Keegan Bradley convinced he made right Ryder Cup choice, yearns to play

Keegan Bradley said he is convinced he made the right Ryder Cup choice, even as he admitted he yearns to compete for the United States. The U.S. team gathered at Bethpage Black on Monday for its first practice round of the week, and Bradley spoke with a mix of pride and longing as the course soaked in morning light. "I’ve thought about it every second," he said at the news conference, describing how difficult it would be to balance captain duties with competing. "But I’ve also thought about how impossible it would be. … I was picked to do this job as captain, and there’s been certain things that I’ve done during the week or lead-up that if I was playing, I don’t think I could have done at the level that I needed to do them at."

"I catch myself every now and then looking down the fairway, seeing the guys walk down the fairway, and think how badly I’d like to do that, and how badly I’d want to be in the group with Scottie Scheffler and seeing him play and being his teammate, but I feel like I’ve been called for a bigger cause here, to help our guys get ready to play and play at the highest level." Bradley added that, in the back of his mind, he’s always thinking, ‘I could have been out there.’

In what he has described as the proudest season of his career, the 39-year-old Bradley has posted his most top-25 finishes (11) and top-10 finishes (6) in more than a decade, finishing 11th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and eighth among Americans in the world rankings. Only Scottie Scheffler has captured more PGA Tour wins in the past 13 months than Bradley’s two titles, including June’s Travelers Championship. "That win at Travelers really threw a wrinkle into the process," U.S. vice captain Gary Woodland told The Post. "We kept telling Keegan, ‘You’re not making this easy on yourself,’ because he was playing so dang well … We all told him, ‘You can’t make a wrong decision.’"

Bradley said his role as captain has been rewarding precisely because it allowed him to focus on others rather than himself. "Ultimately, I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed being the captain and how I’ve enjoyed not having to worry about getting to sleep and getting my rest or how I haven’t had to think about what time I’m going to go practice or meet my coach and then meet the guys," he said. "It simplified things a lot for me."

Two years ago, Bradley was left off the Ryder Cup roster and passed over by U.S. captain Zach Johnson — a scene captured by Netflix’s Full Swing — a setback he has since described as a turning point. Bradley had previously played in the Ryder Cup in 2012 and 2014, and he had hoped for more opportunities to compete on a global stage. Bethpage, in particular, holds significance for him because it’s a course he has long known from his college days and early tour years. The decision to stand on the sidelines in 2023, he has said, was guided by a belief that his leadership could help maximize the performance of the full team this year.

"Keegan was in a position where he really was one of the best 12, and so we kind of gave him the green light to do what he wanted to do, like, ‘You’re the captain. This is your decision,’" Webb Simpson, another vice captain, told The Post. "I told him, ‘As you’re thinking through this, just because you won’t be able to put points on the board playing, you still have a massive role as captain.’ I think he took all of our advice to heart. I think looking back, he’ll remember it as a really hard decision, but the right decision. If he’s the winning captain, it’s probably going to be more satisfying to him than winning the Cup as a player."

Bradley’s leadership has been defined in part by the balance he struck between his own competitive drive and his duties as captain. The task now, he said, is to prepare a team that can compete at the highest level while he oversees the preparation, practice, and logistics surrounding the event. His top-tier form on the PGA Tour over the past year — punctuated by the Travelers Championship win and a string of high finishes — has underscored the strength of the U.S. roster and the expectations for the week at Bethpage.

As the practice rounds continued, the group around Bradley emphasized that he has embraced a role that many captains have found demanding: guiding a team through a high-pressure event while choosing not to compete himself. Bradley added that the experience has reinforced his belief in the importance of team cohesion, preparation, and the ability to keep the Americans focused on the mission rather than personal accolades.

Bradley closed with a note of gratitude for his teammates and staff, and a reminder that the Ryder Cup remains a test of unity as much as it is a test of individual skill. "This is bigger than any one person," he said. "If I’ve learned anything in this season, it’s that leadership is about putting the team first and doing what’s best for the group, even if that means not being out there every day with your own name on the front of the leaderboard."