Luke Donald is too shrewd to say it out loud but he must be relishing the mess that Keegan Bradley has created in the lead-up to the Ryder Cup. The USA captain’s commitment to playing means that he is racing towards the potentially divisive scenario of picking himself ahead of other worthy and aggrieved candidates. He now has less than three weeks to decide whether what is good for him is also best for the team.
For an American team that have sometimes seemed about as harmonious as an after-hours social media forum, Bradley’s approach has always been somewhere between risky and reckless. Before the FedEx Cup play-offs, starting this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Bradley sits in tenth place in the Ryder Cup rankings. The top six — at present Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English — will qualify by right after next week’s BMW Championship. Bradley will then finalise his six picks after the following week’s Tour Championship.
Much can change but if we assume that Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Ben Griffin (all ranked higher than Bradley) also get in, he will face having to select himself over at least some of a group that includes Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth, Cameron Young, Brian Harman, Chris Gotterup, Maverick McNealy and Wyndham Clark. That is without factoring in LIV Golf men, such as the five-times major winner Brooks Koepka and self-styled Captain America, aka Patrick Reed.
Bradley missed out on a Ryder Cup spot in 2023, when he was 11th in the USA rankings
JOHNNIE IZQUIERDO/GETTY IMAGES
The ability to juggle the roles of captain and player is one conversation and the vice-captain, Jim Furyk, could comfortably assume captain’s duties when Bradley is playing at Bethpage Black, but there is a danger of fermenting discontent with both his pairings and his team selection. If Bradley picks himself, plays and loses, hindsight will be vicious, but he made his stance clear to detractors last month: “If you’re not in the top six you can’t expect to be on the team.”
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He is the world No10, won the Travelers Championship, to Tommy Fleetwood’s dismay, and lest we forget, also knows what it feels like to be mightily miffed. In 2023 he was 11th in the USA rankings but missed out, with Burns, Rickie Fowler and Thomas, ranked 12th, 13th and 15th respectively, getting captain Zach Johnson’s approval.
More disgruntled still was Young, who had finished ninth but did not go to Rome. After winning the Wyndham Championship on Sunday the New Yorker said that he wanted to be on this year’s team on “one of my favourite golf courses in the whole world”. Hurt by the 2023 snub, he said his intention was to “give our captain no choice”.
It is an unnecessary, distracting dilemma for the PGA of America and Bradley, who, short of a brilliant fortnight, may spend September’s febrile build-up fending off accusations of self-interest and bias.
And if he has played well this year, his captaincy has lacked the meticulous attention to detail shown by Donald. That was clear from the clip of him rabble-rousing at the Presidents Cup. “I’m gonna get criticised as captain next year,” he said. “They’re gonna underestimate me. They’re gonna doubt me.” He then added a line that Donald no doubt stored away for future use: “We are gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f***ing ass.” Somewhat naively, he later said that he was surprised that Netflix had chosen to air his words on the Full Swing docuseries.
It may all be irrelevant. Home advantage has become hugely significant in the Ryder Cup, with the “Miracle of Medinah” in 2012 the only away win in nine matches, and the past five proving unsatisfyingly one-sided affairs. However, Europe look in good health, with the likes of Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick finding some form this summer and Bob MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton performing well on the major stages.
That means 11 of the team look well set, with Rasmus Hojgaard, seventh in the rankings, favourite to complete the line-up and possibly provide a solitary change to 2023, with his twin brother, Nicolai, missing out. Thomas Detry and Aaron Rai can still push their cases in the play-offs, while Matt Wallace will probably be unlucky once again, but Donald’s path to Bethpage looks considerably less hazardous than the crazy paving ahead of Bradley.
Not that it is all sweetness and light at Team Europe. For some there is still some disquiet with the way European chiefs have been happy to let Jon Rahm and Hatton’s appeals slide into the future. The pair have appealed against the fines and suspensions imposed by the DP World Tour for playing in LIV events that clash with its own tournaments. Lose the appeal and refuse to pay up and they would be ineligible for the Ryder Cup. No date for the hearing has been set.
Europe’s only change from the victorious team in Rome could be Rasmus Hojgaard, left, replacing his twin Nicolai, right
BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
Graeme McDowell, now a LIV man and a three-times Ryder Cup winner, said: “There’s a convenience level to it all. Obviously, Tyrrell and Jon Rahm are pivotal players for the European Ryder Cup team and the system is being twisted to the point where they can figure out how to get them on the team.
“Three years on and Tyrrell and Jon are being fined over £100,000 every time they play on LIV Golf, we just don’t talk about it any more because we need those boys to put on their Ryder Cup jersey and smack their fists against their chest for Europe. There’s a certain element of hypocrisy about it.”
Rahm has stressed that he will not pay his fines but appealing against them enabled him to play the minimum number of DP World Tour events to retain his membership. McDowell said at last month’s Open that LIV will stop paying players’ fines on December 31. “Come hell or high water, something has to be figured out because, as of January, Jon Rahm will be paying those fines out of his own pocket, and I can tell you that his attitude will change quite quickly towards the European Tour [now DP World Tour] if that starts to happen.”
Hatton, left, and Rahm look set to be eligible for selection for Team Europe
ROSS KINNAIRD/GETTY IMAGES
Whatever you think about those machinations, Europe’s top brass have cleared the way for Rahm and Hatton to compete and it will not be an issue before the Ryder Cup. Donald’s automatic qualifiers will be confirmed after the end of the British Masters on August 24 and he will name his picks on September 1. There will be little fuss.
In the meantime Bradley will be pondering whether someone like Thomas’s close ally Spieth is worth a place on reputation, and just how many rookies he can go with if two are in the automatic places. Perhaps the most telling aspect to all of this was the haste with which Donald agreed to the rule tweak to allow for player-captains, and while Bradley may hope that play-offs provide clarity, they are just as likely to add to the self-imposed murk.