I blew my own mind with a thought on Friday, just as I was coming down with a miserable flu that left me in bed all weekend (thank you Scottie Scheffler for giving me something to look forward to beyond shivering and sweating for 48 hours). Bear with me while I construct the argument: whether or not you agree that Keegan Bradley got screwed by being left off the Ryder Cup team for Rome – I thought Justin Thomas deserved his spot, for the record – the narrative after the fact was that he did get screwed, thanks in large part to his parts on “Full Swing” and Zach Johnson’s ham-handed diplomacy skills. The sympathy for him afterwards was so off the charts that the powers-that-be on the American side made the bizarre choice to name him captain against all convention and logic. I thought it was a weird, reactionary move (see the second half of the post here), but that Keegan could still be good at the job.
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From everything I’m hearing, he has been good. One of the weird side-effects, though, is that now he has to worry about picking himself for the team, and he’s in the worst possible place of being in a pretty marginal position with five weeks of mediocre play after his win at the Travelers Championship… which is very, very similar to his place in Rome. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, he accidentally put himself in an impossible spot, because even if you arguably deserve to be on the team, it’s not a great look to pick yourself unless you’re a lock, and it puts a metric tonne of pressure on both you, your playing partners and the whole team. It becomes a dreaded distraction. But here’s the thing: if anyone else was captain, all that sympathy from the post-Rome fallout would absolutely guarantee that he’d be on this team. Like, ironclad. No way somebody like Brandt Snedeker as captain is stiffing Bradley for a second time when he’s in the top 12 of the standings.
All of which led me to this epiphany: with the way Keegan Bradley has played the past two years, the only captain who could keep Keegan Bradley off the Ryder Cup team is Keegan Bradley himself.
Isn’t that insane??! No other human being would exclude him. The only way he sits in 11th and doesn’t make the team is if he’s the one deciding and is worried about how it looks and how it will affect the team. Genuinely, this man may be doomed by the universe to never play another Ryder Cup. It’s like some kind of biblical curse.
OK… let that stew in your mind for a bit, then cleanse yourself and continue on to the penultimate Ryder Cup stock watch. The second PGA Tour playoffs event is over, the six automatic qualifiers are locked in, captain’s weeks are a week away, and the action on the American side is hot and heavy. Here’s where we stand. Let the rankings be your guide.
The Auto-Locks: Stock now gold-plated
Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English, Bryson DeChambeau
Honestly, the only real surprise here is that Bryson stayed inside the top six. At the start of the playoffs, I thought he’d slip to seventh or eighth the way Brooks Koepka did in Rome, but in the end only Harris English caught him at the last moment. None of that matters, of course, because Bradley already guaranteed Bryson would be on the team. Anyway, these guys are minted, and Bethpage awaits.
The Manual Locks: Stock now silver-plated
Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin 
Photo: Mike Ehrmann
They didn’t make the top six, but there’s no universe in which Bradley can exclude any of these guys. Even creatine junkie Griffin, in ninth place, had the very solid closing stretch he needed, going T-9 and T-12 in the playoffs to signal that he hadn’t lost all his mojo from the scintillating mid-year stretch. Thomas is the standings bubble boy, but he’s a team-golf legend, and while Morikawa may hate all caddies and media (this is a joke Colin, please don’t tweet at me), he’s been just OK enough in the playoffs to justify the pick when you consider his experience. Get ’em on the bus to Bethpage.
The “He Has To Be A Lock… Right? Right?? I Mean… RIGHT??!!!” Person: Stock high but level
Patrick Cantlay 
Photo: Patrick Smith
If I were captain, there is no universe in which I would leave Cantlay off my team. None. He is an absolute generational team matchplay dog – nay DAWWWWGGG – with a 15-6-1 record between Ryder and Presidents Cups. It’s not just the wins, either; he makes huge putts under pressure, as we saw against Rory McIlroy in Rome and against the Korean dynamic duo of Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im in Montreal last year. Plus, he forms part of an all-time tandem with Xander Schauffele, and you need someone to get Xander’s blood pumping again. I have so much trouble envisioning any world where Bradley leaves Cantlay off the squad. Alllll that said, you wanted him to play a little better down the stretch. I still think last week’s T-9 in Memphis secured his spot, but I’m not yet 100 percent confident; there’s still just that sliver of possibility that the higher-ups do something very stupid and leave him home.
