It’s been a whirlwind season for Keegan Bradley. He captured a big PGA Tour victory amid one of his best years on the course. But a devastating loss at the 2025 Ryder Cup as U.S. captain has overshadowed his personal accomplishments.
That much was clear in his pre-tournament press conference at the 2025 Hero World Challenge, where Bradley admitted the period since his Ryder Cup loss has been the “darkest time” of his life, so bad that his coach needed to remind him that he won this year.
Bradley’s Ryder Cup loss overshadows personal feats
In many ways, 2025 was one of Bradley’s best seasons on the PGA Tour. He won his eighth Tour event at the Travelers Championship in June, a Signature Event. It was one of six top-10 finishes on the year, including a T8 at the PGA Championship.
He eventually finished 7th in the final FedEx Cup standings and is 14th in the Official World Golf Ranking. And he accomplished all of that while juggling Ryder Cup captain duties.
Bradley acknowledged as much during his pre-tournament press conference at the Hero World Challenge.
“I’m really proud of the way I’ve played. I think in a lot of ways it’s the best year of my career,” Bradley said. “My rookie year I won twice with a major, so that’s going to be tough to beat. But with everything that was going on, I’m really proud of the way that I played.”
Unfortunately, all of his achievements seemed to fade away in the aftermath of the U.S. team’s painful home loss at Bethpage Black in late September. When asked to give himself a grade for the season, Bradley said the Ryder Cup loss dropped his grade to an “F.”
“When you factor in losing the Ryder Cup, I mean, it’s an F,” Bradley said. “You’ve got to go and win that and this grade’s different. It’s really tough to grade.”
Bradley then described the struggles he’s had since the Ryder Cup, saying it was “definitely” the darkest period of his career.
“I mean, the darkest time of my life probably. I mean, I don’t know how else to describe it. Certainly, definitely of my career,” he said.
He also detailed the lasting impact the Ryder Cup has had on him, saying, “You’re just exhausted and you’re down, you know. That takes a toll on you. But there’s just, it just was, it just was a tough time. Still is.”
The loss took such a big toll of Bradley, that his coach had to remind him that he’d won the Travelers Championship just a few months earlier.
“I was talking to my coach, he said, ‘Remember, you won this year,’” Bradley said. “I was like, no, I don’t remember that at all.”
He continued: “It was a unique year. I think a year that really no other player has ever experienced. I’m proud of the way I played certainly, but the end of the year was difficult.”
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.
Earlier in the week, comments from U.S. Ryder Cup team member Justin Thomas on the No Laying Up podcast brought attention back to the beatdown at Bethpage.
Thomas claimed Bradley and the team “fought with” tournament organizers about the speeds of Bethpage Black’s greens during the event. The team argued they were playing slower than they had requested.
When asked about the controversy in his Hero press conference, Bradley confirmed they wanted the greens fast and that he had to trust tournament organizers in the end.
“The Sunday before the Ryder Cup, we lose control of the golf course, the home team. They were given specifications of where to keep the greens and they felt that they had done that. They did a great job,” Bradley began. “It’s so difficult to figure out. There’s so much going on and you want the greens at a certain speed and they’re telling you that they are. You’ve got to take their word for it. But the greens are so flat that it’s difficult I think to get the pace that we were looking for. But the course was in great shape.”
He added that while he wishes he could blame somebody else for the U.S. team’s Ryder Cup loss, the blame is his alone.
“You know, the Europeans, they just played so great. I wish that we could blame somebody, but we can’t. Blame me, I blame myself for that loss,” Bradley said.
This article originated on Golf.com
