How Keegan Bradley’s caddie discovered about Ryder Cup captaincy

It’s been a whirlwind 12 months for Keegan Bradley. Final August, Bradley missed out on being a captain’s choose for the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup group in devastating vogue. Ten months later, Bradley was named captain of the U.S. group for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black — a surprising shock. A couple of weeks after that, Jim Furyk named Bradley an assistant captain for the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in Canada. A couple of weeks after that, Bradley received the BMW Championship, his seventh profession PGA Tour title, then joined the Presidents Cup group as a captain’s choose. Bradley went on to publish a 2-1-0 file within the Individuals’ victory over the Internationals, 18.5-11.5.

Whew. That’s lots of motion, and there was one man by Bradley’s facet by way of all of it: his caddie, Scott Vail.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Vail advised hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz plenty of anecdotes about his life and profession on Tour, however his story about what it was like to search out out his boss was simply tapped to be the subsequent U.S. Ryder Cup captain was particularly compelling.

“The Monday morning [after the Travelers Championship], I obtained up at 7 a.m. and I had a textual content already from him saying — , we textual content forwards and backwards loads, however we’ve been on the street for like 4 weeks,” Vail started. “It was bizarre to have it, , right away the subsequent morning. The textual content mentioned, ‘Name me, I want to talk to you.’ And I’m like, oh, what did I do? What did I do final week that’s getting me fired immediately?

“So I choose up the telephone instantly. Name him. I’m like, hey, is every thing alright? And he’s like, you’re not gonna consider this. And he tells me that they need him because the Ryder Cup captain.

“And I used to be like, oh my gosh. Like, I used to be shocked at first, after which I used to be like, emotional. I used to be virtually crying as a result of I understand how a lot it means to him, how a lot not being on the group final 12 months meant to him. It was identical to this whirlwind of feelings and I’m sitting there sort of like, I’m fairly positive I used to be crying a bit of bit.”

Vail has had a front-row seat to Bradley’s anguish and overcome the previous 12 months, and he mentioned he was thrilled for Bradley to have the chance to captain the group.

“I understand how exhausting he works and I look after him as a boss, as a good friend,” he mentioned. “And yeah, he let me know, and I used to be like, effectively, are you gonna do it? You gotta do it, proper? Captain America! Bethpage, you went to high school there.”

The toughest half, Vail mentioned, was maintaining the key till a proper announcement was made.

“I needed to hold my mouth shut for, I believe 10 to 14 days,” Vail mentioned. “He’s like, don’t inform anyone. And I’m like, I didn’t inform a soul. And that was exhausting to do. However yeah, it’s gonna be superb.”

For extra from Vail, together with what it was like when Bradley didn’t get excellent news concerning the Ryder Cup in 2023, try the total episode under.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will be able to out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily chargeable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, equivalent to GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.