The Team USA Captain Facing a Huge Ryder Cup Problem: Himself
Keegan Bradley was a surprising choice to lead the American team. Now he’s playing so well that he has to consider himself for a spot on the team.
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Andrew Beaton / WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 24, 2025 at 7:00 am ET
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(5 min)
Keegan Bradley reacts after his birdie putt on No. 18 clinched a stunning victory at the Travelers Championship. PHOTO: BILL STREICHER/REUTERS
Key Points
Keegan Bradley, U.S. Ryder Cup captain, won the Travelers Championship, complicating team selection.
Bradley, initially a surprising captain pick due to his age, may now need to consider himself for the team.
Ranked among the world’s best, Bradley’s recent form makes him a strong contender for the Ryder Cup roster.
Keegan Bradley had just driven home from the Travelers Championship last summer and put his children to bed when he plopped down in his chair and began looking forward to a few weeks off.
That’s when his phone started buzzing with a call that left him completely stunned: Bradley had been tapped as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, making him the youngest American to assume the role in over half a century.
Ever since, Bradley has spent the last 12 months obsessing over how to assemble a team of Americans to wrest the cup back from Europe at Bethpage Black in September. Along the way, he has been serenaded as “Captain America” by fans wherever he goes.
But at the Travelers Championship this past weekend, he had to start confronting an uncomfortable reality: One of the players he should pick is named Keegan Bradley.
Keegan Bradley was a surprise choice when he was named Ryder Cup captain for the 2025 event at Bethpage Black. PHOTO: ANTHONY BEHAR/ZUMA PRESS
When Bradley, 39 years old, won the Travelers with a birdie on the final hole on Sunday, it warped the calculus for an American roster that is riddled with question marks. Bradley had previously said he wouldn’t pick himself, but even he acknowledged afterward that it’s something he now has to consider.
“I never would have thought about playing if I hadn’t won,” he said. “This definitely opens the door.”
Bradley, the winner of the 2011 PGA Championship, was a surprising choice as captain from the outset. After playing on the team in 2012 and 2014, he nearly made it again in 2023, only for Zach Johnson to leave him off the roster in favor of players who had accrued fewer points.
But what made Bradley’s selection so strange wasn’t how long he had been absent from the team. It was his age.
Arnold Palmer, pictured at the 1965 Ryder Cup at Royal Birkdale, was the last American to act as player captain. PHOTO: PA/ZUMA PRESS
Ryder Cup captains are typically so far past their primes that they never factor into team selection as players. Bradley’s appointment made him the youngest American in the job since 1963, when a then 34-year-old Arnold Palmer captained the U.S. team.
Now Bradley has to decide if he wants to follow in Palmer’s footsteps in another way—that year, he was also the last player captain.
What makes the situation particularly thorny is the process for picking the roster. Six players qualify automatically based on points they rack up at tournaments throughout the year. Which means the likes of Scottie Scheffler have already secured a spot on the team.
But the final six slots are left up to the captain’s discretion—and that’s exactly where Bradley finds himself now.
With his win at the Travelers, a Connecticut tournament where the New England-native is always a local favorite, Bradley vaulted into ninth place in the points standings. That means while it’s possible he could push his way into the top six—and force his way onto the roster—it’s more likely that he would have to call his own name.
“I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not,” he said, “but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team.”
At this point, Bradley not picking himself wouldn’t merely be potentially damaging to the team, but a dereliction of his duties as captain. That’s because, by just about any metric, he’s a no-brainer to make the roster. The Official World Golf Ranking pegs him as the game’s No. 7 player, while the analytics website Data Golf places him at No. 9, the fifth highest position of any American.
He’s also finding his form at just the right moment. Sunday’s win means Bradley has now placed in the top-10 in three of his last four events. This is the highest he’s ever reached in the world rankings.
That makes Bradley nothing like the elder statesmen who typically occupy the captain’s chair. Luke Donald, his counterpart, is 47 years old and long removed from his heyday. Johnson, Bradley’s predecessor, was ranked lower than 200th in the world when he was in charge.
That’s an epiphany Bradley had at the PGA Championship last month, when fans kept chanting “U-S-A, U-S-A” whenever he was in their vicinity.
“I don’t think any player in the history of the game has experienced what I’m experiencing in that I’m a Ryder Cup captain, [and] in my eyes still one of the best players in the world trying to win majors and tournaments,” he said.
Bradley says he has tried to feed off that energy, including on the final hole on Sunday when the crowd feted him like a superhero. And he knows there’s one place that is certain to be even louder a few months from now:
Bethpage Black for the Ryder Cup.
