WITHOUT A PHONE CALL! – Keegan Bradley Named 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup Captain | The First Cut Podcast

Keegan Bradley will be the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain. The First Cut crew discusses.

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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.

big news coming out of America the states because the 2025 Ryder Cup team has a captain and it might not be who you thought it was because Keegan Bradley has been named captain and Patrick he didn’t even really know about it gets a out of the blue gets offered the captain captaincy and we are of and running to Beth pagee where do we want to start from with this well let’s startle well let’s start with this whatever you want yeah whatever you want that’s fine and then I’ll direct it as we as we go um I will say it is uh a pretty insane pick right I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but it it is a pick that can be made right now just because of the circumstances around the US Rider Cup team yeah I think this day and age you have optically whether it’s true or not you’re coming off maybe the worst Rider Cup captain I don’t know like Watson was pretty bad I guess in for furick maybe I don’t know but optically with all the uh access to Netflix and all the quotes out there Zack Johnson’s and all the new fans from covid right this was really their first rer cup too it was Zach Johnson’s the worst rer Cup captain ever we need to change everything completely Abandoned Ship yada yada yada and so the bar is super low right now and so you have a rider cup where you’re probably going to have the better team you’re going to have the home course advantage and also the tension between the PGA Tour and live has kind of vanished a little bit so it’s a prime time to introduce a complete Wild Card pick that is Keegan Bradley I’ll say that first months of boys club discussion Greg about uh how this process normally works this obliterates that yeah it certainly does um maybe they’re just trying to welcome Keegan in you know let let him in somehow which it I I’m not quite sure how to figure that that whole thing out I thought Kyle had a really interesting take on the whole Boys Club Mantra you know a boys club is great if it if you win because then it’s camaraderie um like it was like it was here in the states the last time we played at Whistling Straits uh but if you lose then it’s a problem and if there were other good players that were left out it becomes a problem um but Keegan Bradley definitely wipes some of that away and you get the sense that Keegan isn’t gonna pick guys because of just their name right he’s going to try to pick the most deserving guys and he’s certainly very clearly been in that spot perhaps that’s a signal from the PJ of America saying hey we want to we want to get out of this we don’t want we don’t want to make choices based on feelings uh and and player relationships or Captain player relationships we want to make choices based on who the best players are at the time now of course we have a lot of time about a year and a half to talk about all this uh and and discuss it further because I’m not sure that the way we select the Ryder Cup team really allows you to pick the best players at that time separate issue all in all I think Keegan Bradley will do a great job I think he’ll be really prepared he’s close to the players he’s playing with them week in and week out uh may even play his way his way onto the team as a captain’s player which is another interesting thing but all in all I think he’s well positioned to put together a very strong Ridder Cup team there was a lot of speculation that this was going to be a Tiger Woods Captain’s Team tiger was off for their position he declined it quote with my new responsibilities to the tour and time commitments involved felt like I would not be able to commit the time to Team USA and the players required as a captain KP um this is a completely different direction to go with Keegan Bradley as as Greg said we’re 14 months away from all of this coming to fruition but what is week one conf confidence level in Keegan oh I’m all the way in I mean it was jarring when I first saw the news like really jarring like am I reading it was almost June 6th levels of jaring uh but I I’m I’m weigh in I I I think Keegan I think Keegan will be a better Captain than tiger would have been how about that agreed I completely agree with that which sounds because he cares no I mean I I think I think that he did a great job at the press conference I think that he I just think sometimes in the past players have been chosen this is not why necessarily why tiger would be chosen but players have been chosen to Captain the writer Cup team based on their career resume which has absolutely nothing to do with being a good Captain like it could not have less to do with being a good captain and I think there’s a little bit of that like just tiger is the thing that tiger has going for him is that players rever him and they will do anything for him and you saw that at the President’s Cup I think he’s really smart with course setup and parings and all that stuff but is Tiger gonna like get in there and Galvanize everybody and like be an emotional like great leader that you know that the US sometimes needs no he’s not but Keegan will like I think Keegan’s gonna get out there and like really put his emotions and put himself out there and that’s listen like you gotta hit shots to Wi Rider cups but man how many times have we seen that on the Euro side of like guys willing to put themselves out there as the captain and say like hey I’m going to be vulnerable I’m going to Galvanize everybody we’re all pulling the same way and the Euros do that year after year after year doesn’t always lead to wins but at