Keegan Bradley says first, you’ll look at your phone and see the call is coming from the captain. There’s uncertainty, for sure, but it goes away quickly, as you can figure out the tone. The call is also short. Then you hang up.
From there, Bradley said, he reacted one way when he was told in the past that he didn’t make the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
“I’m pissed,” he said.
And that’s in part what the now captain shared with the top-ranked player in the U.S. team standings not to be picked for the squad heading to Bethpage Black next month. On Wednesday, Bradley named Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns as his six allotted captain’s picks, but among those left off was Maverick McNealy, who was 10th in the U.S. standings, which was below six automatic picks and Thomas, Morikawa and Griffin — but better than Young, Cantlay and Burns.
After being asked specifically about McNealy, Bradley said the decision was difficult. The skipper called him incredible. He explained that captain’s picks tend to favor Ryder Cup veterans instead of first-timers such as McNealy.
He also told McNealy that it’s OK to be angry.
“I left these calls really angry most times,” Bradley said. “You can use this as fuel.
“I said, please be angry with me and make the next team. Make [the] Presidents Cup team. I used that as fuel most of my career, and I advised Mav to do the same thing. He made a great run at making this team, and ultimately that was a really tough decision.”
Was McNealy the hardest choice to leave off the team? Bradley wouldn’t say, nor did he reveal how many player calls he made. He did say the calls were made after the Tour Championship last week, and that each player handled the news “like pros.”
“You never know if you’re ever going to get another shot at it,” Bradley said. “This might be — you never know, maybe these guys all play multiple Ryder Cups going forward, maybe they don’t, and as a player, I certainly was aware of that when I didn’t make the last team.
“It’s heartbreaking because when you get this close to making a United States Ryder Cup team, one of the hardest teams to make in any sport in the world, it’s devastating when you don’t make it.”
Then there was the call he made — to himself.
Bradley was immediately below McNealy in the team standings, and he, too, won’t play. That call, he said, was made “a while ago,” though he said he still felt the effect.
“Yeah, Monday was tough for me,” Bradley said. “I was just alongside the guys that didn’t make the team. I was moping around. I was bummed out. But quickly you realize what a dream it is to be a Ryder Cup captain and what a dream it is to be a Ryder Cup captain for these 12 guys that I know, that I know so well, and a Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage Black, where I showed up to St. John’s as an 18-year-old kid with a dream of playing on the PGA Tour and never dreaming of being a Ryder Cup captain and I get to return to that same course as the captain of these guys representing our country, and that’s most important.
“Again, I don’t care how it works out, as long as we win on Sunday. I’m incredibly honored to be the Ryder Cup captain. I think part of it’s been a relief and I get to focus on this and cheer these guys on for the next month or so.”
Of course, not every call was sour.
Bradley said he enjoyed calling Young and Griffin, who will be playing in their first Ryder Cup. Burns, he said, showed emotion.
As for Cantlay, who tends to be, shall we say, reserved?
“Pat didn’t give me any emotion, which — but it was great,” Bradley.
“I’ve been looking forward to these calls for months.”
