Should Keegan Bradley Be A Playing Captain For The American Ryder Cup Team?

Yes.

Keegan Bradley, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for this year’s match at Bethpage, is starting to leave himself no choice—two years after getting brutally cut as the last man left off the team, Bradley is enroute to securing a spot on his own team.

Bradley has said multiple times that he won’t pick himself. The only way he would play would be as an automatic qualifier.

He’s not so sure about that now and rightfully so.

“This changes the story a little bit,” Bradley said after his Travelers Championship win Sunday at TPC River Highlands. “I never would have thought about playing if I hadn’t won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team.”

In my opinion, there is little question whether Bradley deserves to be playing for the Americans in September.

The only question is whether he will.

Stating his case clearly this time

Last weekend, Bradley won the Travelers Championship in dramatic fashion after Tommy Fleetwood made a mess of the last three holes. A two-stroke swing on the final hole left us all in shock.

While Fleetwood was left heartbroken once again (still no PGA Tour victories), Bradley won his home area tournament for the second time in three years.

Back in 2023, Bradley won this event the same year he was passed over for the final Ryder Cup spot. That honor went to Justin Thomas or Sam Burns depending on whom you ask, although I think Thomas was always going to be on the team based on his Ryder Cup prowess. Burns was the more questionable choice.

The Netflix documentary “Full Swing” showed Bradley finding out he wasn’t on the team. It was devastating to watch. Bradley still hadn’t unpacked his suitcase from the last time he was a member of the American Ryder Cup team in 2014.

The U.S. side went to Rome and got slaughtered. Many thought Bradley would have helped.

One of the issues in 2023 was that Bradley, despite his win at the Travelers, was not playing his best golf that year. Other than his victory, he had gone the entire spring and summer without a top 10, save for a decent Tour Championship performance.

While there was some argument he should have made the squad, that argument was tenuous at best.

This year, the 39-year-old Bradley is playing good golf. He is the No. 9 golfer in the world, according to Data Golf. And if you prefer traditional metrics that don’t include LIV players, he is No. 7 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

He was picked on the assumption that he probably wouldn’t qualify as a player—although Bradley being the youngest American captain in more than 60 years left open the possibility.

That assumption he wouldn’t make the team is now being challenged to the max. He has four top-10 finishes in key events this year in addition to winning a signature event against the best players in the world.

That leaves Bradley as the fifth-best American on the board, according to the analytics.

And, aside from Scottie Scheffler, Bradley is the only American to win two times or more on the Tour in the past 12 months.

He might even qualify for the team without having to rely on a captain’s pick. Bradley is No. 9 in the official U.S. Ryder Cup standings. The top six as of Aug. 17 will be automatically on the team (for those wondering, the current top six are Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas).

Bradley is a solid course fit at Bethpage, a place known as a ballstriking gauntlet. He is a good driver of the ball, a great iron player and even better around the greens. The concern is always the putter but Bradley has been fine in that category this season.

There are not 12 American golfers better than Bradley. There might not be six American golfers better than Bradley.

He should be on the team and I don’t think it’s all that close, either.

As I wrote earlier this year, the Americans should be underdogs in this Ryder Cup despite being at home. This team has lost significant depth pieces from the Whistling Straits beatdown of 2021. Guys like Henley and Ben Griffin are likely to make the team. Good players, not studs.

Meanwhile, the Europeans have a solid core of at least eight players. Their depth is also much improved.

The Americans need every contributor possible.

Unless Bradley hits a terrible skid the rest of this summer, he should be playing in New York. He’s someone who can make a difference in the outcome.

Can a playing captain pull off both jobs?

Absolutely.

Now, it would definitely be unorthodox. The last U.S. playing captain was Arnold Palmer in 1963 when Palmer was 34 and in his competitive prime. The Ryder Cup is a completely different event than it was back then. Captains have more responsibilities, whether it’s dealing with the media, selecting the proper matchups or making sure the team is fully prepared.

There is some modern precedent, however. Tiger Woods was a playing captain at the 2019 Presidents Cup. He went 3-0 as a player and the team won.

What is stopping Bradley from handing over some of the captaincy responsibilities to a more experienced assistant? Bradley can be fully engaged with the captaincy leading up to the event, creating a game plan for how the Americans will attack. Then someone with more experience can handle any adjustments. Jim Furyk, a former captain, is on staff.

The vast majority of a captain’s decision-making should come prior to a tee being put in the ground.

You make your picks and you figure out the right pairings. I get there are a lot of ancillary planning items involved but it has been nearly a year since Bradley was named captain. It’s just three months from the match. There’s been a lot of time to prepare.

And, at a certain point, you just have to play good golf.

As it currently stands, Bradley being on the team gives the Americans their best chance to win.

He didn’t think he would be in this position but here we are. A year after being told he was the captain, now he might be a playing captain.

“I got the call at 8 o’clock tonight a year ago today,” Bradley said after his win. “So I’ve been getting these questions for a year. Whether I play well or play poorly, it’s something that I have become used to. To be honest with you, I never really planned on playing. I really wanted to just be the captain. I really felt strongly about that. I want to serve the guys. They asked me to do a job. I want to do it to the best of my abilities.

“Now, with the amazing vice-captains that I have, and I have a better perspective of playing in the Presidents Cup and being around a lot of the guys, I feel a lot more comfortable if I went that route. I’m really proud of the guys that are vice-captains and—you know, obviously, you got Jim Furyk, one of the greatest players to play and also an incredibly great captain at the Presidents Cup.”

It’s become more than an entertaining yet farfetched question.

Right now, Bradley should undoubtedly make his own team.

Top Photo Caption: Keegan Bradley won the Travelers Championship in dramatic fashion. (GETTY IMAGES/Ben Jared)