least you give yourself a chance and the Americans rarely do that I think they actually did it pretty well with Stricker as somebody that stands out uh and I think Keegan will do that better than almost anybody else they could have chosen I’ve done almost a complete 180 on Keegan over the years I used to I couldn’t stand the guy probably five or eight years ago I thought he was neurotic and weird and I don’t know and and now he is such a um I’m sure he’s always been but my perception of him is that he’s such a vulnerable I think is the perfect word Kyle thoughtful guy who is going to be prepared and he I mean he might knife somebody to win this to win this Rider cup I mean well but he he also he he referenced what you were saying Rick he said when I got out when I got out on tour I thought the whole world was against me and the thing and and he showed some self- awareness because he said the thing I love about this current crop of players is that they have handled their careers differently than I did and I just think there’s a there’s there is a thoughtfulness there that I I just it it doesn’t exist with everybody out there that doesn’t again these are not things that necessarily mean you’re going to be a great Captain but I think they have more to do with being a great Captain than just winning the PGA Championship does or winning the US Open or winning five majors does um so I I’m I’m very excited about it I was very excited about it yesterday even more so after listening to to his pressor today yeah so let’s go through some of these points here um so we’ll kind of run through these but if if you want to jump in feel free Patrick uh Keegan made it fairly clear that he is not going to pick himself uh if he makes the team on points great otherwise he will not select himself as a captain’s pick he won’t be a playing Captain he will just be the captain yeah I think something else that uh people kind of glossed over is he said he wants to change the qualifying too uh the number of spots so I assume that probably means back to eight maybe that 84 that it was for uh you know a couple Rider cups before which I like as well and I mean that also gives him a couple more spots for him to qualify through as well on his own fation because as it stands right now in the owgr you can add Brooks in front of him that’s fine if you do that he’s the 13th ranked American right now and so he he’s gonna have a real chance I mean he is in the prime of his playing career he’s gonna play well I mean he won twice last season that is like very hard to do on the PGA Tours so that that’s where my kind of hesitancy kind of comes in where this guy’s playing a full PGA Tour schedule he’s playing in all the major championships he’s going to be in there week in and week out and you can take it as a positive for sure being you know rubbing elbows with with the guys who’s going to be on the US team but that’s also a ton of respons ability for your day job while also trying to handle the rer cup not only is Keegan a fresh face Greg but it seems like his vice captains will be as well vowing to go younger quote they’re going to be a lot younger closer to playing which is interesting you know I mean we’ve seen um I know Zach Johnson was is still very active but like Luke Donald is is obviously uh still playing on the PGA tour still playing worldwide is there a benefit to having your Vice captains beond the PGA Tour or just removed from the PGA Tour on a weekly basis well potentially I mean it obviously depends on who they are and what they bring to the table I think there are a couple of potentials here and differences that we see with the US side and the European side when it comes to the Ryder Cup um I mean Eduardo Molinari for the European Ridder Cup team is is kind of dawned as this um hero right with data and and this gets thrown around on social media and a bunch of different ways but it really seems like the Europeans look into the data in some somehow a much different way than the US team does and may maybe there’s a world where the the younger guys are a little more in touch with that a specific younger guy who’s really good with um with with looking into the right data points and and analyzing it in the proper way or or has a great stats coach who can kind of come along and help and and make these great decisions I I think there’s a possibility that going younger leads to better decisions um the other thing that’s really cool about Keegan specifically um and I think this will have to do with who he selects as his vice captains but also how he manages the team is I Keegan won’t make this about Keegan where tiger can’t help it tiger can try to make it not about tiger it’s about tiger there’s nothing you could do about that Keegan will make it about him he’ll try to figure out who the best players are what the best reasons are for having them on the team what the best way to set up the golf course is whether it’s what he initially thought or not um and and I think that leads to a really good team building experience at least from the leadership side from the captains and vice captains side speaking of the best available players KP Keegan did not shy away from who was going to be on his team made it very clear on day one quote I’m going to have the 12 best players on the team I don’t care where they play so we have a mission to win this tournament I’m not worried about the LIF stuff I want the best players on the team by the time we get to Beth Page in 2025 we have no clue how the layout of the golf world’s going to be and as it comes to Live Events if there’s guys that are On The Fringe I’m willing to do that yeah it’s interesting um you know I I think that well one I I I love his talk about Liv because that as far as it relates to the writer cup it is nonsense like take Bryson take Brooks take gu whoever