Keegan Bradley’s dilemma is everywhere, but unseen advantage lurks

Ever since Keegan Bradley was named Ryder Cup captain, questions about whether or not he’d pick himself to be on the team at Bethpage Black have swirled. When Bradley won the Travelers Championship in June, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that he would be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

Bradley’s dilemma has been at the forefront of the conversation this week at the 2025 BMW Championshp at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md.

Patrick Cantlay, who is likely to be one of Bradley’s six captain’s picks, gave the nod for Bradley to pick himself. Rickie Fowler, who will almost certainly not be a pick, did the same. Scottie Scheffler deferred the question to the captain. Rory McIlroy, who will be looking to back up his pledge that Europe will win on American soil, said there is no doubt that Bradley is “one of the 12 best” Americans. That’s potentially a bit of gamesmanship from the five-time major winner, who would like to see Team USA deal with navigating a playing captain, but it’s also true. Bradley is currently ranked 12th in the World Golf Rankings and 20th in Data Golf. He’s one of the 12 best Americans on each list.

While Bradley’s conundrum was the talk of the pre-tournament happenings at Caves Valley, something more important stood out among the flurry of Ryder Cup questions being hurled at the likely participants.

When the American team has struggled, mostly on European soil, it has led to criticisms of the captain — be in Jim Furyk or Tom Watson or Zach Johnson — and how they have handled a team full of stars who are used to doing their own thing, how they want to do it and never extending themselves outside of their own bubble. While the European team has found cohesion thanks to captains who have created a culture that has bonded the team together, the Americans have often appeared splintered or disjointed as rumors about irritations with meetings, dinners and attire following them home after losses in Europe.

Bradley, 39, was a unique choice to captain Team USA. He is still a very competitive player, not an aging lion whose winning days are in the past. He doesn’t just play a handful of events on exemptions to get to know potential picks, but is on the Tour week in and week out. He’s around the pillars of his team every week.

Therein lies a potential advantage as Bradley crafts his team.

To Scheffler, having a captain in Bradley who is one of them has been refreshing, and his leadership style and motivation tactics have left an impression on the World No. 1. The feeling, according to Scheffler, is different with Bradley at the helm than with others in years past.

“The intensity that he’s brought as a captain — I mean, he has definitely exceeded my expectations as far as a captain. He’s done a great job,” Scheffler said on Wednesday. “He’s passionate about the Ryder Cup. He cares a lot about us as players. It’s been a lot of fun kind of watching him develop in this role, and we’re excited to get the Ryder Cup started.

“He leaves some messages in our locker every now and then, a lot of text messages,” Scheffler said when asked how Bradley has raised the bar as a captain. “I just feel like, since Keegan is out here a lot versus some of the other captains we’ve had in the past — not that they’ve done a bad job. It’s different having him here week in and week out. He’s a guy that we know well. I loved all of our previous captains, but I think it’s just different when we’re showing up, like hey, you want to play a practice round this week? We see him in dining. He’s just around a lot more, so I think there’s more opportunities for him to be kind of a part of our lives out here. I think that’s really important as he steps into that captain role, knowing the players as well as he does.”

Bradley, who hasn’t been on a Ryder Cup team since 2014, admitted Wednesday that he was “closed off” earlier in his career. He has enjoyed getting to know the guys on Tour better over the past few years, which has benefited him, both as a player and as a captain.

As he has immersed himself in his role as captain, Bradley has sought advice from coaches in other sports as well as golf. He noted he talked to Tiger Woods, who was a playing captain at the Presidents Cup, but he has also been talking to coaches who have had to assemble teams of All-Stars and get them to come together quickly and play for a common goal.

“I really have been leaning more on the national team coaches where these teams come together quick and they are superstar athletes and they’re used to being top dog wherever they go,” Bradley said. “I really think that’s a little bit more applicable than — we don’t have any role players on our team. There’s no guy out there just getting rebounds or just playing defense. Every guy on our team is one of the best players in the world that competes to win majors and tries to win tournaments every single week. It’s a much different vibe than a team or Belichick with the Patriots, where you have Tom Brady and then you have the guy on special teams where they have two hugely different roles.”

At the 2025 U.S. Open, Bradley put a photo in each prospective player’s locker with a picture of the U.S. Ryder Cup bag with the player’s name on it and a message that read: “Bring your ego.” That was a trick Bradley learned from former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and it helped push J.J. Spaun to a U.S. Open win that helped him lock up a spot on the team.

All of this is evidence of a different kind of captaincy for Team USA. One focused on understanding what makes each team member tick, how to get the best out of them and, most importantly, how to get them to come together quickly as a team.

What Bradley has done in his year-plus as captain is immerse himself in the job in a way that has become common for European leaders, who have created a culture of togetherness that has spanned generations. Where Team Europe has often been greater than the sum of its parts, the American star-laden team has often been seen as 12 individuals who ride high in home-soil routes but fray across the Atlantic.

While the Americans will benefit from playing this Ryder Cup on Long Island, Bradley’s understanding and connection with his team could wind up being invaluable when the pressure ratchets up in late September.

“For me, I’m treating the Ryder Cup as a real team,” Bradley said. “We’re not going off past Ryder Cups or what they did. I’m trying to act like this is a team that plays all year round.

“I think an advantage that I’ve had as captain is I’m around the guys. I’m around the guys in practice rounds, in locker rooms, waiting in rain delays. I saw J.J. Spaun at the U.S. Open in this rain delay, and I’m looking at him, and I just like — it didn’t seem like he was in this position to win the U.S. Open. Seemed like we were there in a practice round. He’s joking around. I remember thinking, this guy, he’s a killer. It’s crazy. I’d be pacing around outside or whatever, so just seeing that. More importantly, getting to know the guys, it’s really forced me to really get to know them. They’ve impacted my career, and I think one of the reasons why I’ve had a better last couple years is just getting to know them and getting to learn how they go about their career. It’s just so much different than mine.”

Bradley has a big decision to make about his own Ryder Cup playing future. But as a captain, he has so far “exceeded expectations,” and it’s an advantage that could prove crucial to the Americans as they try to hold serve in front of what promises to be a rabid and raucous New York home crowd.