Keegan Bradley was back in action for the first time since the Ryder Cup, and it proved to be the ultimate Ryder Cup therapy session.
Playing in the Skins Game alongside Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, and Xander Schauffele, Keegan Bradley won 11 skins and $2,100,000, finishing the day as the event’s champion.
It was an impressive display for Bradley, who dominated against some of the biggest talents in the sport at Panther National to take home an eye-popping pay check. It was a reminder to the golfing world that Bradley is one of the best players on the planet.
And that reminder was much needed, as the narrative surrounding the American has centered on his disastrous Ryder Cup captaincy, in which Bradley’s decisions cost Team USA the win at Bethpage Black.
Getting back to golf is exactly what he needed.
Why Keegan Bradley is set for an incredible 2026 season
Bradley had an immensely impressive 2025 season. He had five top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour, and Bradley beat Tommy Fleetwood to the Travelers Championship title. At that point, it looked like he might automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup.
His form dropped at the end of the year, meaning he didn’t qualify, but that was to be expected in hindsight. As the Ryder Cup captain, he was forced to consider the momentous decision of whether to pick himself as the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
It was a decision that weighed heavily on Bradley all year. Regardless of the result, he took his duties as captain incredibly seriously, but as Rory McIlroy predicted, it was too much responsibility to take on.
It clearly affected his game on the back end of the year. He missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship and didn’t threaten the top end of the leaderboard as the season came to a close, until the last event of the PGA Tour season, the Tour Championship.
Did Keegan Bradley make a mistake by taking the Ryder Cup captaincy?
But honestly, it’s a miracle that he was even able to finish in the top 12 of the Ryder Cup rankings at the end of the year. Bradley had so much on his plate between his captain’s responsibilities and his attempts to qualify for the team.
But at the Skins Game, it looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Bradley revealed how devastated the Ryder Cup loss left him, but months removed, he seemed far happier than he ever did at Bethpage Black.
Finally, all Bradley has to worry about is golf. That has to feel like the shackles have broken from his wrists, as the weight of his country has been lifted from his back.
He showed everyone that he’s among the best in the game at the Skins Game and was paid handsomely for it. And with how he played last season despite all of the distractions, expect Bradley to have an unbelievable season in 2026.
The Skins Game was the perfect setting for Keegan Bradley to recover from Ryder Cup loss
The Skins Game looked like a therapy session for Bradley, as he was able to conquer his demons from the Ryder Cup and take home over $2 million in the process.
You couldn’t have written it any better. Standing in front of him were two of his biggest adversaries from the Ryder Cup, Fleetwood and Lowry. Fleetwood, alongside Rory McIlroy, demolished Bradley’s most criticised pairing, Collin Morikawa and Harris English, on the first two days at Bethpage.
Meanwhile, Lowry sank the Ryder Cup retaining putt on Sunday with Bradley watching on from the 18th green. Lowry even joked about it while the scores were even during the Skins Game.
Do you expect Keegan to play better now his Ryder Cup captaincy is over?
“I have just spent the last few months breaking Keegan Bradley’s heart”, said the Irishman after sinking a putt to deny Bradley of a skin.
And Bradley vanquished both of those demons in one fell swoop during this event. He beat both Fleetwood and Lowry to claim the title, re-finding his form, and winning millions. It was the best form of closure you could imagine, and it beautifully set the stage for next season.
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