Keegan Bradley as a Ryder Cup playing captain? He has Jack Nicklaus to thank for the chance

Winnipeg Free Press

5 days ago

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Keegan Bradley has the support of key players and the opportunity to become the first playing captain in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963 at East Lake.
And it's all because of Jack Nicklaus.
After the Americans won at East Lake against Great Britain & Ireland — back then it wasn't much of a competition — the PGA of America's executive committee changed the bylaws so that a captain could not play. It felt the captain's duties were too extensive.
Fast forward to Dec. 16, 1982, when the PGA of America appointed 42-year-old Jack Nicklaus to be the U.S. captain. The committee voted unanimously to allow a captain to play.
There were no captain's picks for the 1983 matches at PGA National. The PGA Championship winner was guaranteed a spot on the team and Nicklaus nearly pulled that off, finishing one shot behind Hal Sutton at Riviera.
Captain's picks have been introduced, but the rule was left in place for a playing captain. Bradley would have to win the BMW Championship for any chance at the six automatic spots, but there's that small issue of whether he should pick himself.
Xander Schauffele has told Bradley he needs to bring his clubs to Bethpage Black for the Sept. 26-28 matches. Patrick Cantlay on Tuesday said, 'If I was captain, I'd pick Keegan.'
'I think he's definitely one of the best American players, and his results have shown that,' Cantlay said at Caves Valley.
Bradley has said he would take it up with the assistant captains and the six automatic qualifiers, the same way he would consider other players as picks.
He doesn't make his picks until Aug. 27, after the Tour Championship, giving Bradley two weeks of high-end competition. He currently is No. 10 in the standings.
As for the automatic six picks, Scottie Scheffler, Schauffele and J.J. Spaun are mathematically secured to make the team. They are followed by Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English, with Justin Thomas just outside the top six.
USGA and NBC
The USGA is sticking with NBC for coverage of the U.S. Open in a deal announced Tuesday with NBCUniversal that goes through 2032 and will include an extra hour of prime-time coverage for the U.S. Open on the weekdays.
NBC's partnership with the USGA dates to 1995 except for Fox Sports taking over in 2015 in a 12-year deal that lasted only five years until it was returned to NBC.
NBC will be the exclusive broadcast home of the USGA's three professional events — the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Senior Open. Peacock will stream all USGA programming on NBC and have exclusive coverage of the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open.
The new deal will include 48 hours of U.S. Open coverage — 25 hours on NBC, with 33 hours when the U.S. Open is on the West Coast. The U.S. Women's Open will get 27 hours, seven hours on NBC during the weekend. The U.S. Senior Open will get 18 hours, six on NBC.
Versant, the new media company that will be spun out from Comcast Corp., acquired media rights to USGA championships for USA Network and Golf Channel through 2032. USA Network will broadcast the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open, and the other nine USGA championships will be on Golf Channel.
Rickie rising
Rickie Fowler made it back to the postseason by narrowly finishing among the top 70 in the FedEx Cup. That led him to a simple goal.
'The main goal last week was to have a tee time this week,' Fowler said.
He got that done with a tie for sixth in the FedEx St. Jude Championship — his highest finish of the year — that moved him to No. 48 and got him to the BMW Championship for only the second time since 2019.
Fowler had made it to the penultimate postseason event his first 10 years on the PGA Tour. He knows the good times. And lately, he has seen the other side. That made getting to Caves Valley that much sweeter.
'Sometimes the tough years or those downtimes, you enjoy those,' Fowler said. 'Maybe not necessarily in the moment because they do suck. But that's when I feel like you learn the most and you get the most satisfaction when you kind of overcome those hurdles.'
The next stop is East Lake, and that will take some hard work. Only the top 30 advance, and Fowler probably needs his highest finish of the year. But he has a tee time.
LIV schedule
The Saudi-funded LIV Golf League is starting to reveal part of the 2026 schedule that will include plenty of air miles at the start of the season.
LIV will start its fifth season Feb. 5-7 in Saudi Arabia and then head Down Under for its most popular tournament in Adelaide, Australia.
March features back-to-back weeks in Singapore and South Africa, while the Mexico City event at Chapultepec will be one week after the Masters.
The Andalucia event at Valderrama is moving up one month to be played June 5-7, two weeks before the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. Sports Business Journal has reported a new event in New Orleans a week after the U.S. Open.
The UK tournament is one week after the British Open. Still to be released is its three-tournament closing stretch, held this year in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
Cantlay's putting coach
British putting guru Phil Kenyon began working with Scottie Scheffler nearly two years ago. Patrick Cantlay is his latest clients.
Cantlay said he was in the early stages working with Kenyon and liked how it was going.
'Anything I can do to just get a little better, whether that's a technique change or some little key here and there that I can pick up on, I'm going to try and explore that to see if I can get better,' he said. 'That's really the root of the change.'
He is 78th in the PGA Tour's key putting statistic this year, down from 28th four years ago.
Divots
Melanie Green is leading the Epson Tour points list and already has clinched an LPGA card for 2026. 'Everybody wants to have a phenomenal LPGA career, but to have a phenomenal Epson Tour career as well is great to take you to the next step,' she said. … Justin Rose's victory assured his return to the Tour Championship for the first time since 2019. Rose won the FedEx Cup in 2018 and remains the only player to have captured the cup without having won a postseason event … Scottie Scheffler has gone over the $20 million mark in official PGA Tour earnings for the third consecutive year.
Stat of the week
Thursdays
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Scottie Scheffler is assured of being the No. 1 seed at the Tour Championship for the fourth consecutive year. Tiger Woods is the only other player to have been the No. 1 seed three times (2007, 2009, 2013).
Final word
'Sometimes the workload is going to be more, sometimes the workload is going to be less. Compared to the last couple years, I would say at this point we're in a 'less' moment in time.' — Patrick Cantlay on serving on the PGA Tour policy board.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf