When Keegan Bradley was named as the US Ryder Cup captain for 2025, one of the factors which made the announcement so surprising was the fact that the 38-year-old found himself in the top 20 in the world rankings after something of a career revival.
Keegan Bradley was one of the players seemingly set to go into 2025 with his sights set on trying to make the Ryder Cup team. And when the announcement of his captaincy came, it seemed that he was an outside contender to be involved in the Presidents Cup in Montreal this year.
Bradley has not played in the Ryder Cup since 2014, and his sole appearance in a Presidents Cup came one year earlier. But his move up the world rankings hinted that Jim Furyk may end up in the bizarre position of naming the next Ryder Cup captain on his Presidents Cup team.
Following the BMW Championship, there appears to be more than a chance of Bradley playing in Canada next month, with the 2011 PGA champion emerging victorious at Castle Pines.
Whether Keegan Bradley is a lock to make Presidents Cup team
Bradley has missed out on qualifying automatically, as he sits 10th in the standings. But he would make the team if Furyk did decide to pick the next six names on the list.
Winning an event so close to the Presidents Cup may be a decisive factor, but speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that he is not convinced that Bradley’s place on the team is wrapped up.
“I don’t think he’s a lock, simply because a lot of other things can happen when you look at that team. I think what Jim Furyk is going to struggle with is old versus new,” he said.
“We had this conversation last week about the idea of how many players are you going to look at because they’ve historically been part of these teams: Jordan Spieth being the primary example here, we’ll go ahead and just name the elephant in the room. How deep are you going to be willing to go for someone like that? My guess is Jim Furyk being sort of a company man when it comes to these type of things, goes pretty deep.
“I don’t think he goes Jordan Spieth deep, but that certainly puts Keegan Bradley in a very uncomfortable situation when you start looking at the players around him, he’s going to have to pick some young guys anyway.”
Opportunity for Bradley to force Jim Furyk’s hand
Of course, The Tour Championship may provide a better clue as to the names Furyk simply cannot leave out. The likes of Sam Burns and Tony Finau will surely be involved, while Bradley playing well at East Lake will surely force Furyk’s hand.
There are players such as Akshay Bhatia and maybe even Davis Thompson who have bright futures and will surely qualify for teams further down the line.
There is definitely enough depth for Furyk to overlook Bradley when he is making his picks, but there is also an opportunity for Bradley at The Tour Championship to make it impossible for Furyk to leave him out.
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