Will Keegan be captain, player or both?

Late flip to win Travelers complicates Bradley's Ryder Cup plans; Fang wins British Am

Keegan Bradley thrusts himself into Ryder Cup playing consideration with Travelers win (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)

The Ryder Cup is still three months away but already U.S. captain Keegan Bradley has a huge decision looming.

Whether to pick himself to play for his American team.

Bradley, 39, won the Travelers Championship on Sunday in shocking and dramatic fashion, birdieing the final hole while England’s Tommy Fleetwood bogeyed it to turn a one-shot deficit into a one-shot victory in the final signature event of the 2025 PGA Tour season.

The stunning 72nd-hole reversal came nearly a year to the day after Bradley was surprisingly offered the job as U.S. captain. Later in 2024, Bradley won the BMW Championship and put himself into the Ryder Cup playing conversation, one that he’s consistently tried to downplay.

But he’s now moved to a career-best No. 7 in the Official World Golf Ranking and he’s now ninth in the Ryder Cup points standings. The top six players through the BMW Championship automatically make the team and then Bradley has six captain’s selections to make. That’s all still nearly two months away.

“This changes the story a little bit,” Bradley said after his win at TPC River Highlands — his second Travelers win in what the native New Englander calls his “fifth major.”

“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.”

Bradley had repeatedly said that he would not pick himself if he did not make the team on points. And the idea has mostly been scoffed at in modern times, largely because captain’s are usually closer to senior tour status than peak form. The last U.S. playing captain was Arnold Palmer in 1963 when Palmer was 34 and in his competitive prime.

The Ryder Cup has changed considerably since then.

Few captains have actually been among the top players at the time of their captaincy. Tom Kite was an outside possibility in 1997 as was Tom Lehman in 2006. Tiger Woods was the captain of a winning U.S. Presidents Cup team in 2019, going 3-0 as a player.

But it’s difficult to ignore Bradley’s current form, body of work as a player, passion for the event and the fact that he performed well for the U.S. team last year at the Presidents Cup. Aside from Scottie Scheffler, no other U.S. player has won more than the two times on the PGA Tour that Bradley has in the past year.

He’s also got Jim Furyk as an assistant. Furyk has considerable experience in the arena as a player, captain and assistant. He captained the U.S. team to victory at the 2024 Presidents Cup in Canada and was the losing Ryder Cup captain in 2018 in France. He’s also served numerous times as an assistant and played in nine Ryder Cups.

Bradley could certainly lean on Furyk to do some of the heavy lifting during the actual competition while he remains the face of the team leading up to the matches.

Bradley birdied two of the last four holes on Sunday to shoot 68 and clip the hard-lucky Fleetwood, who despite a solid worldwide record and his own Ryder Cup success for Europe has never won on the PGA Tour despite 42 top-10 finishes.

Fleetwood bogeyed two of the last three holes to open the door including three-putting the last from the front fringe and missing a par putt 6 inches longer than Bradley’s on nearly the exact same line.

“Right now I would love to, you know, just go and sulk somewhere and maybe I will do, but there’s just no point making it a negative for the future really, just take the positives and move on,” Fleetwood said.

Bradley has four other top-10 finishes this year at the PGA Championship, Memorial, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Sony Open.

He also has the bitter memory of being left off the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team by captain Zach Johnson despite ranking 11th in points. All of it was captured on the Netflix “Full Swing” documentary about the season. When the U.S. lost in a rout in Rome, that decision to exclude Bradley was among many that was second-guessed.

Bradley, who was 2-1 at the Presidents Cup last year, has not played in a Ryder Cup since 2014 at Gleneagles when he went 1-2 in the American loss to Europe. He was 3-1 in a devastating loss at Medinah in 2012, losing only in singles to Rory McIlroy. He went 3-0 with Phil Mickelson that year and was 1-1 with him as a partner two years later.

Bradley has famously not opened his Ryder Cup bag from 2012, saying he wouldn’t do so until he was on a winning team.

“I got the call at 8 o'clock tonight a year ago today,” Bradley said. “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.”

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Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang earns invites to Open, Masters and U.S. Open (Oisin Keniry/R&A via Getty Images)

American Fang wins British Amateur

SANDWICH, ENGLAND (R&A) — American Ethan Fang birdied the 36th hole at Royal St. George’s to win the 130th Amateur Championship 1-up in a tense final against Ireland’s Gavin Tiernan.

Fang, No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and a member of the reigning NCAA championship team Oklahoma State, defeated East Tennessee State’s No. 1,340 Tiernan by one-hole to become the 23rd U.S. champion but first since Drew Weaver in 2007.

“Still doesn’t feel real yet, but I’m sure it’ll kick in and I’ll celebrate with my team,” said Fang.

The 20-year-old Oklahoma State Cowboy secured his spots in next month’s 153rd Open at Royal Portrush and well as invitations to the 2026 Masters and U.S. Open. In addition to the three major championships, he has earned an exemption into the Betfred British Masters hosted by Nick Faldo on the DP World Tour.

Fang and Tiernan — the last two players standing from the 288-player field representing 45 countries — were locked in a shot-for-shot duel over the first 18-holes. Tiernan never trailed in the morning 18 and led 1-up at the break.

