Keegan receives ultimate make-up call
Snubbed as player in 2023, Bradley accepts reins as U.S. Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage
There is no questioning Keegan Bradley’s passion for the Ryder Cup (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Well, well. What a turn of events for Keegan Bradley. In what comes as a pretty big surprise, Keegan Bradley will be officially introduced today in New York City as the captain who will lead the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2025 at Bethpage Black.
Nearly a year after being snubbed by U.S. captain Zach Johnson to be an at-large pick for the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team, Bradley was revealed on Monday as the successor to Johnson when the biennial competition goes to Long Island next year. Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig was the first and only one to report the surprising choice early Monday before the PGA of America later confirmed Bradley as the choice and sent out the news.
Tiger Woods — for months the leading and seemingly only choice for the job — turned down the position in recent weeks, forcing the PGA of America to go in an unprecedented new direction with a 39-year-old captain who has played in just two Ryder Cups and will be the youngest to lead the squad since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
Bradley, a six-time PGA Tour winner, had made it his mission to make the team last year, especially after winning the enhanced Travelers Championship last June. But with just six automatic qualifying spots he fell short, finishing 11th in the standings and in need of a captain’s pick from Johnson.
“I kept telling myself, listen, this is not going to be easy,’’ Bradley said in an interview earlier this year with Sports Illustrated. “You’re not going to be picked if you’re a fringe pick. You have to go prove that they have to pick you. When I didn’t make the team on points, I knew that was a big risk. I knew that if it was down to me or some of those guys, I probably wouldn’t get picked. I knew that going in and I just kept trying to play as hard as I could.”
Much has been made of Johnson’s picks of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, but often overlooked is the choice of Sam Burns — a good friend of Scottie Scheffler.
Bradley was bypassed and when all of those chosen players performed poorly, the inevitable second-guessing began in the aftermath of a decisive 16½-11½ European triumph at Marco Simone outside of Rome, Italy.
“You’re not going to be picked if you’re a fringe pick. You have to go prove that they have to pick you. When I didn’t make the team on points, I knew that was a big risk. I knew that if it was down to me or some of those guys, I probably wouldn’t get picked. I knew that going in and I just kept trying to play as hard as I could.” — Keegan Bradley
The pain of being left off the team was even more apparent earlier this year when Netflix released the second season of its documentary “Full Swing’’ in which Bradley was filmed at his home getting the call from Zach Johnson saying he was not being chosen.
When Netflix showed video of Johnson sharing a house with Spieth and Thomas at the Open Championship at Hoylake just weeks after Bradley had won in Connecticut, it only heightened the criticism, leading to charge of a Ryder Cup “boys club’’ that overrode picking the best players.