Two winners on the PGA Tour have encouraged Keegan Bradley to make a difficult and unprecedented decision ahead of the Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black is fast approaching, and the captains of Team Europe and Team USA are faced with the unenviable task of picking their teams.
Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose are confirmed for Team Europe. Meanwhile, world number one Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun and Xander Schauffele have qualified for Team USA.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley still has decisions to make on who will be his six captain’s picks in New York. Two PGA Tour winners weighed in on the selection and urged Bradley to make a difficult choice.
Rickie Fowler and Patrick Cantlay want Keegan Bradley to pick himself for the Ryder Cup
Captain Bradley is ranked 10th in America’s Ryder Cup standings going into the BMW Championship. He said that no one outside the top six can expect to be picked, but he has proved himself to be one of the top 12 American golfers this season.
The 2025 Travelers Championship winner, Bradley, said he has been considering picking himself as player-captain for a year. He has three top 10s in 2025, and finished T8 at the PGA Championship.
Eight-time PGA Tour winner Patrick Cantlay, who is also vying for a Ryder Cup spot, said Bradley should pick himself. Bradley said, “If I was the captain, I’d pick Keegan”, when asked about whether Bradley should pick him.
“I think he’s played great. He has a lot of responsibility that week, so if he feels that he can play golf like a normal week given all of his other responsibilities. I’m just saying that if I was the captain, I think he’s definitely one of the best American players and his results have shown that.”
Six-time Tour winner Rickie Fowler agreed with Cantlay, adding, “I would pick him too. It would be hard to find any Americans that would argue that point. I know he’s maybe getting to the area of the 10, 11 area on points where he may think, ‘Is this a spot where I should not pick myself?’
“A lot of times there’s really only one or two people inside the top 12 on points that don’t get picked. I don’t think you’re going to find many, if any, Americans that say he shouldn’t be on the team.”
Keegan Bradley will face immense pressure if he picks himself as playing captain for the Ryder Cup
Not only did Europe humiliate the USA last Ryder Cup, they also pulled off a historic comeback win last time the Ryder Cup came to New York. The Americans are highly motivated to put both of those wrongs right in September.
Bryson DeChambeau hinted at this at The Open Championship. He said the Americans are “tired of losing”, and there would be “a tsunami of a crowd that’s going to be rooting for Team USA.”
Rich Beem said he was worried about Bradley picking himself, due to the incredible amount of pressure that would be heaped on him in front of his home crowd. The captain is always under the microscope at the Ryder Cup, let alone a playing captain.
If DeChambeau is right, and the crowd in New York is as raucous as we expect, it will be a pressure cooker environment for a playing captain.
But it seems the Americans are behind him, so there will be no bad blood for whoever misses out if Bradley chooses to play. The last few events of the season could well inform his decision.