After lunch, Fang proved more consistent and took his first lead at the 23rd hole. They headed to the closing nine holes all square.

With the finalists never separated by more than a hole, Fang finally moved two holes clear after the 33rd following a birdie and a par. But Tiernan rolled in two lengthy birdie putts on the 34th and 35th holes to draw level with one to play.

Fang, however, hit two exceptional shots to set-up a five-foot birdie putt for the title. After Tiernan’s birdie attempt shaved the edge, Fang calmly rolled in the winning putt.

“I was hitting it well all day, and I knew if I just stayed in it, some putts would drop, kind of have him work for it, and it ended up working out,” Fang said. “I heard going into the week that an American hasn’t won this championship in 10-plus years. Representing your flag, that’s what it’s all about, and I’m glad we did it for USA.

“The Masters, the Open — I’m just glad it’s all done now, and I can just take a second to think about everything I did this week and just kind of enjoy it. It’s probably the most consistent golf I’ve played in my life. It’s a super long championship, it and just feels really good to finally get it done.”

The 131st Amateur Championship will be played at Royal Liverpool in 2026.

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2026 Masters Field

Through 2025 Travelers Championship

Here’s how the 49 players currently qualified to play in the 2026 Masters got into the field

# first-timers (3); * amateurs (2); Americans (25); Internationals (24); Seniors (7)

CATEGORY 1 (20 players)

Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)

Angel Cabrera (1) – Argentina

Fred Couples (1)

Sergio Garcia (1) – Spain

Dustin Johnson (1)

Zach Johnson (1, 13)

Hideki Matsuyama (1, 17, 18, 19) – Japan

Rory McIlroy (1, 5) – Northern Ireland

Phil Mickelson (1, 4)

Jose Maria Olazabal (1) – Spain

Jon Rahm (1, 2) – Spain

Patrick Reed (1, 13)

Scottie Scheffler (1, 4, 5, 13)

Charl Schwartzel (1) – South Africa

Adam Scott (1) – Australia

Vijay Singh (1) – Fiji

Jordan Spieth (1)

Bubba Watson (1)

Mike Weir (1) – Canada

Danny Willett (1) – England

Tiger Woods (1)

CATEGORY 2 (4 players)

U.S. Open champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)

Wyndham Clark (2) – through 2028

Bryson DeChambeau (2, 13) – through 2029

Matthew Fitzpatrick (2) – England – through 2027

J.J. Spaun (2) – through 2030

CATEGORY 3 (4 players)

British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)

Brian Harman (3) – through 2028

Collin Morikawa (3, 4) – through 2026

Xander Schauffele (3, 4, 13) – through 2029

Cameron Smith (3) – Australia – through 2027

CATEGORY 4 (2 players)

PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)

Brooks Koepka (4) – through 2028

Justin Thomas (4) – through 2027

CATEGORY 5 (0 players)

The Players Championship Winners (3 years)

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CATEGORY 6 (0 players)

Current Olympic Gold Medalist (for 2029)

TBD 2028 at Riviera Country Club

CATEGORY 7 A&B (2 players)

Current U.S. Amateur champion (A, Honorary, non-competing after 1 year) and runner-up (B)

TBD August 11-17 at Olympic Club

CATEGORY 8 (1 player)

Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year)

#Ethan Fang* (8)

CATEGORY 9 (1 player)

Current Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion

TBD Oct. 23-26 at Emirates (Dubai) Golf Club

CATEGORY 10 (1 player)

Current Latin America Amateur Champion

TBD Jan. 15-18, 2026 at Lima (Peru) Golf Club

CATEGORY 11 (1 player)

Current U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion

TBD Sept. 13-18 at Troon North Golf Club

CATEGORY 12 (1 player)

Current NCAA Individual Champion

#Michael La Sasso* (12)

CATEGORY 13 (7 players)

First 12 players (including ties) in previous year’s Masters

Ludvig Åberg (13) – Sweden

Corey Conners (13) – Canada

Jason Day (13) – Australia

Harris English (13, 16)

Max Homa (13)

Sungjae Im (13) – South Korea

Justin Rose (13) – England

CATEGORY 14 (5 players)

First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s U.S. Open

Tyrrell Hatton (14) -- England

Viktor Hovland (14) -- Norway

Robert MacIntyre (14) – Scotland

Carlos Ortiz (14) – Mexico

Cameron Young (14)

CATEGORY 15 (TBD)

First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s British Open

TBD July 17-20 at Royal Portrush (Ireland)

CATEGORY 16 (1 player)

First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s PGA Championship

Davis Riley (16)

CATEGORY 17 (4 players)

Winners of non-opposite PGA Tour events from previous Masters to current Masters

Keegan Bradley (17)

Ryan Fox (17) – New Zealand

#Ben Griffin (17)

Sepp Straka (17) – Austria

CATEGORY 18 (TBD)

Eligible qualifiers for previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship

TBD Aug. 14-17 at Caves Valley Golf Club

CATEGORY 19 (TBD)

Top 50 on final Official World Golf Ranking for previous calendar year

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CATEGORY 20 (TBD)

Top 50 on Official World Golf Ranking published week prior to current Masters

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SPECIAL EXEMPTION (TBD)

The Masters Committee, at its discretion, also invites international players otherwise not qualified

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