The “RISSEEEE, KWISATZ HADERACH” Meteor Of The Month: Stock still soaring
Cameron Young 
Photo: Jared C. Tilton
How much does a hot hand plus excellent course fit mean to you? That’s the question Bradley will have to ask about Young, who had another great week, finishing T-11 at the BMW to make the Tour Championship with ease. It’s not just the great finishes, either; it’s the fact that when he goes low, he goes really, really low and seems to drain every putt he sees. That’s the kind of thing you want, and that justifies the “Dune” reference above from me even though I am not a Dune fanboy, just [snob voice] an appreciator of the cinematic stylings of Denis Villeneuve. Also, Young is from New York. That doesn’t really matter, but as a fellow New Yorker by birth, I will rage with great fury if Bradley dishonours my homeland.
The “Oh We Have To Think About Him Again?” Late Re-Bloomer: Stock rebounding
Maverick McNealy 
Photo: Ross Kinnaird
By far the most dramatic storyline of the entire week happened a few spots below automatic qualifying, where McNealy moved ahead of Bradley on the rankings list, taking the 10th spot and leaving Bradley in 11th. He did it with an outright third at the BMW, and that has to be slightly – and by slightly I mean incredibly – annoying to the captain, in the whole “I would like to play” thing. And you can still make a good argument for Bradley, that’s the thing. He’s been better by True SG this season, he might be a little better fit for Bethpage. Also, he’s won an event this calendar year. Still and all, McNealy finished higher in the event-specific standings, and as now is going out on a tear. The very last thing Bradley wanted is to take himself over a guy higher in those standings, and before this week, he wouldn’t have had to. Now? Gotta fight that perception monster.
The “I Don’t Even Know Anymore”: Stock ???
Keegan Bradley 
Photo: Andy Lyons
So, with all this being said, what does he do? (I mean, beyond praying that he lights it up in Atlanta this week?!?) I honestly have no idea. I think it’s already one of the most intriguing captain’s choices we’ve ever had in the history of the Ryder Cup, and I’m on tenterhooks. There’s a sick part of me that wants this week to make it even harder for him, which would mean him finishing about 17th and McNealy and Young ending inside the top 10.
The “You Had Our Hearts, Now We Must Leave You” Fallen Heartthrob: Stock flatlining
Chris Gotterup 
Photo: Ross Parker – SNS Group
He had one last chance to prove something at the BMW, but now, even if he somehow wins the Tour Championship – and recent form does not indicate that he will – it feels like the moment passed. At most, I’m giving him a 0.9 percent chance to make it if he goes and out destroys East Lake, which is why he’s not in the group below this one. Otherwise? Forget it. It’s a shame, because after winning the Scottish Open and finishing third at The Open, he really seemed like a great dark horse for a guy who could light it up at Bethpage. But he was such a late bloomer that you have to think he needed a good playoffs too, and it’s been average to bad instead. I hate to say it, but… Gotterdown.
The “Should We Be Intrigued?” Longshot: Stock may be rising
Sam Burns 
Photo: Jamie Squire
It all feels like too little too late, but Burns with his T-4 this past week does make you think. He has to win at East Lake, but there’s a very slim path there, bolstered by his experience, his putting and maybe even his friendships with the rest of the group, including Scheffler. I can just start to see the possibility. Just.
The “Dead Men Walking”: Stock at the bottom of Long Island Sound
Brian Harman, Andrew Novak, Rickie Fowler 
Photo: PGA Tour
Last week, I told you not even to think about Rickie Fowler, but you thought about him, didn’t you? There was a moment on Sunday, when he looked like he’d make the Tour Championship, when you got weak and thought about him. Admit it. You succumbed. I told you not to do it.
Final outlook
You have nine locks, a 10th near-certain lock in Cantlay, and then it comes down to some combination of Young, Bradley, Burns and McNealy for the final two spots. Of those, it feels like Young and Bradley are the choices, but it’s so close and Bradley being captain complicates it so much that I truly don’t know what to expect. The Tour Championship might actually dictate how the last picks go, and in so many ways, all eyes are on Bradley.
