A Surprise Ryder Cup Captain
It was a bit of a surprise when the PGA Of America announced that Keegan Bradley was going to be the captain of the 2025 USA Ryder Cup team.
Here’s Why Bradley Was Such A Surprise Ryder Cup Captain
Here’s what wasn’t a surprise. That it wasn’t going to be Tiger Woods. For years, this team, at this venue, Bethpage Black was going to be the team that Phil Mickelson captained. After all, wasn’t that the point of the “task force”? Well then, Phil left for LIV so that was out, and Tiger’s name started to rise to the top. After all, he did successfully Captain a President’s Cup team on foreign soil a couple of years ago. Anyone that listened to and saw Tiger’s body language at his press conference at the Masters in April when he was asked about this, knew then, nope. He was not on board. Word is, he just couldn’t get comfortable with all of the responsibilities that come with being the Ryder Cup Captain. Not only couldn’t he get comfortable, but he also didn’t want to get comfortable. Maybe one day. But one day will not be at Bethpage Black in 2025. Besides, I’ve always heard he really didn’t care for his US Open experiences at Bethpage, despite winning there.
So, who was next? Keegan Bradley? Not that it’s a bad choice, it’s just, well. If you saw the second season of the NETFLIX series Full Swing, you saw the episode where Keegan was passed over for the 2023 team. He was gutted by that and gutted for all of the streaming world to see.
In a strange way, maybe that played a big role in being named Captain. It’s not that he shouldn’t have been named, but I thought one of the aspects of the “task force” was to build Captains through the Ryder Cup grinder. Make sure they’re Assistant Captains first. Make sure they know what they’re in for before assuming the role. God forbid, there’s an unqualified Captain. Well, Keegan played on teams but had not been an Assistant. He didn’t even fill the role two years ago when it might have made some sense.
So, we’ll see. I’ve never really been sure of a Ryder Cup Captain’s job description. Part time psychologist, part time mathematician and full-time babysitter. Oh, and figuring out what clothes they’ll wear.
Good luck to Keegan.