Keegan Bradley’s captaincy at the Ryder Cup was littered with costly errors.
Team USA were down 11.5 – 4.5 after two days, which led some to believe Europe were just better. Bradley made mistakes with his pairings and course setup, but ultimately they didn’t matter. Luke Donald’s side had just played better.
Sunday’s miraculous comeback flipped that narrative. Suddenly, the points lost from Bradley’s mistakes did matter. The tournament ended 15-13, and Team USA’s players had proven they can dominate the best Europe has to throw at them.
The general consensus on Bradley was that he did a poor job, and the close finish exacerbated that. But his vice-captain, Jim Furyk, said that the comeback proved Bradley’s strengths in his role.
Jim Furyk says Team USA’s comeback showed Keegan Bradley’s strengths as captain
Staring down a humiliating defeat on Sunday morning, the Americans showed impressive grit and mental fortitude to battle back and almost pull off a win. Europe needed a clutch putt from Shane Lowry to retain the Ryder Cup on the 18th green down the stretch.
Furyk reflected on Sunday’s fightback and said he was impressed with how Bradley motivated his side to battle to the final hole.
He said to reporters, “Proud of the way the guys banded together. Proud of Keegan, did a wonderful job as far as his messaging, as far as getting the guys ready and one by one, like usually you can measure the heart of a team, you can measure the character of a team when the chips are down.
“You see in the locker room, you see it on the sidelines in an NFL game when a team’s getting beat, you see the bickering, you see the arguing, the complaining. Our team didn’t have that, they had a lot of pride.
“They were hurting, they were getting beat and obviously weren’t happy with the results but the team stuck together, banded together. What they did on Sunday was damn near a miracle. You shouldn’t be able to come back from seven points and they — a putt or two and they would have.
“Pretty darn impressive. So proud of the way they handled themselves. Proud of the way they banded together for themselves and also for the captain, that says a lot.”
Yes, Bradley made mistakes. But he was clearly respected and liked by the players. It is a testament to the captain that he was able to keep the team together through adversity and attempt to snatch the trophy from Donald’s hands.
Jim Furyk says Team USA lost because Europe outplayed them
Over two days, Europe were making putts at an incredible rate. Bradley credited their dominant lead after two days to this, following Saturday’s play.
At the end of the tournament, Donald’s side were +8.43 on strokes gained on the green. Ultimately, it was the difference in the sides on a very easy golf course.
When asked if Bradley and his team got things wrong at the Ryder Cup, Furyk was quick to credit Europe’s play. He said, “I think you’re always going to second-guess what could have been. The captains will get together and, you know, hindsight could be 20/20 at times.
“You’re always going to think about it, but I look at the way our players played. Maybe Friday we might have come out the blocks a little slow. Saturday we played some amazing golf and still lost traction.
“I tip my cap to the Europeans, they were aggressive, they knocked down pins, they were amazing on the greens. I think look at the scoring on Saturday, both teams played phenomenally. Set scoring records for a Ryder Cup, yet we still got nudged and we just dug ourselves a really, really deep hole going into Sunday.”
Bradley admitted that he made a mistake in the way he set up Bethpage Black. Rory McIlroy described the rough as a non-penalty before the tournament, and that proved to be true.
The ease of the course from tee to green turned the event into a putting contest, which allowed Europe to steamroll the Americans early. But they still had to make their putts, and they played incredibly well to blow their opponent out of the water.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
