Deep down U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley understood the assignment.
Bradley was chosen to be the team’s captain and that is his main responsibility.
During a Wednesday press conference at PGA headquarters in Texas, Bradley selected six captain picks to compete for the United States on Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. And after months of speculation, one of those picks was not himself.
“I’m 100% certain this is the right choice,” Bradley said. “I want to be the best captain I can be.”
Bradley went with a pair of Ryder Cup rookies in Cameron Young and Ben Griffin. Joining them as picks will be Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay.
“I’m really happy with these six players,” Bradley said. “And I’m glad it’s over.”
Those six will join Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Russell Henley, who were qualified on points. DeChambeau is the only player from LIV Golf named to the team.
Bradley had a legitimate argument to be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Bradley won the Travelers Championship this season and made the Tour Championship where he finished in a tie for 7th. He also won the 2024 BMW Championship at Castle Pines.
He was the biggest snub for the team that played in 2023 in Rome — and is the biggest snub on this year’s team.
But Bradley was in a tough situation. If he picked himself to be on the team and the U.S. struggled, he would be blamed for not being there as a captain. No matter how much Bradley loves the Ryder Cup, he would have pulled himself in too many directions.
“The decision was made a while ago that I wasn’t playing,” Bradley said. “There was a point this year where I was playing, a while ago. All these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way on this team.”
If anyone else is the captain, Bradley is probably on the team.
“He wants to do whatever is best for the team,” Thomas said. “I know all of us are gutted for him. But him leading us to victory will be cooler than any experience he can have as a player. We don’t doubt him for 1 second.”
The true mistake was naming Bradley, who at 39 is the youngest captain since Palmer (34) in 1963, the leader when they did. It was a make-up call by the PGA of America. After Bradley’s snub by 2023 captain Zach Johnson, the organization felt they owed Bradley.
None of that was Bradley’s fault, so he shouldn’t have been in this position.
The PGA of America couldn’t predict that Bradley was going to play as well as he has, but they had to realize he was going to be motivated to get on the 2025 team. This could be his last chance to play in the event and being the captain made that a tough call.
But Bradley made the selfless decision and the United States team will be better for it. And after the beatdown in Italy, the Americans need a good showing on home soil.
“I’m doing whatever I can to not make this Ryder Cup about me,” Bradley told Golf Digest last month. “It shouldn’t be about the captain. You hear Bill Belichick talk, he never talks about the coaches. It’s the players that win games. The last thing I want is for the sideshow to be about this stupid suitcase that I didn’t open just because I was depressed. This has nothing to do with me.”
European captain Luke Donald will announce his picks Monday.
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Whay they’re saying
“I grew up wanting to play the Ryder Cup. It broke my heart not to play, it really did. Ultimately I was chosen to do a job. My ultimate goal was to be the best captain I could be.”
—Bradley on his decision to not play on the Ryder Cup team
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This week in golf
LPGA Tour
FM CHAMPIONSHIP
Site: Norton, Mass.
Course: TPC Boston. Yardage: 6,598. Par: 72.
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Prize money: $4.1 million. Winner’s share: $615,000.
Television: Thursday-Sunday, 1-4 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Haeran Ryu.
European Tour
OMEGA EUROPEAN MASTERS
Site: Crans Montana, Switzerland.
Course: Crans-sur-Sierre GC. Yardage: 6,823. Par: 70.
Prize money: $3.25 million. Winner’s share: $541,667.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 5:30-10:30 a.m. (Golf); Saturday-Sunday, 4:30-9:30 a.m. (Golf).
Defending champion: Matt Wallace.
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PGA Tour statistics
Scoring average
1, Scottie Scheffler, 68.140. 2, Rory McIlroy, 68.083. 3, Tommy Fleetwood, 69.357. 4, Russell Henley, 69.716. 5, Harry Hall, 69.764. 6, Ben Griffin, 69.827. 7, J.J. Spaun, 69.880. 8, Robert MacIntyre, 69.900. 9, Justin Thomas, 70.041. 10, Sepp Straka, 70.047.
Driving distance
1, Aldrich Potgieter, 327.4. 2, Rory McIlroy, 323. 3, Jesper Svensson, 320.2. 4, Nicolai Hojgaard, 319.6. 5, Michael Thorbjornsen, 318.3. 6, Kurt Kitayama, 318.1. 7, Rasmus Hojgaard, 318. 8, Chris Gotterup, 316.9. 9, Will Gordon, 316.6. 10, 2 tied with 315.6.
Driving accuracy percentage
1, Paul Peterson, 73.87%. 2, Aaron Rai, 73.85%. 3, Ben Kohles, 72.33%. 4, Takumi Kanaya, 71.27%. 5, Collin Morikawa, 70.96%. 6, Andrew Putnam, 70.31%. 7, Joel Dahmen, 69.16%. 8, Brice Garnett, 68.70%. 9, Russell Henley, 68.62%. 10, Brandt Snedeker, 68.50%.
Total driving
1, Rico Hoey, 60. 2, Thomas Rosenmueller, 64. 3, Michael Thorbjornsen, 67. 4, Isaiah Salinda, 69. 5, Alex Smalley, 80. 6, Kevin Roy, 85. 7, Scottie Scheffler, 91. 8, Kevin Yu, 92. 9, 2 tied with 96.
SG-putting
1, Sam Burns, .924. 2, Harry Hall, .881. 3, Taylor Montgomery, .854. 4, Sam Ryder, .686. 5, Denny McCarthy, .656. 6, Cameron Young, .637. 7, Nico Echavarria, .630. 8, Rory McIlroy, .597. 9, Brandt Snedeker, .558. 10, Sami Valimaki, .545.
Birdie average
1, Scottie Scheffler, 4.61. 2, Harry Hall, 4.56. 3, Justin Thomas, 4.45. 4, Jake Knapp, 4.42. 5, Keith Mitchell, 4.38. 6, Kurt Kitayama, 4.32. 7, Michael Thorbjornsen, 4.31. 8, Jesper Svensson, 4.3. 9, Sepp Straka, 4.29. 10, 2 tied with 4.26.
Eagles (holes per)
1, Alejandro Tosti, 66.9. 2, Karl Vilips, 82.8. 3, Steven Fisk, 84.5. 4, Rory McIlroy, 87. 5, David Skinns, 93.3. 6, Sami Valimaki, 97.5. 7, Scottie Scheffler, 97.7. 8, Kurt Kitayama, 99. 9, Antoine Rozner, 99.8. 10, Jackson Suber, 102.6.
