The turbulent summer for Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley continues with the BMW title
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Forgive Keegan Bradley if he feels like his life has been a whirlwind this summer.
Just two months ago, the Jupiter resident’s career had stagnated – his world ranking fluctuated between 14th and 21st place last year. He became famous for the heartbreaking scene in “Full Swing” when cameras were in his house when he received the devastating news from captain Zach Johnson that he had not been selected for the 2023 US Ryder Cup team.
That must feel like an eternity now for the Vermont native. Since then, Bradley was a stunning choice to captain the 2025 Ryder Cup team after many believed Tiger Woods would accept the offer. He was named an assistant for the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal, qualified as the last man for the BMW Championship (earning him a spot in the 2025 Signature Events) and won the BMW on Sunday, his seventh PGA Tour title in 16 years.
With this victory in Castle Rock, Colorado, Bradley has a real chance at the Tour Championship and a $25 million bonus, moving him from 50th to fourth in the FedEx Cup standings.
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“I just can’t believe it,” said Bradley after winning the BMW and $3.6 million in prize money by one stroke ahead of Sam Burns, Ludvig Aberg and Adam Scott.
Although he is known as a major champion and two-time member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Bradley’s fame and career took a Tim Walz-style meteoric rise this summer.
Bradley, 38, now faces a tough 13-month career that will see him remain a full-time member of the PGA Tour while also serving as captain, particularly at the Ryder Cup. That will mean plenty of conversations with Johnson, who was forced to take on multiple captaincy duties last year while playing 19 Tour events between January and travelling to Rome to compete with Marco Simone.
Johnson, however, is ten years older than Bradley and at a different point in his professional career. So much so that Bradley is not ruled out joining the Presidents Cup team as co-captain next month or joining the Ryder Cup team as player captain next year.
“I don’t know where this is going to go, but I’m happy to do whatever … play whatever role they ask me to,” Bradley said. “I think being a Ryder Cup captain put me in that category of players when they haven’t had a Ryder Cup captain who’s played full-time on tour. One of my goals was to make the Presidents Cup team.”
“I hope I haven’t put a damper on everyone’s plans, but I’m proud to be considered.”
The last captain of either team to take part in the Ryder Cup was Arnold Palmer in 1963. And that went quite well: The USA dominated Great Britain 23-9 and Palmer remained undefeated in four matches with three wins and a semi-final.
Bradley made it clear that if he is on the team, he must be one of the six automatic qualifiers.
“It’s going to be really hard for me to make the team, but if I make it, I’ll play,” Bradley said. “I don’t see myself as a captain candidate. But I’m proud just to be captain.”
LIV Golf has strict work requirements
Thanks to the creation of the LIV Golf League, the role of the Ryder Cup captain is now more closely scrutinized.
Ask Johnson, who came under scrutiny last year as the first Ryder Cup captain to grapple with the LIV golf dilemma. Johnson was mostly defensive when asked how LIV golfers fit into the equation, particularly when asked about Jupiter’s Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship and finished runner-up in the 2023 Masters.
Johnson downplayed Koepka’s strong Masters by saying “it’s a week,” a comment he surely would have liked a mulligan on. This was before Koepka won his fifth major at the PGA Championship. Johnson then stumbled on the subject, raising the question of “chemistry” and saying he would have a hard time evaluating LIV golfers since he hasn’t watched any LIV events.
If the Ryder Cup were held this year, we would be having the same conversations about Bryson DeChambeau.
Ultimately, Johnson did the right thing and made Koepka one of his six captain candidates. Koepka was the only LIV golfer who deserved a spot on the team.
And 13 months later, Bradley is already having to face these questions.
“The only thing that’s unusual is the LIV guys, what they’re doing and where they’re on the roster,” Bradley said. “We really have to coordinate with the captains and the team that’s going to be there and figure that out. But I think the system works.”
“I’ll have the best 12 players. So we’ll make sure that some of the guys that we think could make the team also make the team.”
Tom D’Angelo is senior sports columnist and golf reporter for The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected].
