With Ryder Cup pledge, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley gives the Europeans extra motivation

Anyone who has followed his career knows that Keegan Bradley doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder. It’s more like a chunk.

Neglected. Rejected. Disrespected. Not since Doctor Doom has one man drawn more motivation from his sense that the world hasn’t given him his due.

Competitive fire of that kind can be good fuel on the course. It can also make fine fodder for reality TV. And Netflix’s “Full Swing” takes full advantage of it in its Season 3 finale.

From the opening scenes to the closing credits, the episode (No. 7 if you’re keeping score at home) gives us Bradley in riled-up Rodney Dangerfield mode, reflecting on his history of feeling snubbed. The memories get him going. Still licking his wounds from being left off the 2023 Ryder Cup team, he’s now hellbent on competing in the Presidents Cup.

True to the “Full Swing” template, the narrative follows several players on their path to the biennial event. A feisty Tom Kim features prominently. So do Camilo Villegas and his wife Maria, delivering a poignant dose of perspective through a story of unfathomable family loss. 

The episode, though, is bookended by Bradley. It starts and ends with him. Early on, he learns that he’s been made a Presidents Cup captain’s pick and he’s soon on a beeline to Royal Montreal. The real underdogs here are, of course, the Internationals, who, in the 30-year history of the competition, have been trampled like the greens at a crowded muni. But Bradley claims the unsung role. He has a love-hate relationship with being “overlooked.” On the one hand, it hurts. On the other, he says, it helps him shine.

The golf gods can be uncooperative, but in this case, they comply. Bradley doesn’t merely go to 2-and-1 for the week. In what plays as cosmic justice, he winds up earning the clinching point on Sunday with a 1-up victory over Si Woo Kim. The show’s producers could hardly have hoped for a tidier script. 

Though the title of the episode is “Rebirth,” it could just as well be called “Redemption.” For a guy so accustomed to being dissed, things have worked out pretty well for Bradley. On top of his Presidents Cup performance, he was also selected as Ryder Cup captain in 2025. Talk about next-level vindication.

Still, an X-ray would reveal that the chip on Bradley’s shoulder is very much intact. 

“I’m going to get criticized as the captain next year,” he says, in a Champagne-soaked post-Presidents Cup celebration. “They’re going to underestimate me. They’re going to doubt me. I’ve been doubted my whole f-ing life.”

As the room erupts around him, Bradley can’t resist providing bulletin board fodder for the opposition.

“We are going to go to Bethpage to kick their f-ing ass,” he blurts. 

In case they were looking for extra motivation, the Europeans have it now.