. The rough is really high, really really low. Um you you outperform, you’re going to win. And they’ve they’ve played incredible golf so far. Over there to Alex. Keegan. Um yesterday when you talked about your plan, um we were all of us were kind of a bit takenback by the Kar Harris English thing. I guess the question is is do you think your plan in normal times was succeeded or do you think it’s just one of those things where this week was such that they were just so good and your team was not? Well, I do know their first match their opponents were I think six or seven under an alternate shot through, you know, 14 holes or whatever. 15 and I forget where they um and then today they were two under through six or seven and they were like two down. So, alternate shot. That’s that’s great playing. Um you know, we we got a lot of faith in our players. We got a lot of faith Colin Marcow’s won a couple majors. Harris has had a great year. Um, you know, I think in the past sometimes we’ve panicked with the pairings and switched everything up and it hasn’t worked out. So, we we wanted to stick with the plan and that’s what we did. Up to Bob on nine. Keegan, uh, any explanation for Scotty? It’s just kind of jarring to see him 0 and4. I realize he’s got a partner and there’s nuance, but it, you know, it maybe doesn’t seem like he’s playing the same way that, you know, two majors and seven six wins this year. I’m going to tell you a story about what someone said about Scottish Sheffller today on our team, Russell Henley. Um he said that Scotty had the the weight of the world on his shoulders as number one player in the world and Scotty cared more about how Russell was doing than himself. Scotty has been the best teammate in our team room this week without question. Period. He has been open to any pairing. He has been open to play any session. Five, four, two, didn’t matter. He has wanted he he was one of the first people that said we’re going to go to Napa and play to be prepared. This means everything to him. And this is this is tough. This is what happens in sports all the time. We, you know, you see, you know, somebody you like I said in in here last night, you in golf, you the moment you tr you want something so bad and you try so hard it you play, you don’t play as well. And when you’re kind of freewheing it and when you I know how it is when you get off to a bad start in a Ryder Cup, you really desperately want to help the team. And I’ve been out there with Scott, he’s played great. I mean, he flew one in the hole today, popped out and came off the green. Like, we’ve had some wacky stuff go on. I can’t express. I I I really want to be clear of just what an incredible teammate Scotty Sheffller has been and what an incredible person he is. And um for me, watching the team today was one of the proudest moments of my life because when I looked out at the caddies at the players, I couldn’t tell what the score was. They were fighting so hard on every point and it would have been easy for guys to get pissed and feel bad for themselves and and kind of mope around. Not a single person did that and Scotty’s at the top of that list. Jay on one. Keegan, you mentioned a few minutes ago that there are things that you could do better as a captain. What would those be? Well, I think just, you know, anytime, you know, I I wouldn’t classify myself as a coach, but you know, you’re you’re the leader of the team, when they don’t perform, you have to you have to take responsibility and look at look at how we did it. I’m not saying we’re not going to go out tomorrow and and win this. I I think we can go out and we’re going to give it everything we have, but, you know, ultimately the the accolades and the downfall is going to fall on the captain. That’s that’s how it always is. And when you accept the role, you are aware that that’s a very real possibility. And you and the the the highlights of it are at the highest level of our sport and the lows are some of the lowest. And you know, I you know that when you take the job and you know, for me, if your team doesn’t perform, you look at you got to look at the leader first. You got to look at the coach. And um you know, we’re going to go out tomorrow. We’re going to play with just the way they played today. They’re going to go out there. They’re going to play as hard as they can. They’re going to go out there and try to win every point. They’re going to try to they’re going to support their teammates. And that’s what makes this group so great is they’re that they’re there for each other. We’ll finish up right here with Adam. After after the morning session didn’t go as planned, did you make adjustments to the afternoon? Yeah, we did. was uh did you always envision not having Ben in the lineup? No, we didn’t. Um you know, we were trying to send out, you know, that that it was tough. I I you know, you the hardest part about this captaincy is having to sit the guys. It’s because everybody’s so good. I mean, you you you look at the pairings and you got to look at the data and you got to look at, all right, we got to send out, you know, a powerful group, send a message. Um, and that’s what we did. It’s easy to sit back now and kind of second guess everything and um, you know, but uh, you know, I know Ben Griffin’s gonna go out tomorrow. I hope he’s pissed off. He should be. I I would be pissed. I sat a whole day Saturday in Glenn Eagles. It was the one of the lowest moments of my career. And, uh, along with Phil, we sat. Um, and I I hope he comes out tomorrow ready to prove me wrong and ready to go out and win his point. Along those lines, there’s a chance you might have to sit someone put, you know, take the name from the envelope because Victor’s hurt. Have you talked to that player already? No, I we need to go out there and play this tournament the way it was supposed to be played. Um, that that’s I I have to go figure this out now. I’m still learning what’s going on. Um, I don’t know how that’s going to end up. We We’ll see in a few minutes. Thanks for your time. Thank you. To watch another RDER Cup video, click here. To subscribe, click here.

Watch Keegan Bradley’s interview after Day 2 of the 2025 Ryder Cup held at Bethpage Black.

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The 2025 Ryder Cup is the 45th edition and runs between September 25 – September 28. Luke Donald is the European Team Captain and Keegan Bradley is the U.S. Team Captain. The European Team are the reigning champion after winning 16 ½ – 11 ½ at Marco Simone in 2023. Every two years, 24 of the best players from Europe and the United States go head-to-head in match play competition. Drama, tension, incredible golf, camaraderie and sportsmanship are served in equal measure, captivating an audience of millions around the world. It’s an event that transcends sport, yet remains true to the spirit of its founder, Samuel Ryder.

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