Keegan Bradley has a lot on his mind at the 2025 Tour Championship. In addition to contending for the FedEx Cup title, Bradley is mulling over who his Ryder Cup captain’s picks will be. But perhaps most of all, he’s agonizing over one decision among many: whether or not to make himself a captain’s pick.
Bradley vented his feelings at East Lake following a tournament-changing second-round 64, revealing that the decision to be a Ryder Cup playing captain at Bethpage Black will be “the biggest decision of my life.”
Keegan says he’s ‘about had it with this whole thing’
On Wednesday of next week, Bradley will announce his six captain’s picks for the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team. It will mark the end of the beginning of one of the most unexpected Ryder Cup captaincies in history.
At 39, Bradley will be the youngest U.S. captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Typically captains are aging players past their prime. But Bradley is among the best players in the world, currently ranked 13th in the Official World Golf Ranking and 11th in the FedEx Cup standings.
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He’s also only played in one Ryder Cup and was famously left off the 2023 U.S. team that lost in Rome.
“It’s just really strange for me to be the captain,” Bradley admitted on Friday at the Tour Championship. “It’s not something anyone’s really ever gone through.”
Unlike any of his predecessors, Bradley has had to balance the responsibilities of being captain with his own career, not to mention trying to earn a playing spot on the team.
And the balancing act seems to have left Bradley frazzled on the precipice of his big decision.
“I’m having a very hard time separating right now my captaincy and my play. For the past month it’s been like this, but this week I’m trying so hard. But that’s all I’m thinking about. Thinking about pairings, certain things I want to say to the guys during the week. It’s just difficult,” Bradley said on Friday.
In June, Bradley overcome that difficulty to win the Travelers Championship. Since then, he’s struggled on the course as his captaincy nears.
This week has been ever harder on him, leaving him to admit on Friday that he’ll be “really happy when this week is over.”
“I am looking at the board all day, not looking for me. I’m looking for where my guys are. It’s just really odd. That’s a really strange feeling… I have no feeling of where I stand on the board, just seeing where our guys are, which is, that’s the opposite of what we do every week,” Bradley said. “I’m going to be really happy when this week is over. I’ve about had it with this whole thing, so I’m ready to figure out what we’re doing and get our team together.”
Despite those feelings, Bradley somehow put together a six-under 64 on Friday to get into contention heading into the weekend at the Tour Championship.
Bradley mulls being Ryder Cup playing captain
But, as previously stated, the most difficult aspect of Bradley’s captaincy is the issue of whether he should spend one of his captain’s picks on himself.
On Friday, Bradley explained that he’s “well aware” that his decision will be “controversial” no matter which direction he goes, and ultimately the final judgment will depend on if the U.S. wins the Cup or suffers a devastating defeat to Europe on home soil.
“You worry that people maybe on my side will say, if you don’t win, that was a mistake. That was self-indulgent. I’m very well aware of that. No matter what decision I make, I’m going to be defined by this decision. If we win, it doesn’t matter what decision I make. But every captain has to make really tough decisions. This is just a really unique decision. I think it’s just because of my age. If Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or Jim Furyk was appointed captain at my age, they would’ve had to do this. So, it’s just a luck of the draw, I guess. I don’t know.”
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He continued: “Normally when you win, you’re the best captain ever. And when you lose, you’re the worst captain. So I’ve been a part of those teams, and I promise you we’re going to make the best decision for the team. It’s going to be controversial either way I do it.”
If his name does end up among the six players added to the team next week, Bradley explained that it will only be because he and his vice captains considered all the data objectively and determined he’d help the team.
“I think we have to get together as captain and vice-captains and look at the data, look at what’s going on and make a decision based on what’s best for the team. So that certainly feels nice to me. But when we look at me as a player… we look at the stats, we look at everything, and I’m Player X, basically. Certainly strange, but I’ve wanted them to, if there’s negatives about me playing, I want to hear those things. I would be more upset if they didn’t express those feelings,” he said.
But Bradley was also not too modest to make a subtle case for himself, saying, “To be honest, I feel like I’m still one of the best players in the world, so I figured that the likelihood of me being completely out of the picture was probably kind of slim.”
Despite all the complications, Bradley knows what he signed up for, and he knows just how important his choice is.
