Keegan Bradley explains Team USA Ryder Cup picks | “I haven’t slept in about a month”

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Watch as Ryder Cup Team USA captain Keegan Bradley explains his reasons behind his team selection, including his choice to remain as a captain after leaving himself out of his six picks to complete Team USA’s line-up for Bethpage Black. Bradley named Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns as his six captain’s picks for Team USA.

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Keegan, thanks so much for taking the time to speak to us. The obvious headline is that you’ve decided not to pick yourself. In your own words, “It broke my heart not to play. Is it fair to say this decision was taken with a heavy heart that you wanted to play but just felt you couldn’t?” Yeah, definitely. I uh I I obviously you grow up dreaming of playing Ryder Cups and um you know that’s my goal to start every Ryder Cup year is to make the team whether I’m the captain or not. And um it was a tough decision, but you know, I I sort of knew all along this is what I wanted to do and the guys made it really easy for me at the end of the season. Ultimately, was it your assistant captains, perhaps some of the players, somebody else whose council you sought who expressed concern, says, “Look, it’s just going to be too tough to do both roles to the best of your ability.” Honestly, no. Um, you know, a lot of I had a lot of support to play uh the whole time. Um, you know, I really had to lean on Jim Furick as being the only guy that’s really gone through being a captain. Um, and and then other captains that that I would ask. And, um, I was, you know, my my biggest concern was being the best captain I could be and then if I played, I needed to be the best player that I could be. And I was worried I couldn’t do both. Do you kind of feel you’ve been put in a really unenviable position? Look, I know it’s a huge honor to be the captain, but had anyone else been in your shoes, the likelihood is you would have been picked to play. Have there been moments when you’ve kind of thought this is a bit unfair? Well, I think there’s been challenging moments for sure, but I I always have to remind myself that you get the chance to be the Rder Cup captain. There’s there’s dozens, if not hundreds of people that deserve this honor over me, you know, that never got the opportunity to do this, that would do anything to do this job. So, you know, I’m really, you know, touched and honored to have to be able to do this. Um, you know, it’s disappointing to not play certainly, especially at Beth Paige Black, but I still get to be the captain of the of the Ryder Cup team. What an incredible honor. And not even a tweet from the president himself demanding that you pick yourself was going to persuade you otherwise. Yeah, that was that was surreal. That was uh we when I got that tweet, we had already basically decided I wasn’t playing. And um it was it was really really crazy. Something that I’ll remember forever. I know how passionate you are about this competition and I I remember the images from Madina and from Glenn Eagles of you fist pumping and you know you loved every second of it. Do you believe you’ll play on another RDER Cup team or was this your best chance? This probably was my best chance if I was being honest. Um you know I who knows I thought that Rome was going to be my best chance as well. So you I’m I’m certainly not trying to slow down. And I feel I I truly feel in the bottom of my heart this is the best golf I’ve ever played uh by a good amount. So like I don’t I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. It’s going to be more and more difficult to make these teams, but I’ll give it a shot. Hey, look, if Justin Rose can still do it at 45, I’m sure you can be doing it at 41 in Ireland. So we keep our fingers crossed in that count. Um how many sorry phone calls did you have to make? I mean, we made we made a handful. They they they were difficult. um you know really tough to to have to go through that and call these guys. It was uh it was difficult just because I’ve been there. I’ve been on that call and truthfully I was on that side of the call this year and I obviously didn’t have to make the call but you know I had to accept the the disappointment of not making the team as well because obviously that was played out very publicly. Everybody saw it on full swing. Was it equally difficult for you? Were there players who sounded inconsolable on the other end of the phone or or were most of them almost kind of expecting it? 100% of them took it better than I ever could have imagined. They were h they were they were just great. They they expressed to me how disappointed they were. I told them it’s okay to be angry. I want you to be angry. Um but they all were really great about it and understood and that’s you know I really appreciate that. Conversely, what were the best calls to make? Who had the best reaction? Uh, well, I really enjoyed calling the two rookies, uh, Cam Young and and Ben Griffin. Th that’s a big deal in your life to get your first be on your first RDER Cup team, and I really that I love those. Cam Young in particular, I mean, for me, you know, he’s a New Yorker. He’s a great course fit. He hits the ball a mile. He makes a ton of birdies. You must be incredibly excited about having him in the team. He is. And and you know, he he won the New York State Open at Beth Paige Black. He’s played there his whole life. He’s for New Yorker. And, you know, this is a big deal. like he he’s had this circled on his calendar for 10 years. So, you know, to to to get there to play well at the right time, to play well at a high level and make this team is is awesome for him. And you mentioned Ben Griffin. I’m going to sort of bracket Ben Griffin and JJ Spawn together. I know JJ qualified automatically and Ben was a pick, but they’re two guys who have elevated their game to another level this year and have put their hand up and said, “Captain, I want to be on that side.” And that must be so satisfying for you. Two really nuggety, gritty competitors as well. It really, it really was. I mean, JJ is, you know, turned himself into one of the best players in the world and and a player that, you know, can handle those big moments coming down the stretch. And then Ben Griffin, I I he had his back up against the wall the whole year. Like, he needed to play this solidly all the way to the end to make this team. And he knew that. I I sort of let him know that that was the case. And I mean, he did it. And so like when you’re playing at that level and no and you have to play at that level to make this team even more impressive. Keegan, the fact that you’ve got four rookies in the side, there have been six changes from the Rome team. You look at the European team, it’s probably going to be 11 of the team from Rome plus one twin swapped in for the other. Obviously an incredibly settled back room team as well. Does that give Europe a head start at all? Yeah, I mean it might. They they have an incredible team. Um, they have Luke Donald who’s, you know, one of the greatest RDER Cup captains of all time. Um, you know, I I’m up against it, you know, up against it with him. He’s just an incredible guy. He’s got the respect of the players. He’s clearly clearly knows what he’s doing. So, it’s going to be a really tough test. Yeah. And and just how much have you leaned on your assistant captains as well? How great have they been throughout this process? They’ve been unbelievable. I don’t know what I would do without them. The thing I’m most proud of during this process is these vice captains. I I have a great mix of, you know, I have Jim Furick who’s the ultimate veteran and the ultimate golfer and rider cuper and then I have, you know, younger guys and guys I played with that are have this perspective that is so helpful because they know the guys so well and um they’re going to be a huge asset to us. They must be buzzing too. The likes of Gary Woodland, Kevin Kner, they have never experienced a Ryder Cup as a player either. So, it’s going to be completely new for them. It is. Yeah, I’m excited for them to see it. Just finally, Keegan, how much sleep have you lost over the last few weeks, last few months? A lot. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in about a month. So, uh, maybe tonight, but we’ll see. I doubt it, but maybe tonight. Well, look, I hope you sleep like a baby tonight. You deserve it. I know it must have been an agonizing call to make, but looking forward to seeing you in just over four weeks time in Beth Page. Thanks for your time today. Thanks so much.