{"id":69160,"date":"2025-08-14T14:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69160\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:03:08","slug":"mcilroy-says-ryder-cup-is-too-big-to-be-a-playing-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69160\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy says Ryder Cup is too big to be a playing captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy acknowledges the crowd as he walks onto the 18th green during the final round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Sunday, July 20, 2025.Francisco Seco\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy believes the Ryder Cup has become too big of an event for a captain to play in the matches and said Wednesday he already shot down the idea when approached about doing it himself someday.<\/p>\n

But he is no less fascinated by the conundrum facing U.S. captain Keegan Bradley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think he\u2019s one of the best 12 American players right now,\u201d McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of the BMW Championship. \u201cThat\u2019s why everyone is so interested and it\u2019s such a compelling case. I\u2019m just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes Bradley, who is no ordinary Ryder Cup captain.<\/p>\n

He is 39, the youngest U.S. captain since Arnold Palmer at age 34 in 1963. He also is the defending champion of the BMW Championship, one of his two PGA Tour titles over the last year that has put him in position to make the team on his own.<\/p>\n

He would have to win at Caves Valley to earn one of six automatic spots. Then, he makes six captain\u2019s picks after next week\u2019s Tour Championship.<\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup is Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can truly sit here right now and say I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI have to look at myself just like any other player trying to make the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup hasn\u2019t had a playing captain since Palmer at East Lake 62 years ago, when the King was still in his prime (he won the Masters the following year) and matches were not much of a competition against players from only Britain and Ireland.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Keegan Bradley plays his shot from the 18th tee during the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship golf.Steve Roberts\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Bradley is No. 10 in the Ryder Cup standings. He is No. 12 in the world, with only six other Americans ranked ahead of him. He also is No. 14 in the FedEx Cup, with only eight other Americans ahead on that list.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was the captain, I\u2019d pick Keegan. I think he\u2019s played great,\u201d Patrick Cantlay said.<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who long ago clinched his spot on another American team, said Bradley could only add to what he considers a strong team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s something that Keegan wants to be part of the team and wants to play, I think he\u2019s a guy we\u2019d all love to have on the team,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n

McIlroy played with him for two days in the Travelers Championship \u2014 Bradley went on to win that week \u2014 and said at the time, \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t finish in the top six and he doesn\u2019t pick himself, then you could say America aren\u2019t going with their very best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, McIlroy has his doubts.<\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup has become the largest spectacle in golf. Bradley is on calls every week for planning and other logistics that are involved. There are media responsibilities daily during the Ryder Cup. There are lineups to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think about the extra media that a captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains, with the PGA of America, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that people don\u2019t see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019d have said it 20 years ago, I\u2019d say, yeah, it was probably possible to do,\u201d he said. \u201cBut how big of a spectacle and everything that\u2019s on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I just think it would be a very difficult position to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also suggested Bradley probably would be limited to playing one of the two sessions on Friday and Saturday, which might hurt the U.S. team if Bradley had a hot hand that week.<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods was playing captain at the 2019 Presidents Cup \u2014 far less intense, and an event the Americans haven\u2019t lost since 1998 \u2014 and played only one session a day at Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different things that go into it, and that\u2019s why I think … look, it\u2019s just my opinion, but I think it would just be very difficult to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley has considered all this, too. He said ultimately he would look at himself the way he does any other potential pick, with advice from his assistant captains and the six players who automatically qualify.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might be right,\u201d Bradley said of McIlroy\u2019s opinion. \u201cWe don\u2019t know. No one knows. Yeah, like everybody\u2019s telling me to start the year that a player can\u2019t be captain and have a good year. For me, I feel like this is one of my best years that I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley said he has spent a career leaning on people for advice on how to prepare for majors, dealing with the media, fulfilling corporate obligations, all elements of professional golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this instance, there\u2019s no one to call,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cSo nobody knows how this could work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Rory McIlroy acknowledges the crowd as he walks onto the 18th green during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,622,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-69160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-golf","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}