Keegan Bradley would have known that the result of the 2025 Ryder Cup would go a long way to deciding how his captaincy was reflected upon.
While Luke Donald is being lauded as perhaps Europe’s greatest ever captain, Keegan Bradley has to reflect on the calls he made which may have cost Team USA the chance to regain the Ryder Cup at Bethpage.
Ultimately, Bradley was agonisingly close to overseeing the most remarkable comeback, perhaps in sporting history. Team USA lost just one of the 11 singles matches which took place on Sunday in New York.
But with Europe winning 15-13, it is impossible not to reflect on some of the more contentious decisions Bradley made and wonder how impactful they proved to be.
What J.J. Spaun revealed about Keegan Bradley’s plans before the Ryder Cup which stunned Colt Knost
Certainly, playing Collin Morikawa and Harris English in both foursomes sessions seemed to be baffling. Meanwhile, it was alarming that Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley only changed what holes they teed off on Saturday morning after being encouraged by their caddies.
It is hard to imagine that Europe would have made a decision in a similar manner.
Another bizarre call came with Bradley only playing US Open champion J.J. Spaun twice over the first two days. Spaun won on Saturday afternoon alongside Xander Schauffele in the fourballs. He also won his match with Sepp Straka on Sunday.
From the outside, it appeared that Spaun was a great option for the foursomes. And speaking on Straight Facts Homie, Colt Knost admitted that he was stunned when he learned that Bradley planned to only use the 35-year-old in best ball.
“I play golf with J.J. a lot here at home in Scottsdale. We were playing together Thursday before he left and he shot 60 on me, by the way. So he looked in pretty good form,” he said.
“I said, ‘any idea, off the record, who you going to go with?’ He’s like, ‘I know I’m not playing alternate shot’. I said, ‘what?’ And he said, ‘yeah, part of it, I’m the only one who plays a Srixon golf ball’. I looked at him like, you’re, in my opinion, a top three ball striker on that team, and alternate shot’s all about giving yourself chances for birdie. He’s a great driver of the ball, he’s a great iron player. He’s also a great putter as we’ve seen. He’s really good.
“I get it, he’s a rookie, so sit him out on Friday morning. But when the deficit happened, and him and Scottie played pretty good Friday afternoon, they just got beat, they were nine under, the other team was 11 under, I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t thrown out there Saturday morning. We saw Cam Young, that wasn’t in the plan. But they moved him up there with Bryson.”
Keegan Bradley using Collin Morikawa and J.J. Spaun in the same number of sessions was one of his biggest errors
Perhaps the criticism of using Morikawa and English for a second time has gone over the top. Ultimately, beating Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood is clearly a huge ask for anyone in the game.
However, the problem comes when you consider that it meant that the likes of Spaun played the same number of sessions as Morikawa. Morikawa has been in poor form for several months, with just one top 10 coming since The Masters – at the Rocket Classic.
Ben Griffin meanwhile, only played once before Sunday.
Sometimes throwing the plans out of the window leads to a captain stumbling upon something inspired. And Bradley did make amends for the error of sitting Cameron Young out on Friday morning.
But clearly, not putting more faith in the likes of Spaun and Griffin did not do Team USA any favours at all.
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