Keegan Bradley has gone from snub to skipper.
Controversially left off the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup staff, Bradley will take cost because the captain for subsequent yr’s matches at Bethpage Black.
It’s a shocking transfer Monday by the PGA of America, which for months had been courting its first and seemingly solely alternative, Tiger Woods. However the 48-year-old apparently turned down the gig after expressing doubt publicly that he might deal with all the tasks of the captaincy in addition to his ongoing duties as a participant director for the PGA Tour coverage board.
In that void emerged Bradley, the staff’s passionate spark plug from a decade in the past who will go down as one of the outside-the-box captain’s selections within the historical past of the occasion.
At 39 subsequent fall, Bradley would be the youngest American chief since Arnold Palmer (then 34) in 1963.
Bradley is at present ranked 19th on this planet and as a lot of part of the PGA Tour panorama as ever, ranked 37th within the FedExCup this season whereas competing in all the circuit’s signature occasions. He gained twice final season, together with on the Vacationers Championship – a victory, he thought, that gave him a practical shot at taking part in his first Ryder Cup since 2014.
Determined to make the staff, Bradley stalled out the remainder of the yr and completed 11th within the factors standings. Captain Zach Johnson handed over Bradley for a wildcard decide for the likes of Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth, with Bradley’s brutal heartbreak captured throughout filming for Netflix’s “Full Swing” documentary.
Criticism of Johnson’s selections solely intensified after the People misplaced once more in Rome, their five-point defeat persevering with their run of futility overseas that now extends greater than three many years.
Bradley was tabbed because the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, a wild-card decide by the PGA that would show to be genius.
The appointment of Bradley maybe indicators a change in path for Staff USA, which has principally reheated past-their-prime former assistants that solely perpetuated the mentality that it’s an previous boys’ membership. Bradley has performed on simply two Ryder Cups and one Presidents Cup and by no means served as an assistant behind the scenes.
Famously, Bradley by no means unpacked his baggage from the staff’s Ryder Cup collapse at Medinah in 2012 and vowed to not till he was a part of a profitable squad. Throughout Sunday singles that yr, Bradley misplaced to a late-arriving Rory McIlroy within the leadoff match.
That is my suitcase from 2012 Ryder Cup that I haven’t opened since that Sunday. I promised myself I wouldn’t open it until I gained a Ryder Cup.
That week modified my potential on golf perpetually. The Ryder Cup all of the sudden grew to become crucial to me. pic.twitter.com/RFN6mqeiWH— Keegan Bradley (@Keegan_Bradley) August 30, 2023
“I simply hope, some day, I get to win a Ryder Cup and open that factor and simply have a peace-of-mind second,” he mentioned throughout his Netflix episode, “as a result of I’m fascinated about the Ryder Cup each second of day by day.”
Having grown up in Woodstock, Vermont, and attended St. John’s, Bradley has some regional ties to first-time Ryder Cup host Bethpage Black, which is positioned in shut proximity to New York Metropolis and guarantees to be a rollicking venue because the People look to proceed their run of dominance on dwelling soil. For the reason that Miracle (or Meltdown?) at Medinah, the People have outscored the Europeans, 36-20, at dwelling.
“My ardour and appreciation for golf’s biggest staff occasion have by no means been stronger,” Bradley mentioned in a press release. “The Ryder Cup is in contrast to every other competitors in our sport, and this version will undoubtedly be significantly particular given the wealthy historical past and enthusiastic spectators at this iconic course.”
Bradley’s appointment caps what has already been an uncommon Ryder Cup interim, with the PGA usually asserting its subsequent captain in early spring of the prior yr. The Europeans introduced late final yr that it was bringing again Luke Donald after his profitable time period in Italy.
Bradley, who isn’t taking part in this week’s Scottish Open, and PGA president John Lindert will communicate with the media at midday ET Tuesday in New York. Golf Channel can have reside protection.
