[PHOTO: Icon Sportswire]
The 2025 PGA Tour season is officially in the can. Tommy Fleetwood is the champion, Scottie Scheffler is the GOAT and everyone else on tour is ready to stick a little umbrella in a cold drink on a beach somewhere. For US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, however, the work is just beginning.
On Wednesday night (Australian time), Bradley will announce his six captain’s picks for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. This is a highly anticipated moment each Ryder Cup cycle, but it comes with increased scrutiny this year as Bradley weighs the decision to make himself the first player-captain in generations. Soon after the dust settled at East Lake, an ‘exhausted’ Bradley spoke to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis and delivered some telling quotes that should only the fan the flames ahead of tomorrow’s potential inferno.
Speaking with @Keegan_Bradley he said some members of @RyderCupUSA told him they want him to be a Playing Captain. He also said, “There is probably going to be a few guys that think they are going to be on the team that aren’t going to be.” He added phone calls will be “Awful!” pic.twitter.com/PlDcJy5w73
— Todd Lewis (@ToddLewisGC) August 25, 2025
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There’s a lot to unpack here, but it certainly seems like Bradley is laying the groundwork for a self-selection on Wednesday, saying several US vice-captains and automatic qualifiers have already endorsed the decision (not to mention the president of the United States of America). Not only that, Bradley also warned that “a few guys that think they’re going to be on the team aren’t going to be”. However you feel about Bradley taking the player-captain mantle, you have to admit the man has a flair for the dramatic.
If Bradley does in fact pick himself instead of some of the other fringe options, including the likes of Ben Griffin, Brian Harman, Cam Young and Patrick Cantlay, it’s not necessarily undeserved. Bradley currently sits 11th in the Ryder Cup rankings, so based purely on numbers, he has earned his spot on the 12-man roster. But the Ryder Cup is one of the few competitions in modern golf where messy intangibles mean more than cold, hard data, and it sounds like Bradley is bracing for at least a little chaos.
Asked how emotional it will be for the players on the other end of his calls this, Bradley had this to say:
“Really awful. Really, really truly awful.”
Sheesh, Cap’n. Don’t sugarcoat it or anything. Then again, few would know better than Bradley. As he explained to Lewis, he’s been on both sides of these calls as a player. In 2023, he infamously missed out in lieu of Justin Thomas, posting a gut-wrenching photo of his 2012 Ryder Cup suitcase, which he vowed not to open until he won a Ryder Cup of his own. The US team was steamrolled at Marco Simone that year, with many criticising captain Zach Johnson’s decisions, including Bradley’s omission, throughout the matches.
Now Bradley has a chance to right those wrongs… or repeat them. But first things first, he has some dreams to make and hopes to crush. From the sound of things, he’s not looking forward to that part of the job, but that’s why they pay him the big (bucks) charitable donation stipend.
