Keegan Bradley – Wikipedia photo
by Ted Cohen
The best pro golfer to ever come out of Vermont is in the doghouse after the USA just lost a huge international tournament.
PGA great Keegan Bradley, a native of Woodstock, Vermont, was captain of the 2025 American team.
The team just lost golf’s coveted Ryder Cup to the team from Europe in a grueling head-to-head matchup played at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, NY.
Europe beat the United States by a score of 15 to 13, thus becoming the first away team to win the event since 2012.
As team captain and the host for the tournament, Bradley’s job was to set up the course as best he could to favor the American team’s strength – its long game.
But by widening the fairways and cutting down the rough Bradley effectively short-circuited – and handicapped – the American team’s long-ball strength, allowing the Europeans to use the wider fairways to their advantage.
The Europeans ended up getting their edge on the greens after having not lost strokes where they would have otherwise – in the rough along the fairways.
“We tried to set the course up to help our team. Obviously, it wasn’t the right decision,” Bradley said Sunday evening while stewing in the 2-point loss.
“I think anytime you’re the leader of a team you’re going to get the accolades, and you need to take the blame for when things don’t go well,” he added.
“I definitely made a mistake on the course setup. I should have listened a little bit more to my intuition. For whatever reason, that wasn’t the right way to set the course up.”
Bradley, 39, has won eight tour events, most notably the 2011 PGA Championship. He is one of six golfers to win in his major debut.
He is the nephew of LPGA World Hall of Fame golfer Pat Bradley, 74, who played some of her first competitive rounds as a young woman at the Burlington Country Club.
She won the New England Amateur in 1972 and 1973, turning pro the next year.
Bradley’s other aunt, Peggy, is a seven-time Women’s Club Champion at York Golf and Tennis Club in York, Maine.Share
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