LET KEEGAN BRADLEY PREVAIL AS A U.S. CAPTAIN AND NOT LOSE AS A DOUBLE-DIPPER
It’s hazardous to lead the Ryder Cup team and play in the competition, but as Rory McIlroy realized, any attempt to make some history could have failed — Scottie Scheffler should be enough, right?
The background was in red. No one was standing at a microphone. It wasn’t necessary for the PGA of America to post an empty press-conference blurb on social media, but hey, this declaration was more important than any marriage. “Thank you, Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce for getting your little news pushed through today,” the text stated. “The BIG news is coming tomorrow.”
The BIG news Wednesday: Keegan Bradley, one of those athletes whose names could be reversed, will not double-dip as a captain and a player at the Ryder Cup. He is the eighth-best American in the world rankings and deserved a spot on the team. Wisely, he said no, realizing it is far more important for Team USA to win the trophy — after losing five times in the last seven competitions — and not worry about decision-making exercises. With him or not next month, as a boisterous New York crowd bombards the Europeans at Bethpage Black, the group will need wondrous birdies to survive Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose, Tyrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland and the rest.
He is better off sending Scottie Scheffler and his teammates at a time when the Euros think they own the sport. Sam Burns and Cameron Young are on the list, as are J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley, Patrick Cantlay, Harris English and Ben Griffin. The fans will taunt McIlroy because he’s McIlroy, but also because he was the first to reject interest as a playing captain.
“The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon has come up, and I've shot it down straightaway,” McIlroy said. “You think about the extra media that a captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains, with the PGA of America. There's a lot of things that people don't see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big. If you'd have said it 20 years ago, I'd say, ‘Yeah, it was possible to do.’ But how big of a spectacle and everything that's on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I just think it would be a very difficult position to be in.”
Bradley agreed. But not because McIlroy preceded him. Already, he was firing back after McIlroy was restrained from punching the U.S. caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, in a parking lot near Rome in 2023. Golfers are not well-behaved gentlemen at a Ryder Cup. They could play the event in an Octagon. Think President Trump would love that?
“I just am not worried at all about what they do or say,” Bradley said. "I care about our team. Not quite sure how he would know if it's not possible. No one's ever done it, really.”
Actually, Arnold Palmer played dual roles in 1963. Bradley is not Palmer on the course. “The last 48 hours, we had the team set. We weren't scrambling at all,” he said from PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas. “This was a really tough decision. I will say, there was one point where I was playing, but all these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto this team, and that's something that I'm really proud of, and something that I really wanted. I’m glad it’s over.”
He ached to play two years ago but was left off the team by captain Zach Johnson. The Euros won 16 1/2 to 11 1/2. “I grew up wanting to play Ryder Cups," Bradley said. “I grew up wanting to fight alongside these guys, and it broke my heart not to play. You work forever to make these teams, but ultimately, I was chosen to do a job this year. I was chosen to be the captain of this team, and my ultimate goal to start this whole thing was to be the best captain that I could be, and this is how I felt like I could do this.”
Feel free to console Trump. He might have sent home National Guard troops if Bradley played. “That was really surreal. I’ve been really blown away with the support. Any time you get the support of the President of the United States, it’s surreal and stunning,” he said. “I really appreciate it, Mr. President. I hope you’re not disappointed. I look forward to seeing him at the Ryder Cup.”
Soon enough, Tiger Woods will be the captain. For now, Bradley must maximize All Things Scheffler on the last weekend of September. Will the world’s best player be enough against Raging Rory? “It’s going to be controversial. There is no right decision here,” the captain said. “The right decision is if we win on Sunday, and that’s all I care about.”
Travis will watch some of it. Taylor? The English teacher might pass.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.