Keegan Bradley from the season with three consecutive top 15s created a fun discussion on the possibility of the American captain for the Ryder Cup 2025 which played a double role of player in the team. After finishing in the top 5 of Bay Hill, the prospect of playing Bradley has become even more intriguing, and after a top 10 in the PGA championship and the commemorative tournament, discussion has become one of the main subjects while the golf season reaches its last section.
For an American team that is not particularly deep with the talent playing at the top of their game while the Americans are preparing to welcome the Black Bethpage Ryder Cup in Farmingdale, New York, filling the list of 12 men would always lead to difficult decisions for Bradley.
After Win the Travelers championship in a dramatic way On Sunday, selecting for the list of 12 men should no longer be a decision on which Bradley is to stress.
Famous passing by the captain of the time, Zach Johnson, for the team of the Ryder Cup 2023 – as being meticulously documented on the “Swing” of Netflix – despite the end of this 11th season in the ranking, Bradley, 39, was a surprise choice to make the head of the 2025 team since he is an active and competitive player whose objective was to do the 2025 on his own metit.
It was originally thought that Tiger Woods would serve as a captain in 2025, but when the shocking announcement was made, Bradley insisted that he would make the team captain a priority. He would only play if he qualified among the first six in points so as not to distract responsibilities of the position or to prioritize the other players in the running for the opportunity.
However, after Bradley’s victory for travelers, he has now passed the ninth in the United States Ryder Cup classification. It is also classified n ° 7 in the official global classification of golf before several players who will be automatic qualifications for the international team.
US Ryder Cup classification at June 23
|
1 |
Scottie Scheffler (q) |
27,536.93 |
|
2 |
Xander Schauffele |
12,472.70 |
|
3 |
JJ SPAUN |
12,271.85 |
|
4 |
Russell Henley |
11,166.85 |
|
5 |
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU |
10 318.00 |
|
6 |
Justin Thomas |
9,997.69 |
|
7 |
Collin Morikawa |
9,482.01 |
|
8 |
Ben Griffin |
8,432.91 |
|
9 |
Keegan Bradley |
7,845.22 |
|
10 |
Harris English |
7,666.52 |
|
11 |
Maverick McNealy |
7,126.46 |
|
12 |
Brian Harman |
6,521.26 |
Although it has not yet reached automatic qualification status, given its level of play and the interest in rooting of fans, Bradley not selecting as the choice of his own captain would be a greater distraction at the Ryder Cup this fall than not to serve as a game captain.
Suppose the classification remains static at the end of the BMW championship – when the points are locked for automatic qualification points. Morikawa and Griffin will surely be locks like the captain’s choices, but that leaves four points in the air without anyone in the remaining top 12 – or a few lower spots – holding a curriculum vitae 2025 better than that of Bradley after his victory in Connecticut.
Bradley, who plays better than he did it two years ago while being part of the best golf course in his entire professional career, has the same number of victories as Harman, English and Novak (whose victory was in a team event with Griffin) with more than Top 10 than the three men. McNealy has a top 10 more than Bradley but has no victory. Larger names lower in the ranking – Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth – have not accomplished as much as Bradley this season, and beyond Dechambeau, none of the other golf liv players performed well enough in majors to guarantee their places. (Patrick Reed would be the biggest question at this stage.)
Beyond the qualifications – Bradley as a player giving Americans their best chance of winning – are the optics. There is no scenario in which Bradley will avoid being the main subject of conversation in Bethpage Black where the United States will enter like a meager -130 favorite, by Fanduel Sportsbook.
If he plays, it’s historic. How he occurs while juggling with the responsibilities of a double role – as well as the frequency he is sent to play – will be a fascinating theater. If he does not play and the Americans lose on a soil at home, he will be forever criticized.
Bradley can somewhat compartmentalize some of these difficult decisions through his assistant captains. The addition of a large number to its staff has been part of the Bradley plan from the start, which he approached Sunday evening after winning travelers.
“When they called me and told me that I was the captain of the Ryder Cup, the first thing they said was:” We want you to be the first game captain from Arnold Palmer in 1962 “,” he shared. “And I mean, my head was running, I didn’t know what they were talking about, but they knew it was a possibility and that we would have things in place for that.
“I always try to be the best I can be, and I have the impression of playing the best golf course in my career right now. A year ago, I don’t know if I would have thought that I would be seventh in the world, but I certainly thought that I was going to face in tournaments.”
This does not mean that playing would not lead to increased challenges and pressures, but if Bradley continues to play at this level during the fall, it would certainly be a lesser distraction if he played rather than choosing otherwise.
Whenever the United States drops a point in a match involving a captain’s choice, the question will be whether the result would be different if Bradley – instead of driving in a golf cart, the cameras constantly on him – played instead.
Maybe something dramatic will happen over the next two months that will help Bradley make his decision before the alignments are locked on August 17. JJ SPAUN’s victory at the US Open actually obtained a place of automatic qualification, which removed a difficult decision by Bradley as a person in the Dechambeau group, Thomas and Morikawa which requires a choice of captain. This could happen to open, and if Bradley fall from his current pace, it may become more a debate as this deadline is getting closer.
For the moment, it is difficult to imagine Bradley – by each metric, clearly one of the 12 best American players this season – not one of the 12 best choices of the American team. Although refusing to play would have long been considered the altruistic choice, a little ironically, it could now be the selfish.