Keegan Bradley is Team USA’s current captain, but is facing calls to play in the event at Bethpage Black after returning to the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking
Tiger Woods has already made his feelings clear(Image: Getty Images)
Keegan Bradley has a big decision to make.
After winning the Travelers Championship last Sunday and rising to No. 7 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Bradley is undoubtedly one of the best golfers on the planet. He’s also scheduled to be Team USA’s Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage Black in September, however.
It’s been more than 60 years since an American captain played in the Ryder Cup, with the great Arnold Palmer doing so in 1962. But with Bradley enjoying such a rich vein of form, it seems obvious that he will be one of the Americans teeing it up in New York.
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In recent months, fans have wondered whether Bradley will select himself to play. Yet the bigger question now is whether he’ll remain as captain. One man who could replace him is Tiger Woods, whose schedule has freed up in recent months due to an Achilles injury.
Woods, undoubtedly the most popular golfer on the planet, has previously been linked with the captaincy job. Yet he’s made it clear that he’s got no interest in taking the role right now.
After turning down the captaincy last year, Woods said: “Well, the decision was very difficult for me to make.
Keegan Bradley is the current Ryder Cup captain for Team USA(Image: Getty Images)
“My time has been so loaded with the tour and everything, and what we’re trying to accomplish. I’m on so many different subcommittees that it just takes so much time in the day, and I’m always on calls.”
Woods is a player-director on the PGA Tour’s policy board and has been directly involved in negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the backers of LIV Golf, to end the sport’s civil war. The 15-time major champion is also a co-founder of TGL, the indoor golf league that launched last year.
Woods added: “I just didn’t feel like I could do the job properly. I couldn’t devote the time. I barely had enough time to do what I’m doing right now, and add in the TGL starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup.
“You add all that together, and then with our negotiations with the PIF, all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there’s only so many hours in the day.
“I just didn’t feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players in Team USA justice if I was the captain with everything that I have to do.”
If Bradley is to give up the captaincy, he’ll likely turn to one of his four vice captains: Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker, Kevin Kisner, and Jim Furyk. Speaking about the Ryder Cup after winning last Sunday, Bradley said: “I never really planned on playing.
“Now, with the amazing vice-captains I have, I feel a lot more comfortable if I went (down) that route. I had this epiphany at the U.S. PGA Championship when I was getting these loud ‘USA’ cheers.
“I don’t think any player in the history of the game has experienced what I’m experiencing in that I’m a Ryder Cup captain, in my eyes still one of the best players in the world, trying to win majors and tournaments, coming down the stretch of a tournament.”
