It might be the PGA Championship this week for the best golfers in the world but for Keegan Bradley, there’s one eye on the Ryder Cup later this year.
Bethpage Black will play host to golf’s biggest team event as the USA look to bring back the trophy they lost with relative ease in Rome.
Keegan Bradley is the surprise captain for Team USA and he has some difficult decisions to make, including whether he plays himself as a playing captain.
Beyond that, Bradley must also decide who makes it from the LIV Golf side, with OWGR issues meaning most of the players on that side will not qualify automatically.
Of course, Bryson DeChambeau is an outlier in that and currently sits fifth in the standings after his US Open win last year and fine Masters effort.
Interestingly, Bradley has hosted a dinner recently with a number of players who could end up being on the team.
And now, Bradley has admitted that he did indeed invite DeChambeau, and one more from LIV.
The two LIV Golf players who attended Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup dinner
Bradley was in the press box ahead of the PGA Championship taking place and was quickly asked about his ideas for Team USA this year in the Ryder Cup.
Specifically, Bradley was asked about the LIV Golf players he might choose and if he’d invited any of them to the recent team dinner.
“Yeah, we invited Brooks and Bryson, and they were in there on points and they played on previous teams. It was great to have them there. They were — it was exciting to — this Ryder Cup and what comes with this, no one cares about what’s going on in this side PGA Tour or LIV. We’re trying to put the best team together,” Bradley said.
“It could mean there’s one LIV guy, two LIV guys, it doesn’t matter. We’ll see how this year shakes out. It was really great to have them together with all the guys. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that.”
Bradley was then quizzed on his mention of using analytics to pick his team and one journalist suggested that with LIV, there is a lack of data.
However, Bradley suggested that it’s also majors, and the fact the top LIV stars want to win so much that helps his decision making.
“Yeah, maybe. Listen, we’ve got — these guys are playing in all four of the majors, so we’ll have that. These guys, a lot of them are up in these leader boards every major.
“We’ll see how the year shapes out. The data is a little less at LIV. We don’t have quite the same stats that we have out here, but we have some. We know winning and contending on any tour at any level is difficult. I don’t care where you play. I played the mini-tours. Winning there was difficult. Winning on the LIV is difficult. You can see guys — winning a LIV event is a big deal.”
Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau have to be on Team USA
While Brooks Koepka is not currently in pole position in the Team USA standings, he is a player of such quality that he simply has to be in Bradley’s thoughts.
Five-time major winners are hard to find and with the Europeans having so much depth nowadays, Team USA needs its big guns.
DeChambeau will likely make it on merit anyway which will, in turn, make Bradley’s decision easier.
But among his six picks, Brooks Koepka simply has to be in there.
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