{"id":103611,"date":"2025-08-23T06:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/103611\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T06:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:06:07","slug":"keegan-bradleys-ryder-cup-decision-isnt-getting-any-easier-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/103611\/","title":{"rendered":"Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup Decision Isn’t Getting Any Easier This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 Keegan Bradley played a clean round of golf Friday at East Lake and climbed the leaderboard<\/a> at the Tour Championship after a tough conclusion on the opening day of the season-ending FedEx Cup event.<\/p>\n

That is potentially good for Bradley\u2019s own financial bottom line in this $40 million tournament<\/a> that pays $10 million to the winner.<\/p>\n

But does it matter in the big picture of the Ryder Cup?<\/p>\n

The competition begins five weeks from this weekend. Thirty five days is an eternity in golf. Lots can change. Bradley, the U.S. captain, will head to the PGA of America\u2019s headquarters in Frisco, Texas, next week to announce his six captains picks.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 11 he is expected to play alongside the U.S. team in the Procore Championship in Napa, California. The Ryder Cup is\u00a0still\u00a0another two weeks after that.<\/p>\n

So one stroke-play round, with preferred lies at rainy East Lake in the heat of August, does not portend much as it relates to a match-play event at Bethpage Black in late September.<\/p>\n

Bradley\u2019s 64 that included six birdies and no bogeys likely has no bearing on his picks but it does again point to his own playing ability, one that seemed all but certain when he won the Travelers Championship in June. But lately he’s had some more pedestrian results, which brings into question his own playing status on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be controversial no matter how we do it. I know that,\u201d said Bradley, who is seven shots back of co-leaders Russell Henley and Tommy Fleetwood through two rounds. \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest decision of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t seem to be any easier when the players around him are, for the most part, telling him he should play.<\/p>\n

Bradley dismisses that, saying that he is being judged both good and bad by the assistant captains, including Jim Furyk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are negatives, I want to hear them,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI would be more upset if they didn\u2019t\u2019 say them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m still one of the best players in the world. I figured the likelihood of me being completely out of the picture was probably kind of slim. Even if I was 20th\u00a0in points, could win this tournament and you never know. We\u2019ve been preparing for this. It certainly would be a lot easier if I was top six or way out of it. But it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley ended up 11th\u00a0in the points when the top six players were decided last week at the BMW Championship.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same position he was in two years ago when Zach Johnson did not select him, a decision that was made more fraught later when Bradley was filmed by Netflix getting the negative phone call. And certainly in the aftermath of a U.S. defeat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas was one of the beneficiaries then\u2014he was picked despite not making the playoffs\u2014but finds himself in a much better position this time.<\/p>\n

He is seventh in the points and seems sure to join Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau on the U.S. team.<\/p>\n

Form is fleeting and so much goes into these decisions that trying to decipher much from one last tournament seems fruitless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a lot. I think Keegan would say the same,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI don’t think he would say it’s easy by any means. But I have myself, whatever other captains, automatic qualifiers have all the faith in the world that whatever he decides to do is going to be in the best interest of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas would seemingly be a lock. Same for Collin Morikawa. It would be rare to not take the seventh and eighth finishers in the points and there are numerous reasons to pick those guys based on their past credentials as well.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t make the situation any less tenuous.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re never comfortable,\u201d Morikawa said. \u201cI don’t think you’re ever comfortable until you get that call and you’re on the team. At the end of the day, this is a different type of event. I would say after qualifying, it’s been two years’ work, and the Ryder Cup is still a month away.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I hope I’ve done enough. We’ll have to wait and see. But I think \u00a0my focus right now is to try and go out and win this golf tournament. I think if I do that, then hopefully that’s enough, and we’ll see how everything plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The others in contention would\u00a0 be Ben Griffin, who finished ninth in points, Maverick McNealy, who was 10th, Bradley, Brian Harman, Andrew Novak, Cam Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns.<\/p>\n

If you assume that Thomas and Cantlay are in, then that\u2019s eight players for four spots. It\u2019s why Bradley\u2019s own candidacy makes it more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in this position before where I\u2019m trying to make the team,\u201d said Bradley, who played on the Ryder Cup team in both 2012 and 2014. \u201cThis is really strange for me to be the captain. It\u2019s not really something anyone has ever really gone through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at the board at all day. Not looking for me. Looking for where my guys are. It\u2019s just really odd. It\u2019s a really strange feeling to look at the board and have no feeling where I stand but seeing where our guys are. That\u2019s the opposite of what we do every week. Its definitely strange. I\u2019m going to be really happy when this week is over. I\u2019ve about had it with this whole thing. I\u2019m ready to figure out what we\u2019re doing and get the team together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley said he will go home to Florida after the tournament and discussions will continue. He is scheduled to go to PGA of America headquarters on Tuesday with the announcement on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a pretty good idea,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to wait to see how this week plays out. This is a huge event. Like I said, the points are a two-year process. It would be silly to have it come down to one event, one round on Sunday. But certainly this is an important event that we could look at and rely on for our players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Keegan Bradley played a clean round of golf Friday at East Lake and climbed the leaderboard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-103611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}