Keegan Bradley Knows 2025 Ryder Cup Will Be Legacy-Defining Event

Forbes

3 hours ago

How Keegan Bradley has been able to get any sleep since July 9, 2024 is nothing short of a miracle.
Not only has the 39-year-old father of two been focused on trying to win week in and week out on the PGA Tour, but, more importantly, he's been tasked with strategizing how the U.S. Team can hopefully win the 2025 Ryder Cup in late September as captain. Oh, and by the way, he has the additional pressures—and criticisms—of his role as a potential playing captain.
'This is a major decision. It's probably the biggest decision I'll ever face in my life,' Bradley said. '... Is what's best for the team for me to play or is what's best for the team for me to sit back and fill the spot that I would have with another hot player?
'We're going to sit down and genuinely make the best decision for the team. And I realize that whatever decision I make is going to be highly scrutinized, but we're going to have to live with that decision. If I play and we win the Ryder Cup, that's going to be really fun. If there's any other outcome, it's going to be really difficult and we're aware of that.'
Outside Looking In
Keegan Bradley's path to the PGA Tour was much different than that of 99% of the players playing at the game's apex. Despite having success at the amateur level, Bradley didn't garner much attention from college coaches at big programs. St. John's University coach Frank Darby saw potential in the Vermont native and offered Bradley a scholarship to play for the Red Storm.
Admitting he's had to 'earn everything that I've gotten' and still to this day continues to 'prove to myself and others to show what type of player I am,' Bradley turned pro in 2008. A pair of wins including the PGA Championship in 2011 helped him qualify for the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. With another Tour win to his name in 2012, Bradley was a Captain's Pick for the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
Despite representing the red, white and blue on consecutive teams at the prestigious biennial team event, Bradley was on the outside looking in as the Ryder Cup marched on in 2016, 2018 and 2021—the latter event postponed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But two more wins during the 2022-23 Tour season provided a glimmer of hope for a triumphant return to the international stage.
'I made a real conscious decision about five years ago that I really wanted to try to make one more of these teams,' said Bradley, who has also represented the U.S. in the Presidents Cup (2013, 2024). 'I went early in my career where I thought I was going to play on every team for the next 15-20 years—that's how you think. And then I got to a point in my career where I had a conscious thought in my head that I have to give up on this and that this is never going to happen again and I needed to be OK with that because it was torturing me.
'And I sort of decided that part of your career is closed and that's OK, but we got to move on. And then it was like, 'I can still make these teams and make a difference.'
The rollercoaster of emotions during that career stretch hit an all-time low when Bradley was informed by 2023 U.S. Team captain Zach Johnson that he had not been selected for the event in Rome. Bradley's story and the heartbreaking conversation were documented in Season 2 of Netflix's Full Swing.
O Captain! My Captain!
After a dispiriting loss in Rome, the U.S. Team and PGA of America decided to buck the trend of traditionally relying on veteran, retired players to man the helm as captain as it sought to shake things up for 2025.
After more than a decade of being on the outside looking in, Bradley wasn't just in it, he was it. On July 9, 2024, Keegan Bradley was named U.S. Team captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.
What a difference a year can make.
'It's a role that I didn't expect to ever get the chance to do,' Bradley said.
Not only having to juggle his active playing career on the PGA Tour, Bradley and vice captains Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Gary Woodland are painstakingly scouring every statistic, personality trait and PGA Tour and LIV Golf result to strategically set up the U.S. Team for success from September 26-28.
Ryder Cup teams are comprised of 12 players apiece with the top-6 being automatic qualifiers based on points earned through on-course success and another six selected as Captain's Picks.
'I think on any team in any sport or Ryder Cup teams, the players know who are the best players and who needs to be on the team,' Bradley said. 'You know at the start of the year the general shape of what the team is going to look like then hopefully you can plug in some players that may have had a great year, a young player coming up or a Ryder Cup player who is really tough. We want to look for guys that fit the golf course with the data, but most importantly, guys we know who can handle the atmosphere and handle the situation.
'There's nothing quite like a Ryder Cup, so you look at majors, you look at maybe how they handled a Sunday round or how they handled leading a tournament—or maybe they lost the tournament but still played amazing.'
Heading into the 2025 Tour Championship at East Lake this week, Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau have automatically qualified for the U.S. Ryder Cup squad. Bradley, who won the Travelers Championship in June, sits 11th in the standings but could still pick himself as a Captain's Pick.
Rosters for the 2025 Ryder Cup will be announced Wednesday, August 27 at PGA Frisco.
'I honestly feel like I'm playing the best golf of my life,' Bradley said. 'I was worried for sure that this could affect my play—certainly the stress of it is a lot with the asks, the corporate obligations and all that on top of my other ones. Being the Ryder Cup captain and talking about the Ryder Cup, this is legitimately what dreams are made of. Honestly, things that I never even imagined dreaming about.'
Dreams And Nightmares
With the 2025 professional season coming to an end on Sunday, Bradley and his vice captains have difficult decisions to make.
Making it a priority to get to know this new generation of golfers that he once felt excluded from ahead of the 2023 Ryder Cup, Bradley called it 'the greatest gift that I've ever gotten since I've been on the Tour.' The closeness is a double-edged sword though as Bradley will have to be the bearer of good or bad news to his friends.
'It's going to be horrible. It's going to be like the worst day of my life, probably,' Bradley said. 'I would say it's probably going to be one of the top worst days of my life having to call these guys because, again, I know them. Normally, you're captain of the Ryder Cup team so once the Ryder Cup's over, you don't really see him again because he's not playing, but I'm going to see these guys all next year again or I'll see them the next day in Jupiter (Fla.) somewhere.'
As has been the case since he was announced as U.S. Team captain a little over year ago, every decision Bradley makes—including the highly debated one of potentially being a playing captain—will not only be talked about and scrutinized by every analyst, pundit, podcaster, patron and keyboard warrior before, during and immediately after the 2025 Ryder Cup, but potentially for years to come.
The U.S. Team has lost 10 of the last 14 editions of the Ryder Cup dating back to 1995, including both events Bradley participated in as a player in 2012 and 2014.
'I think what happens at this Ryder Cup will be sort of my thing for the rest of my career,' Bradley said. 'I think every captain that goes through this, when they win, they're the best captain ever and then if your team loses, it was, 'The captain was terrible.' But I've been on teams that we lost where our captain was amazing.
'I have to try my best not to sort of get out ahead of thinking like, 'This could happen if this, this and this happens.' I need to continuously try to make the decisions that I think are best for the United States Ryder Cup team. We'll ask the players as well and talk to the players to see what they think because their opinions matter a lot to me.'
Whether or not Bradley's decision making pays off come September 28 is still to be seen. Should it lead to the U.S. Team hoisting the Ryder Cup, Bradley will be heralded as the GOAT. If it doesn't work out, he'll be branded the scapegoat.
'I think, for me, (winning the Ryder Cup) would be the greatest moment of my golf career,' Bradley said. 'I don't think I could ever surpass it, even winning majors. I think that would be really special. To be able to do that at Bethpage and then continue on with my playing career would be pretty great.
'To be able to go back to Bethpage as a winning captain and to be a winning captain for the rest of my life would probably be one of the coolest things that could ever happen to me.'