Tiger Woods kept them waiting, and the task force felt they had no one to turn to when the great said he had neither the time nor the conviction to undertake the time-consuming tasks of a captain, which – believe it or not – include fulfilling sponsorship obligations for which he would receive no compensation.

In his circle, Woods would essentially see this as payment for the privilege, and his refusal was entirely predictable and will remain so until they redesign the leadership model accordingly.

So the committee panicked, discarded the obvious choice of Stewart Cink, and went with the man who cried on Netflix when Zach Johnson – the bungler in chief of 2023 – chose the failed Justin Thomas instead.

Thomas was actually part of the panel that selected Bradley. A decision based on sympathy. A revenge move. Bradley had not been consulted beforehand, Johnson simply called and offered him the job, like a golf club captain calling his mate to tell him he was now in charge of the junior section.

Bradley could be the first playing captain since Palmer

Bradley was speechless, of course. And of course he accepted. My God, this is the character who takes the Patriots to New England, who has an unopened suitcase full of uniforms from the 2012 Miracle at Medinah game that he won’t empty until he’s on a winning team. He bleeds for Team USA – whatever that means – and yes, he thinks he could be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer.

Bradley is many things – most of them overwhelmingly positive – but he is no Mr Palmer, and the Ryder Cup is not what it was in 1963, when Europe consisted of Great Britain and Ireland, the finish was largely a foregone conclusion, and the spectacle was a short par 3 compared to today’s unheard of par 5.

Rory McIlroy was actually asked if he would like to be Ireland’s player captain in 2027. “I just said no way, absolutely not, because it depends: what do you want?” he said. “If you want to be the best captain you can be, you can’t play, and if you want to be the best player you can be, you can’t be captain.”

“Keegan is the 19th ranked player in the world (at the time), so he has a great chance of making the team. And if he does that, I think he’ll just have to hand over the captaincy to one of his vice-captains.”

Bradley disagrees. “If I get into the team, I’ll play,” he said after winning the £3 million first prize on Sunday. “I’d like to be a playing captain.”

Obviously Bradley will dig his spikes in if they dare take that away from him. He’s been denied what he thought was his right before, and anyone who saw Bradley leading the “USA, USA” chant on the home stretch at Castle Pines will understand how that turns him on. This is another factor that made it such a stupid and ill-advised assignment.

Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Brookline, when tensions in Boston’s bear pit boiled over and turned downright ugly. The visitors’ abuse was so vile that Colin Montgomerie’s elderly father returned to the safety of the clubhouse.

Since then, we’ve heard Justin Rose being booed over his dead father and players’ wives being spat on. New York could be just as bad and worse, and what’s clearly needed are cool heads, especially on the home side. But that’s what Bradley said at the press conference when he was introduced.

“The fans will be our 13th team member. I’ve always viewed Bethpage as New York’s home court, which is now America’s home court. And I want the fans to treat it that way. They have to defend that court in the right, appropriate way. The New York fans are incredible fans; they’re going to be passionate, they’re going to be loud and they’re going to be crazy.”

Not quite Henry Kissinger, is he? He keeps repeating, “I expect them to behave appropriately,” with the caveat, “I can’t control their behavior.” But the captain can and will have a big influence on behavior, and having Bradley as player captain will make the powder keg even more explosive.

With this extremely selfish and stupid decision, Bradley would also be damaging his team’s chances of success. And for this reason, his counterpart Luke Donald only has one thing to think: Come on.