you want to take like take I think the 12 best players I don’t love I personally I don’t love that language because I think it implies like hey if Russell Henley’s had a slightly better year than I don’t know uh let’s say JT or morawa that you take him over JT or Mor I just think that’s obviously like not true um so I it I it depends on how you define 12 best players but I think I think what the US keeps missing keeps missing keeps missing is like you’re putting together a team you’re not putting together 12 individuals and they just think like they beat their heads against the wall thinking like well we’ve just got the best 12 individuals I don’t understand why we’re not winning you know like over and over and over again and listen like it doesn’t always like taking JT and and those guys to Rome it didn’t it didn’t work but I thought it gave them you know for all the intangibles that somebody like JT or speed whoever brings to the table I thought it gave them the best chance of winning so uh that’s I know you weren’t asking about non-live stuff but that’s sort of my Spiel on that I was mostly just teeing you up you can go anywhere anywhere you want giving the people the quotes the information and then you know you take it wherever you want it’s all good um the yeah the Ryder Cup team is like a puzzle but the US has just been they’ve had like no corner pieces like well now what like what we have the 12 best pieces I don’t know why it doesn’t work right why isn’t this working why isn’t this picture coming together but at the same time what’s so interesed about that is well we took uh we took JT because we got speed right we got to pair them together but we got we got sheffler his best bud Sam Burns so we got to take Burns right because he’s going to play with so there’s there’s also this side where they’re trying to build a team I don’t think it’s as simple as 12 best players versus a team you know I don’t think there are players that oh well he’s a team guy he’s not a team guy so we’ll take the team guy you know it’s a hard thing to measure I think it’s a hard thing to build a team um but all in all I I so I don’t think the Americans are simply trying to take the 12 best individuals but I don’t think they know how to build a team and I’m not saying that I do uh I just I think it’s a lot more difficult it’s a it’s a nuanced thing to build a golf team yeah sorry Kyle real quick I was gonna say I think Joseph Amano was pointing this out on Twitter yesterday I think it’s the Euros do such a good job of being willing to play with whoever and I think the Americans just think like and I go back to this quote from last year like hey remember REM the American side was like hey remember who you are remember what you’ve done and the Euros side was like hey forget about who you are because it’s about the team this week and that that it’s epitomized by when they pair tiger and Phil together back in was that 04 Greg yeah4 and you’re like I mean it’s tiger and Phil it should work they’re unbelievable they got you know 20 combined majors and it’s like yeah that’s that’s not really like how the writer works yeah Scot shler if Scotty sheffler cannot play with anybody else but Sam Burns we’ve got a big problem is the yeah well it’s like even even JT and speed the analytics team that they had for Whistling Straits they told Stricker they’re like you should not pair these two together they did they paired them it worked out for I think they were like one one and one or something together like that and then again they told Zack Johnson they’re like you don’t need a pair of these guys together and you look through the combinations of worst combinations for the US team the worst combination was JT and speed and then okay you bring them for the emotional spark plug well at the same time let’s sit them that morning session too let’s not get any of that in there either so I don’t think ZJ did a whole lot of listening to anybody to be honest no but I I think it goes to Greg’s point of uh them not really they’re not consistent with their team building I will say yeah keeg GNA listen I believe well I think I think whatever you decide to do right you have to be consistent you have to you have to motivate your team that this is the right path whe whether it is or not you can’t just be you can’t have exceptions to rules you can’t bounce around you can’t have this second guessing you just have to have everybody buying in and and that’s sort of what I think Keegan will be good at right I 100% agree like I I I I I really do um I think he’s such an interesting figure too cuz I know the Netflix stuff has been talked about a lot and you know he said today I I hope that’s not why I got picked because I was like what was he referencing Patrick do you remember that when he said I I hope that’s not the reason I got picked because people saw me crying on Netflix basically is that what he was pretty much yeah no someone pretty much asked him they’re like do you think you were picked because of Netflix but but I think that he is somebody that I was talking to somebody today and we were talking about how the fans could get behind one of us four if we were the captain right like that doesn’t really matter especially at home but I think the players do see how much he like he’s he’s strangely Rick because of the way his career started he’s he’s become an easy person to get behind if you’re a player or if you’re a fan if you’re anybody and I think that that’s I don’t think ZJ was ever that um for a lot of people maybe players included I have no idea but um Keegan is that and I think that that he’s become a g like it it happened because of the Netflix stuff but it extended beyond that I think he’s become a very easy person to get behind we’ve got uh an initial reaction from someone who is very very likely to be on that Ridder