Brandel Chamblee has delivered his verdict on Keegan Bradley deciding not to pick himself for the US Ryder Cup team.
Bradley surprised most people when he did not include himself when naming his six captain’s picks for the Ryder Cup team.
The 39-year-old has played exceptionally well over the past six months, and many expected him to name himself as one of the six picks, President Donald Trump included.
However, Ryder Cup captain Bradley went against the advice of Trump and many others by leaving himself off the team.
His six captain’s picks seem to be incredibly solid selections and Brandel Chamblee thinks he may well have already won the Ryder Cup for the United States with one decision in particular.
And given Chamblee’s penchant for being overly-critical, his latest comments will come as a welcome boost for Bradley.
Brandel Chamblee says Keegan Bradley may have already won the Ryder Cup
It’s well known within golfing circles that Chamblee does not pull any punches when discussing current topics in the world of professional golf.
So many golfing fans were awaiting his reaction to Bradley’s Ryder Cup announcement with bated breath.
Now they’ve got what they wanted.
Chamblee spoke to the Golf Channel after Bradley named his six captain’s picks.
He said: “I thought it was a very cool thing that he did. I thought he was great in the press conference. Five of them were certainly no surprises.
“The big question mark and the only question mark was whether Keegan Bradley was going to pick himself and if he did pick himself that means he was going to likely leave off a Maverick McNealy or a Cameron Young and when he picked Ben Griffin and as it relates to those on the Ryder Cup list, he skipped over himself and went to Cameron Young, it was pretty clear that he was not going to pick himself.
“I think he may well have won the Ryder Cup in making that decision. When you start looking at a captaincy or a team, it is never one thing that makes a great player or one thing which makes a great captain. It’s just an assembly of a lot of little things.
“In the same way you got the sense when Luke Donald got up and spoke Italian for two or three minutes you thought this Ryder Cup is over because if he has spent and thought about in that detail how to open the ceremonies then what was the rest of the week going to be like and how thorough had he thought about things?
“Keegan Bradley just thinking about the decision to pick himself, that is what a leader does. Makes a personal sacrifice for the collective good of the team. This is the kind of thing that a leader would do that would get his team to run through the wall for him.
“Imagine the rest of the week he is going to look at them and say I stepped aside to focus on every little detail to help you guys and how empowering that must be for his team. So I really enjoyed the press conference today, I thought Keegan was excellent.
“As a matter of fact, I thought it was one of the best press conferences I have ever seen from a US captain. I struggle to go back in time to find a better press conference from a US captain.“
Brandel Chamblee made Bryson DeChambeau claim ahead of the Ryder Cup
Earlier this month, Chamblee took to his X account to share his opinion on Bryson DeChambeau playing on the US Ryder Cup team.
Chamblee was asked on X if he believes the rest of the US team want the LIV golfer at Bethpage.
He said: “Bryson is a hell of a player. But he comes dragging the baggage of a medievally funded, every word in support of destroying the tour it speaks of, poorly ran, weakly competed tour of mostly malcontents who sought to turn their success in golf to a pro golf game changer, only to realize the only thing any of them changed was how the world of pro golf viewed them.“
He has kind of contradicted his opinion there with the comments he made on Wednesday.
Much will depend on the final outcome at Bethpage, but one would imagine that DeChambeau will be a huge asset for the US Ryder Cup team, in spite of what Chamblee said.
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