Ryder Cup: Keegan Bradley captaincy report leaves followers surprised

The PGA of America has reportedly chosen its captain to guide Team USA on the Ryder Cup subsequent fall at Bethpage Black.

It’s a quite outside-the-box choice. Keegan Bradley—the person Zach Johnson snubbed a 12 months in the past—will reportedly captain the American aspect at Bethpage Black, per Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated.

Bradley has competed within the Ryder Cup twice, experiencing defeat on each events. In his Ryder Cup debut, he witnessed the Europeans storm again on Sunday to win the competitors at Medinah in 2012. Then, two years later, Team Europe defeated the Americans at Gleneagles in Scotland, 16.5-to-11.5, as Phil Mickelson famously disparaged Team USA chief Tom Watson within the aftermath.

But now Bradley, who has suffered gut-punch after gut-punch all through his Ryder Cup profession—with none extra important than final 12 months—can have a chance for the final word redemption story. He will lead the American aspect at Bethpage Black, lower than 25 miles from the place he performed collegiate golf at St. John’s University. He additionally loves this competitors greater than the rest in golf, a testomony to his patriotism, drive, and adoration for team-match play.

“I take into consideration the Ryder Cup each second I’m awake, principally,” Bradley mentioned forward of final 12 months’s BMW Championship, a number of weeks earlier than Johnson ignored him for the likes of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, and Sam Burns.

Bradley received twice in the course of the 2022-23 season, together with on the Travelers Championship, the Signature Event in his native New England. He completed eleventh within the last Team USA Ryder Cup standings, finalized after the 2023 Tour Championship.

“I’m tremendous bummed out,” Bradley mentioned after he didn’t make the workforce.

“I believed I put collectively a extremely good 12 months with two wins, together with [one] in Hartford over an elite area. I’m pleased with what I’ve executed… I’ve at all times been an outsider within the sport, however I’ve tried to get nearer to the blokes I believed can be on the workforce. I really feel like shifting ahead, I’m going to should robotically qualify for the Ryder Cup. [That said,] I’m [still] pulling for the U.S. Team.”

Bradley won’t should qualify for subsequent 12 months’s biennial competitors at Bethpage Black. Instead, he would be the gatekeeper, the person who will in the end determine which gamers make the workforce.

Other doable candidates included Stewart Cink and Fred Couples, however the PGA of America has determined to go in a special path, one which Shakespeare would marvel at if Bradley can assist information the Americans to victory.

But not dissimilar to how Shakespearean tales have shocked readers for hundreds of years, golf followers have voiced their astonishment amid Harig’s report about Bradley:

Of course, many golf followers displayed their outstanding humorousness, with some even speaking about Spieth and Thomas:

Others additionally permitted of the choice:

Other followers referenced Bradley’s Ryder Cup bag from Gleneagles, which has remained closed and sealed because the 2014 Ryder Cup. Bradley has mentioned he won’t open it till he is part of a successful Ryder Cup workforce once more:

And then there’s one fan who asks a superbly cheap query, particularly contemplating Bradley’s New England roots:

At any fee, no one noticed this choice coming. Regardless, Bradley will put his coronary heart and soul into main the U.S. Team, which he dearly loves and admires.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be positive to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.