Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Peter Scrivener
- Role, BBC Sport Senior Journalist
Keegan Bradley will captain the United States in the 2025 Ryder Cup against Europe.
The 38-year-old was not the PGA of America’s first choice for the role, but has accepted it after 15-time major champion Tiger Woods turned it down.
“My passion and appreciation for golf’s greatest team event have never been stronger,” said Bradley, who was on the losing side in his two appearances as a player – in 2012 and 2014.
“The Ryder Cup is unlike any other competition in our sport. And this edition will undoubtedly be particularly special given the rich history and enthusiastic spectators at this iconic course.
“I look forward to beginning preparations.”
The 45th edition of the biennial contest will take place at the Bethpage Black course in New York from 25-28 September.
Bradley’s ‘passion’ key for US
Woods had been a long-time favourite to succeed Zach Johnson and lead the US side as they look to bounce back from a 16½-11½ defeat in Rome last September.
But the former world number one, who played on eight Ryder Cup teams, repeatedly delayed his decision.
He said at the US PGA Championship in May that he did not want to “fulfill the role of the captaincy if I can’t do it”, citing his position on the PGA Tour policy board as something that was taking up a lot of his time.
Given the announcement of Bradley as captain, it would appear Woods finally decided he could not dedicate the time to the role that he would want to.
Speculation will now continue to grow that Woods will take charge of the US team for the 2027 event at Adare Manor in Ireland. That will mark the 100th anniversary of the first playing of the Ryder Cup and it is being hosted at a course owned by his friend JP McManus. It will also mark 34 years since the US last won an away match.
Bradley, who won his solitary major at the 2011 US PGA Championship, was on the losing Ryder Cup teams in 2012 – as Europe won the ‘Miracle of Medinah’ – and two years later at Gleneagles in Scotland.
PGA of America president John Lindert, who made the announcement, said: “Keegan’s past Ryder Cup experience, strong relationships and unwavering passion for this event will prove invaluable as he guides the US team over the next year and a half.
“We are confident that with Keegan at the helm, the 2025 US Ryder Cup Team will compete at Bethpage with the same confidence and determination that has defined his career.”
It would appear to be a change in direction for the PGA of America, which runs the US Ryder Cup team.
Recent captains Johnson, Jim Furyk and Davis Love III all served as an assistant captain at least once before taking on the top job.
Bradley, who has won five PGA Tour events, to add to his major, since turning professional in 2008, has not been near the side since 2014.
In his two Ryder Cup appearances, he won four and lost three matches – one of the defeats being in a singles match against Rory McIlroy in 2012 when the Northern Irishman almost missed his tee-time.
Bradley missed out on Johnson’s ‘boys’ club
Despite winning twice on the PGA Tour last year, Bradley missed out on one of the six automatic qualifying places on the US team.
He finished 11th overall but was then overlooked when captain Johnson selected six wildcard picks for Rome, with Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler selected despite being lower down the rankings.
Bradley was being filmed at home for the Netflix documentary Full Swing when Johnson phoned to tell him he would not make the team.
His disappointment was obvious, as he said: “I’m thinking about the Ryder Cup every second of every day.”
In an earlier interview with Sports Illustrated, Bradley said he knew there was “a big risk” he would not be selected.
Thomas, who was 15th on the qualifying list, had previously had a successful pairing with his good friend Jordan Spieth, who was eighth on the list and also selected by Johnson, who was criticised after the defeat for fostering a “boys” club.
“The thing is, those guys are close. They’re not just PGA Tour-close, they’re close friends,” Bradley said.
“If you take golf out of the equation, they’re legit close friends. You have your close friends as a golfer and then you have your close PGA Tour friends, and a lot of the time your close friends aren’t on the Tour.”
Analysis
Former Ryder Cup player: check. Major winner: check. Keegan Bradley ticks the two qualifying criteria the USA usually demands of its Ryder Cup captains.
But the appointment of the 2011 US PGA champion still comes from way out of left field. And some.
Bradley has always been regarded as an outsider. An idiosyncratic character, not deemed sufficiently a team player to earn a captain’s wildcard for the last Ryder Cup despite his persuasive form.
It was an omission more down to personality than play. Now he is regarded as the man to galvanise the Americans to win back the trophy lost so comprehensively at Marco Simone last year.
His two appearances for the US were on losing teams despite his own impassioned performances.
Bradley will be 39 by the time of the contest, the youngest US captain since a 34-year-old Arnold Palmer was a playing captain in 1963, but he hardly carries the same stature.
Bethpage next year will be a place for cool heads amid an expected bear-pit atmosphere. But Bradley has a combustible streak as we witnessed in a bust-up with Miguel Angel Jimenez at the WGC Matchplay a few years ago.
“He’ll start a riot,” one observer claimed in the wake of this appointment.
That is probably stretching it, but for the US to go with someone who does not even posses experience as a vice-captain is an extraordinary gamble.
Bradley did win respect for the dignified way he accepted his non-selection for the last match. But no-one would have predicted it would pave the way for him to take charge of the US quest to win back the Ryder Cup.