There is plenty of intrigue surrounding whether there will be a third act in the Ryder Cup story which offers Keegan Bradley a shot at redemption after plenty of heartbreak over the last two years.
Keegan Bradley has not played on a Ryder Cup team since 2014. However, his omission from the team nine years later struck a chord with many, with Bradley’s disappointment captured in an episode of Full Swing.
The 39-year-old was the shock pick for the captaincy at Bethpage Black. Unfortunately, Team USA left themselves with too much to do on Sunday. Europe were able to win one singles match and still leave New York with the trophy.
The tragedy of 2025 was the fact that Bradley did enough to make the team as a player. It is hard not to feel that he would have been teeing it up had anyone else been the captain.
So it is going to be fascinating to see what role, if any, he will have at Adare Manor in 2027.
Keegan Bradley’s candidacy assessed ahead of the 2027 Ryder Cup
All eyes will be on who the PGA of America appoint as captain. Tiger Woods is a leading candidate. But some want Bradley to have another chance, having got an idea of what the role entails now.
That is not the case for Rex Hoggard, with the writer telling the Golf Channel Podcast that he simply cannot make an argument for Bradley remaining in charge in Ireland.
“Damon Hack sent out an email, we were going over some ideas for the Golf Today hit today. And he said let’s go over the pros and cons of Keegan Bradley being captain again, and I couldn’t think of any pros,” he said.
“And I’m not trying to completely dump all over Keegan Bradley. As I made perfectly clear, he was put in an impossible position and poured his heart and soul into the job. But you can’t give me any pros, other than ‘well, yeah, maybe I’ll give it one more chance of trying to win an overseas Ryder Cup’, which no one has done since 1993 on the US side. I don’t know the pros internally for him. ‘Do I really want to spend two more years doing this and getting kicked around and then probably ending up in the exact same position on Sunday night trying to explain a loss?’
“I don’t know that there was anything that he particularly did over the last two years that would lead you to believe that he just got unlucky, give him another chance, he can win. There’s plenty of cons. I don’t see any pros. I’d much rather him be a player on that team than a captain.”
The big mistake Keegan Bradley made at Bethpage that he would not be able to make in 2027
The positive, if Bradley got another opportunity, is that he could not repeat arguably his biggest mistake ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup.
It was remarkable just how big the gap between the two sides was over the first two days. If the PGA of America wish to bury their heads in the sand, they could simply put it down to Europe making more putts.
However, Bradley immediately admitted his regret over how Bethpage was set up. He completely neutralised one of the toughest tracks in the country. And that strategy did his team absolutely no favours.
The American captain will have next to no say in how Adare Manor is set up in two years. So if Bradley is in charge, he will have to deal with the challenge put in front of him.
Having said that, what happened at Bethpage leaves some large question marks over his judgement, so there are few guarantees that he would be able to put together the right game plan to triumph anyway.
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