In the small fraternity that is professional golf, the introduction of Keegan Bradley as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain was that rarest of modern-day oddities: a well-kept secret.
OK, so the news leaked late Monday before the PGA of America could stage its news conference the next morning, but the selection was no less of a stunner. Only last fall, Bradley was the odd man out for an American Ryder Cup team that would be drubbed by the Europeans in Rome in the biennial match. Now, at age 38 and a candidate as the world’s 19th-ranked player to make the team, Bradley suddenly has been handed the reins to the U.S. squad for 2025 at New York’s Bethpage Black.
Even Bradley said that he had no idea that he was a candidate until he got the call from 2023 losing U.S. skipper Zach Johnson and outgoing PGA chief Seth Waugh offering him the job.
The Americans have lost eight of this century’s 11 Ryder Cups. As Ron Green Jr. wrote in reporting the selection for Global Golf Post: The U.S. team didn’t need safe. It needs fresh eyes, new blood and a fire hose of passion. That’s where Bradley checks all the boxes.
Bradley’s surprise mirrored the reaction among his peers last week.
“I was surprised. It’s such a different direction than we’ve gone in the past. … It could be a great change. … You can’t expect to do the same thing and hope for a better outcome.”
RICKIE FOWLER
American Justin Thomas, who has played on the past three Ryder Cup teams, said in an interview with Golf Channel: “I don’t think anybody can doubt or question his passion or his intensity and fire. … The same people aren’t going to be out every year forever…. It definitely is younger, and it’s a totally different vibe and feel to what we’ve seen in a lot of team events in the past.”
Said Jordan Spieth, who has competed on the past five U.S. Ryder Cup squads: “It’s awesome. Just look at the passion he plays with week in and week out, let alone the passion we’ve seen from him in Ryder Cups and big moments. … He cares so much.”
Rickie Fowler, a captain’s pick for the U.S. last year, cited “the lack of success we’ve had in the last 30 years” as a reason to applaud Bradley’s appointment. “I was surprised. It’s such a different direction than we’ve gone in the past. … It could be a great change. … You can’t expect to do the same thing and hope for a better outcome.”
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, an anchor of the past seven European Ryder Cup teams – five of them winners – seemingly spoke for his colleagues when he called the news “a surprise for everyone. It’s certainly a departure from what the U.S. have done over the last few years, and you know, time will tell if that’s a good thing or not.”
Phil Mickelson, who teamed with Bradley to go 3-0 in four-balls and foursomes play in the Americans’ 2012 Ryder Cup loss at Medinah, called the news “a great pick” before last week’s LIV Golf Valderrama event. “His passion for the Ryder Cup is greater than just about any player I’ve ever seen. His love for the Ryder Cup is more than anybody I know. I think he’s going to lead with that type of passion.”
Though Mickelson, at age 54, will not be a candidate for the team, Bradley made known that he won’t automatically rule out LIV players just because they have been banned by the PGA Tour. The PGA of America has taken no such move against the defectors.
Bryson DeChambeau, the recent U.S. Open champion, and Brooks Koepka, whose five major titles include three of the past seven PGAs, would be prime candidates to make the U.S. squad.
“As far as picking the best players,” DeChambeau said, “that’s the right approach and I couldn’t be more happy for him as captain.”
The 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone in Rome, Italy, generated €262 million (about $283.5 million) in economic activity, attracting 271,000 spectators from 100 nations, organizers reported. The money represented an 11-percent increase from the previous staging of the biennial match between the U.S. and Europe on the continent, in 2018 at Le Golf National in France. READ MORE
Alex Slitz, Getty Images
England’s Richard Bland, a late bloomer in professional golf who has won two of the Champions Tour’s major titles this year, will not be able to add to his haul at the upcoming Senior British Open.
Bland, 51, who won the Senior PGA and the U.S. Senior Open this year, is ineligible for the Senior British, which is co-run by the DP World Tour and the R&A, because he is ineligible to compete on the European-based tour. He has not paid fines associated with his defection to LIV Golf, according to a report by Evin Priest in Golf Digest. READ MORE
TAP-INS
South Africa’s Ernie Els, who qualified for his first Open Championship in 1989 as a 19-year-old amateur, will be making his fifth Open appearance at Royal Troon this week. Els, 54, who would go on to win two Claret Jugs among his four major titles, will be the only player in the 156-man field making a fifth Open start at Troon. He missed the cut in his Troon debut 35 years ago, tied for 10th in 1997, lost to Todd Hamilton in a playoff in 2004 and missed the cut in 2016. This will be the 33rd Open start for Els, who won in 2002 at Muirfield and in 2012 at Royal Lytham.
Belgian manufacturer Soudal has extended its title sponsorship of the DP World Tour’s Soudal Open through 2027. READ MORE
The PGA Tour’s ISCO Championship, which was played opposite the Scottish Open, set a record for the lowest recorded 36-hole cut in relation to par since the tour began keeping detailed records in 1970. Sixty-seven players shot 8-under 136 or better at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, to advance to the weekend’s final 36 holes. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon