MONTREAL – After his successful appearances at the 2011 PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup in 2012 and 2014, and the Presidents Cup in 2013, Keegan Bradley assumed he would be a regular on the U.S. side. However, a decade passed without him being selected for either competition.
“I remember thinking when we’re watching the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, I’m thinking, ‘I’m never going to get to do this again.’ It was a bummer,” he said.
Last year, Bradley received the disappointing news that he had not been chosen for the U.S. Ryder Cup team in Rome. The cameras for the Netflix documentary “Full Swing” captured his emotional reaction. In July, Bradley was appointed as the surprise captain of the U.S. squad for the 2025 Ryder Cup, and then he was offered a role as an assistant captain by U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Jim Furyk.
But Bradley’s career resurgence, capped by a victory at the BMW Championship and a rise to No. 13 in the Official World Golf Ranking, led Furyk to name him as one of his six captain’s picks.
Presidents Cup: Picks, odds | Tournament hub | Gala photos
“I kind of wanted him to be an assistant captain, but he just had to go and play so darn good at the BMW and kind of lead from wire-to-wire and kind of earn a spot on the team in my mind,” Furyk said. “So we’ve kind of taken those assistant duties away from him and focus on kind of integrating himself amongst his teammates, being a leader on that team with kind of a veteran status, and everyone knows he’s the captain next year as well.”
Bradley’s commitment to the U.S. team is unwavering. He still holds on to the bag from the 2012 Ryder Cup defeat at Medinah, determined to unpack it only when he’s part of a winning side.
“To be back here a decade later, it’s really been a special week. I look around the room at dinners and stuff, and there’s nobody there that I was on these other teams with, and Jim was playing the last time I was out here,” Bradley said. “I want to prove to the guys that their captain can still play.”
One player on the U.S. side who reminds Bradley of himself is Wyndham Clark, who has made the last two U.S. teams after winning a major.
“He’s older than me and kind of in different walks of life. He’s kind of, not that he’s, his career isn’t done by any means, but he’s on the back end of his career and I’m in the beginning of mine,” Clark said. “It’s great to be around him. He even admitted five weeks ago he was like, ‘I was ready to come up here and be a captain’ and it’s quickly changed. The fun thing is he talked with us about obviously next year and talking about the Ryder Cup. Says, ‘Hey, this is a starting block now.’ This week is huge for Team USA for next year’s Ryder Cup. He’s so positive and such a great leader. I’m really excited that he’s our captain and excited he’s on this team.”
But Bradley is focused on playing this week, rather than on assistant captain duties, as he prepares to lead the U.S. team in next year’s Ryder Cup.
“I have to go out there tomorrow and play. So I’m not here to do any of that,” Bradley said. “For me, personally, it’s more about getting to know the guys. I knew them all, but I knew them all sort of from a distance.”
For Bradley, getting the opportunity to play once more – potentially for the last time as a player – is a bonus. “I was almost sure I would never play in another one,” he said. “So, I am trying to remind myself to take a second, look around. I’ve been trying to do that a lot more in my career of taking a moment and looking around and taking it all in.”
