Has the PGA of America made a big mistake in appointing Keegan Bradley as Ryder Cup captain now he’s almost certain to play? The Golf Monthly team share their views
A genius move or a massive mistake? Has the PGA of America’s decision to pick Keegan Bradley as the USA Ryder Cup captain backfired dramatically or was it a masterstroke?
As it looks almost certain now that Bradley will become the first playing captain at the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer led Team USA with clubs in hand back in 1963.
Bradley is at a career-best seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking after playing some of his very best stuff this year, and ninth in the race for an automatic Ryder Cup spot.
Having previously said he’d only play if he qualified outright, his superb victory at the Travelers Championship “changes the story a little bit” according to the man himself, who added his win “opens the door to play”.
And what Bradley’s form has done is open a can of worms over his captaincy. With question marks over whether he can do both roles in this modern day age of huge media commitments.
He says the PGA of America wanted him to make the team, that a plan is in place for his vice-captains to shoulder more of the burden, but should that burden just be taken from him officially?
Has it all been a big mistake or will Bradley prove to be a great American golfing hero? Our team share their thoughts…
It was a hugely surprising, and questionable, appointment at the time and a year later the decision looks just as bizarre. I would go as far as saying that it should be reversed and the captaincy should now be given to 2024 winning Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk, who is one of Bradley’s five assistants.
Bradley is World No.7, playing some of the best golf of his career and currently ranks as the 8th-highest American player in Data Golf’s rankings – ahead of Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, JJ Spaun, Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Robert MacIntyre and Shane Lowry.
If he wasn’t captain he would pretty much be a lock for the team now, especially after his strong Presidents Cup showing in Montreal. If he remains in this form and doesn’t pick himself the team will be weaker without him, and if he picks himself and remains as captain the team could also suffer with him juggling both roles.
I think he needs to focus on being a player only and allow Furyk to take over the reins. Of course Bradley could remain as just the captain or be a player-captain and the USA could still win comfortably on home soil. All this questioning could be looked back upon and ridiculed, which is certainly a possibility, but that is my current view of this unique situation.
The USA love to overthink things when it comes to the Ryder Cup and the PGA of America has struck again with its decision to appoint Keegan Bradley as the captain for the showdown at Bethpage Black.
It reminds me of when they formed a task force to look into why they kept losing to Europe, even though the answer seemed fairly obvious to everyone else: a lack of team spirit and camaraderie (in addition to a unprecedented victory at Medinah and away victories being few and far between in the Ryder Cup these days).
I’m really not sure what the PGA of America was hoping to achieve with the appointment – I understand the logic of having a current player who’s competing in the big events and close to prospective team members, but this scenario was always in the possible range of outcomes.
Now what happens? If Bradley makes the team, what does he do? If he pulls out, it’s a new captain with a new method and presumably new vice-captains. If he doesn’t pick himself when he should (he’s 7th in the world), the whole thing becomes a bit of a farce.
And if he does play and captain and the US lose, can you imagine the backlash? They’ve needlessly put themselves in a difficult position.
I don’t think you can say they’ve made a mistake at this point because the Ryder Cup hasn’t started yet. It might well prove to be a mistake if Team Europe absolutely hammers the home side and there appears to be a serious lack of efficient communication between the management team, but – for now – it’s just a case of the appointment making things a bit more awkward than it needed to be.
I completely understand what the PGA of America was trying to do, appointing a younger captain with different ideas to move away from ‘the old guard’, so to speak, but it does feel as though they have gone a little too far the other way.
At the same time, they knew this was a possibility and actively wanted it to happen – per Bradley himself – so they will have had time to plan should Bradley make the roster. Right now, it feels like a really strange decision. Only time will tell whether it can be labelled ‘a mistake.’
Keegan Bradley says thge PGA of America hoped, and half expected, him to make the team as a player and although some scoff I lean towards believing him.
If they weren’t full-on planning to have a playing captain they surely must have known it was a distinct possibility when they appointed a player who’d just turned 38 and was 19th in the world rankings.
At first I thought they were taking a flier with Bradley believing he was on the way out – could he lead a new breed of recent players to go into vice-captain and captaincy roles, but his form just simply didn’t suggest that he was coming to the end of his best.
He’d lost a playoff at the Sony Open and finished T22, T18 and T32 in the Majors before being selected as captain – and after missing out on Rome in 2023 was famously hell bent on making the team.
So I don’t think the plan has backfired, because I think this may have been at least part of the plan in the first place – and the PGA of America believe a player-captain can work.
And do you know what, I think it just might! Not that I think it’s favorable, but winning an away Ryder Cup is now an almost impossible task, the home advantage at Bethpage will be huge and I think Bradley the player will be excellent.
The verdict from me – I don’t think it’s a great move, but I think they might just get away with it.