Keegan Bradley received plenty of criticism for certain decisions that he made during the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September.
It came as a huge surprise to everyone when Keegan Bradley was named as the 2025 Ryder Cup captain back in 2024.
In fact, Bradley himself was shocked when he was handed the Ryder Cup gig, admitting at the time that it took him by complete surprise.
“It’s hard to describe the feeling as I truly had no clue,” Bradley told the Fore Play Podcast. “Imagine that you guys got a call to be the Ryder Cup captain. I couldn’t believe it. They were expecting a huge reaction from me, and to be honest with you, I was shell-shocked.”
However, the 39-year-old’s dream quickly turned into a nightmare when the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black began.
Did Keegan Bradley make a mistake by taking the Ryder Cup captaincy?
Bradley made numerous mistakes during the Ryder Cup, including the ridiculously easy course setup and his insistence on pairing Collin Morikawa and Harris English together, not once but twice!
He obviously did the best he could for his country and put a tremendous amount of effort into the role.
However, his obvious refusal to follow what the data was telling him was simply unforgivable.
Keegan Bradley did something ‘unfathomable’ before the Ryder Cup
Despite the heavy criticism that the eight-time PGA Tour winner received for his Ryder Cup captaincy, he does deserve praise for certain things as well.
In all fairness, he was thrown under the bus by the PGA of America. He shouldn’t have been made captain at his age, when he was actually playing some exceptionally good golf.
Bradley was left in a no-win situation but he never stopped trying to do what he thought was best for the United States team.
When speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav, journalist Ryan Lavner suggested that what Bradley did in the build-up to the Ryder Cup was genuinely ‘unfathomable’.
He said: “I’ve been pretty clear about this over the past couple of months. I give Keegan Bradley a monsoon of credit for compartmentalising these two parts of his life.
“Again, for a job that he did not want. Did he want to do it eventually? Sure. Did he want to do it at that stage of his career about 15 months before the Ryder Cup was going to be played, when he was still a top 20 player in the world? Absolutely not.
“He said it took him by complete surprise. One of the biggest surprises he could have ever been thrown in his entire life.
“And yet, I think all of us expected, well, you know, you look at what the precedent is for this, and the sitting U.S. Ryder Cup captain typically falls off a cliff playing wise, competition wise, because they’re just too distracted.
“So for Keegan Bradley to put himself even in position to make his own team was seemingly unfathomable, winning a signature event – the Travelers Championship – was unbelievable and sitting for almost the entirety of the year inside the top 12 in the U.S. Ryder Cup points standings, was unbelievable.
“To me, it is still one of the most selfless acts we’ve ever seen in the Ryder Cup in passing over himself, who was 11th in points at the time , but Keegan Bradley understanding the team dynamic, understanding at least at that point, you mentioned he was far and away, a top 12 player at that point.“
Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup captaincy ‘couldn’t have gone much worse’
Despite praising Bradley for his ability to maintain high levels of performance during the 2025 PGA Tour season, Lavner did criticize the 2011 PGA Championship winner for some of the decisions he made during the competition.
He said: “The week of the Ryder Cup couldn’t have gone much worse. You look at what the setup was, you look at the bickering now between Justin Thomas and the Bethpage golf course setup crew about green speeds.
“You look at cutting the rough, you look at the data and Harris English and Collin Morikawa were quite literally the worst possible analytical pairing, according to Data Golf, and they didn’t send them out just once. They sent them out twice after getting beat roundly in foursomes.
“Keegan Bradley, I think, did not do a good enough job of calming down what was a vicious, uh, vitriolic crowd towards Rory McIlroy, and a lot of the Europeans.
“Will he get another shot? Keep your breath. He certainly sounds like he wants one.“
Keegan Bradley may well deserve another shot at the Ryder Cup captaincy in four or five years’ time.
For now though, his full focus will be on making the US team for the 2027 edition at Adare Manor in Ireland.
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