Keegan Bradley may have answered his own question regarding his role on the American Ryder Cup team in September.
Bradley’s flip-the-script victory on the final hole of the Travelers Championship Sunday at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut not only crushed faltering Tommy Fleetwood’s hope of winning his first PGA Tour event, it raised the very real possibility that the U.S. Ryder Cup captain may be writing his own name in the lineup at Bethpage Black in September.
Since being named Ryder Cup captain a year ago, Bradley has downplayed the notion of being the first American playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1962. But with his dramatic victory, a solid 2025 season in progress and plenty of uncertainty about who the 12 U.S. players will be, Bradley is now more likely to have dual duties at Bethpage.
“I’m going to do whatever I think is best for the team. Whether that’s me on the team – this certainly changes a lot of things. I was never going to play on the team unless I had won a tournament and so that’s changed, but we’ll see.”
Keegan Bradley, U.S. Ryder Cup captain
Bradley was expected to move inside the top 10 on the U.S. Ryder Cup points list, with the top six players after the BMW Championship in mid-August becoming automatic qualifiers.
“My whole life every year I was out here I wanted to play on the Ryder Cup team, and then this would be the first year where maybe I didn’t want to,” Bradley said. “I just wanted to be the captain and, of course, you know, this is what happens. But we’ll see.
A bogey at the par-4 14th hole dropped Bradley two shots behind Fleetwood but birdies at the 15th and 18th holes made the difference as he finished at 15-under-par 265 in the final signature event of the year.
It was a bitter near-miss for Fleetwood, who now has 42 top-10 finishes without a PGA Tour victory, easily the most since 1983.
The Englishman started the final round with a three-stroke lead but bogeys on three of his first four holes allowed Bradley, Russell Henley and Jason Day, among others, to turn the Travelers into what felt like a free-for-all on the closing nine holes.
Fleetwood seemed in control with a two-stroke lead and three holes remaining but his game unraveled. He bogeyed the par-3 16th hole, made a 5-foot par putt to maintain a one-stroke lead at the 17th and then three-putted the 18th hole from the front fringe, clearing the path for Bradley, a native New Englander, to win a tournament he covets as his “fifth major” for the second time in three years.
Facing a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole, Fleetwood missed to the right while Bradley, on the same line, wasted little time hammering the winning putt into the hole to leave Fleetwood still winless on the PGA Tour.
“Of all the shots and all the putts I’ve hit, I think I will remember this one the most,” Bradley said.
Fleetwood, meanwhile, was left with a familiar feeling.
“Obviously there’s a lot of chat about it. I would have loved to have done it today. Search goes on, I guess,” Fleetwood said. “When it happens it will be very, very sweet. I don’t know, really … I know I keep saying it but I haven’t really been in a position where I’ve really been in contention to really worry about when my win might come. Today was one of those days, led for 71 holes and it didn’t happen.
“But, you know, like in my mind, yeah, I’ve won loads of PGA Tour events. I just haven’t done it in reality and I’m sure that time will come if I keep working.”
Ron Green Jr.