Cup team and Patrick I’m gonna throw this to you because it’s your it’s your boy Xander Schley here and bear with me because I’m gonna read a couple of quotes here I feel like Keegan would understand sort of when we need to get up when we need to practice and when you need to do this and hopefully Dodge anything you don’t have to do and maybe that will help us taking a bunch of photos all dressed up there’s two or three dinners that we have to go to that are kind of mandator is and I think if we cut it down to one or two versus three that would be a really big deal end quote uh Patrick okay so one or two dinners instead of three and us is going to win in Ireland in four years is that what uh am I picking up what he’s throwing down pretty much uh this is this this is the like go ahead Patrick I’ll I’ll just go after you he was all over the place but there were others I I he like contradicted himself a couple times he’s like yeah we got steamrolled uh but also I don’t want to take pictures as much as we do it’s like God forbid you got to go to the Spanish Steps in Rome I feel really bad for you they shut down the town for you you walked down a red carpet you ate amazing food you had to take some photos the horror the horror the horror as his good friend Patrick anley once said pampered beep uh but I will say generally they’re talking to guys on the Range uh at the Scottish open all of them are pumped like Jordan JT Ricky I mean who knows if they’re going to be on the team but they they were very excited for him pump to be assistant captains yeah I feel like you know they gotta be pumped for him right charity event yeah two things real quick one it’s I forgot about this I guess but there’s still a remnant of the task force that apparently selects the captain and JT and spe are on that uh like on that committee that’s kind of crazy when you think about it I think it was less crazy when it was Tiger and Phil because you’re like whatever they’re institutions and they’re always gonna just have whatever spot they want on anything but with tiger or with JT and spe what they’ve kind of turned into as players which is like Fringe Rider cuppers it’s pretty crazy that they’re selecting the captain because there’s going to be some implicit pressure to reciprocate the the favor right were were Jordan SM and Justin Thomas Greg were they were they anointed a little too a little too early were they anointed a little too early well I think this I think this will be telling they looked like they were gonna be eight-time major winners they were never gonna go through slumps they were going to be Ridder cup Superstars it has not turned out that way no it is not um but I don’t know if that means that they were anointed too early um I I think it’s up to the captain and there’s a balance there but that that Force has couple players but I think it’s also balanced out by some PJ of America members to Executives uh people like that so you have a basically gives you input from players who are likely to be on the US Ridder Cup team I mean I it’s a really difficult thing when you want to get player input you either have to go to older players who would be fine with Vice capes like Tiger Woods um like Steve Stricker and Fred Couples you know that that group uh or you go with your most likely Ridder Cup participants who probably are spe and and JT if you look at it over a period of 10 years not a period of you know what are they doing right now like could would should it be Klay and shley in there instead because they’re much more likely to be on the team oh yeah okay I know we gotta get you a break here Rick but last thing Xander can just pound sand like this is this is a joke like what what are you what are you talking about dude like and and and honestly like forget all the like how cool it is even even if you feel this way like have enough self-awareness to say it behind closed doors and not to you know not in front of a public that’s like what are you like what are you doing you know like think about think about the Euros saying something like this publicly it would never happen I actually tweeted back at Brent I think Brentley had that quote I was like the Euro has been saying this for years they have it it was a gy they have it they have it because they only have one to two dinns okay yeah it’s it’s honestly embarrassing like that’s an embarrassing quote and it it should never be said by anybody yeah what uh what you guys that’s the absolute softest thing I’ve ever heard anybody say yeah well I was gonna ask you guys what do you guys think about um him just getting the call random afternoon it’s like hey buddy you’re the rouer Cup captain that’s insane too yeah so here’s the quote on that I didn’t have one conversation with anybody about this until I was told I was the captain I got the call from Seth and John and Zach and I had trouble talking when they called me I felt funny after the call because I don’t think I reacted in the way they were expecting me to he would go on to say he was in complete shock is that normal that can’t be normal normal sport no the I pulled this Paul McGinley quote from I think it was doing the hero was he doing the the commentary for the Hero World Challenge yes he was on there it was right after Luke Donald had been selected for page and he was like this is part of this is part of our longterm plan and we have several more steps after this which reminded me of Phil saying but but it was like so such a clear like oh the Euros are you know they might not win they probably won’t win but they’re just planning this out and the US side’s like ah Keegan sounds good he won a PGA once yeah B call him see if he’s a available it’s am um we’ve got 14 months to talk more about this so we’re going to put a pin in it right now Keegan Bradley is your American 2025 Ridder Cup captain