Keegan Bradley Named Ryder Cup Captain
It’s my favorite two-week stretch of the golf season as we finally get to see the best players tested on links courses. As much as I want to talk about the Renaissance Club and Royal Troon, and I will, I have to start with the bombshell first reported by Bob Harig on Monday and later confirmed by the PGA of America that Keegan Bradley would be captaining the United States Ryder Cup team in 2025 at Bethpage Black.
Before we get into the Keegan pick, it's worth discussing seemingly the only person offered the job before him: Tiger Woods. Despite his up-and-down Ryder Cup career, there is no one more prolific in the game of golf, and Woods will be the first call every cycle until he accepts the captaincy. And I believe that time is sooner rather than later, but with Woods still grinding to stay in golf shape along with his prominent role on the PGA Policy Board, he has plenty on his plate. That combined with the fact that the 2027 Ryder Cup will be played at Adare Manor, where Woods has close ties with the owner J.P. McManus, and he would have the chance to give the U.S. their first win on European soil in 34 years, the 2027 role is likely more appealing.
With Woods out, it was assumed the PGA of America would go with Matt Kuchar or Stewart Cink, both of whom boast a plethora of Ryder Cup experience. Instead, they went with Keegan Bradley, a pick that shocked the golf world, and Bradley himself, who noted that he had not had any previous contact with the PGA of America before getting the call from Zach Johnson asking if he wanted to head the team.
Bradley was controversially left off the 2023 team, a move that was spotlighted in the Netflix documentary Full Swing. There will be many debates about 2023, but two facts have become indisputable. First, very few individuals care about the Ryder Cup as much as Bradley, and secondly, Johnson’s captaincy has set a low bar for Bradley to clear. It’s a fantastic situation for Bradley to find himself in as he’s going to be captaining the favorites in the wake of a historically unsuccessful captain.
This move has garnered dramatic discourse; some were outraged the captaincy would go to someone this inexperienced, and others believe this is the best decision the PGA of America could have made. My initial reaction was more towards the former, but I’ve settled that I don’t think it matters. Bradley has pros and cons like any captain; what he lacks in experience he makes up with passion. I don’t think he will decide the 2025 Ryder Cup just like I don’t think Cink or Kuchar would have had a significant impact. Maybe this take is a cop-out, but I believe as long as a captain utilizes the data, his assistant captains, and can assess the room effectively (something ZJ did not do), the Ryder Cup is decided by the golfers, luck, and home-course.
The truth is, that the United States has a much weaker foundation compared to the European team. Bradley is going to need to create a culture if the U.S. wants to win, he will need to get players to leave their egos at the door, and buy into this event. Across the pond, no matter who the captain is for Europe, with all the history of Seve and the stability past captains and stars have placed, being the European captain is less complex.
Keegan Bradley’s legacy will likely be defined by the result of the 2025 Ryder Cup. A victory, and he’s a Ryder Cup legend with the chance to become a United States legend in a second stint, a loss, and he’ll be remembered as a one-time major winner.
