Leadership is a fraught topic these days, decades of partisan bullshitting masquerading as truth-telling having created a seemingly unbridgeable divide in which any prospective commander is either an inspirational visionary ready to save the nation or manifestly destitute of the qualities necessary for the role. The prevalence of instant, binary reviews might eventually make Keegan Bradley wish he’d opted for the simpler life of running for president instead of accepting a gig as America’s Ryder Cup captain.
Management is complicated, no matter how many uplifting Hallmark aphorisms are peddled by LinkedIn influencers. Studies suggest that only a third of workers feel engaged by their business leaders, less than 20% trust them, and more than half quit because of that relationship. Which means Bradley’s new job would be plenty challenging even if he didn’t have to ascertain whether his team is willing to be led at all, or if his appointment is seen as usurping their collective power.
Recent U.S. Ryder Cup skippers have been more transactional than transformational. The task force created after Tom Watson’s bruising tenure in 2014 accomplished two goals: it relieved PGA of America executives of responsibility for selecting a captain while still keeping checks coming to the right address, and it delegated control of the team to a core group of players who were then recycled biennially through the captaincy and vice-captaincies. Noble chaps all, but a perception took root that the room where it happens didn’t seat many folks.
The captains chosen since ’14 fit the mold that cast generations of their predecessors — men well stricken in years who are either on or nearing the Champions Tour glue factory in terms of their competitive relevance. More recently, captains have also been made men in the task force mafia. Bradley is 38 years old, ranked in the world’s top 20, and assuredly not part of the coffee klatch that denied him a captain’s pick last year, despite a playing record better than any of the half-dozen who were chosen to suit up in Rome. Of the rationales that will be offered in support of Bradley — passion, college-era proximity to the venue at Bethpage Black, generational change — none is more welcome than this: his appointment takes a sledgehammer to the task force buddy culture that has hogtied Team USA for 10 years, during which captains began to sound like concierges and act like the job was to just keep players comfortable.
USA’s Keegan Bradley celebrates after winning their foursomes match on the 15th hole at the Ryder Cup on Friday, Sept. 28, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill.
We can’t say if Bradley will be a good leader since he has no applicable résumé to judge. He hasn’t ever been a vice-captain nor has he voiced a vision, mainly because he wasn’t asked to. The first conversation he had with the PGA of America about the captaincy was when he was called and told it was his — a fact that will be cited as a dereliction by PGA officials if his time in the role goes poorly. Nor can we assume he’ll struggle, but the trait most often cited in his defense — passionate patriotism — isn’t enough. Just ask Lanny Wadkins or Tom Lehman or Curtis Strange or Hal Sutton or Corey Pavin or Davis Love III or Jim Furyk or Zach Johnson.
Captains are ultimately judged on something they can’t entirely control: how their team performs. It’s an unforgiving metric for a man to live by when he doesn’t hit a shot. In Bradley’s case, the crucial unknown is how quickly players will buy in to his leadership. He’s been open about not enjoying close relationships with the core members of the U.S. team, which might explain why those on the ’23 Ryder Cup squad didn’t exactly stampede to social media with their congratulations when the selection was announced. If players embrace his captaincy, and they almost certainly will, then Bradley could be a great choice for the U.S. If they don’t, then he’s a great pick for Europe. And we might not have to wait until September 28, 2025, to find out which is the case.
For too long, the U.S. Ryder Cup team room has functioned as an echo chamber of comforting blather, and not in the manner of locker rooms in real team sports, where whining, undermining conduct, petulance and apathy are mercilessly rooted out by coaches or managers. The Ryder Cup captaincy can’t be crowdsourced for the purposes of making every player feel heard, seen, included and comfortable, but that’s seemed to be the prized objective since the task force went to work. As Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Whatever happens on Long Island 14 months hence, Bradley’s tenure will make the job easier for those who follow him. For that reason alone, he can already be chalked up as a winning skipper.
