Keegan's Cup

Thirteen years ago, at the Tournament of Champions, I invited Keegan Bradley to dinner. He agreed, but insisted on meeting at 6 p.m. because, in his words, he didn't "want to be out late." Then he reconsidered and bumped up the meal to 5:30. No wonder his teammates at St. Johns nicknamed him Grandpa. The season opener in Kapalua, Maui was a laid-back working vacation for almost everybody else, but Bradley tenaciously stuck to his killjoy routine. On New Year's Eve he was in bed by 9:30. Then he enjoyed what he called, "literally my perfect day": an early practice round, alone, followed by a long range session and then a trip to the gym. He killed the rest of the afternoon watching episodes of Breaking Bad, followed by his favorite dinner…room service. He was in bed again before 10. “I can't come here and fish or go to the beach like these other guys," Bradley said. “That's ridiculous to me. It makes me the player I am, but it also makes me crazy. It's exhausting. I mean, I don't want to sound like a psychopath. My off-weeks, when I'm with my boys, I have a good time. But when I'm at a tournament, I'm there to do everything I can to win it. I don't have any fun finishing 30th or 20th or 10th. I really don't. I get my joy in life from playing well.”

Bradley would eventually get married and have kids, but on Tour he stuck to his lone-wolf routine. It served him well—a PGA Championship, a WGC, a starring role at two Ryder Cups—until it didn’t. Bradley was snubbed from the Team USA at the 2023 Ryder Cup largely for interpersonal reasons. He was an outsider whose edgy, intense on-course persona simply didn’t vibe with the too-cool-for-school Jupiter boys club. “Let’s face it, he's always been a little quirky, a little weird,” says Jason Dufner, whom Bradley beat in a playoff at the 2011 PGA Championship. “He's very Vermont.”

But after yet another demoralizing loss, the U.S. Ryder Cup leadership needed a hard reboot. In a new light, Bradley’s supposed liabilities looked like virtues: He was not beholden to any cliques or personal relationships; he was unencumbered by recent American failures because he had been pointedly excluded from the teams. Naming Bradley, 39, as captain was a thunderbolt that will always define how this Ryder Cup is remembered. For the man himself, it forced a total reinvention, from a misunderstood loner to a leader of men. “He's a completely different person now, he really is,” says U.S. vice captain Gary Woodland. “I've known Keegan for 15 years. We've lived close to each other, we traveled together a lot. Now, I'm seeing new sides of him. I mean, he's emotional, he’s outgoing, he’s become one of the guys. Being left off the Ryder Cup team two years ago was a massive deal for him. It forced him to look inwardly. His game is good enough, obviously, so why was he left off that team? He was forced to admit some things to himself. For him to lead this team, he was going to have to make the effort to connect with the guys, to reach out, to be emotional, be vulnerable. There's a lot more that goes into this than just playing golf, and to see how Keegan has transformed himself, to see how he has stepped outside his comfort zone like he has, it shows how much this captaincy means to him. It’s true leadership.”

Bradley is a noted Boston sports fan who has attended various Super Bowls, World Series games and championship parades. He has an unabashed man-crush on Tom Brady but says Julian Edelman—the gritty, scrappy, undersized Patriots receiver—is the Boston athlete with whom he most relates. “I love his fire,” says Bradley, who grew up a competitive skier in Woodstock, Vermont was famously not recruited by any college golf programs. “He was seventh-round draft pick who came up as a quarterback but he turned himself into a wide receiver because that’s what the team needed. He's a grinder and I love that.” But now Bradley is in the Bill Belichick role, right down to the hoodies he favors on the golf course. He has played golf with Belichick but, as captain, Bradley is trying to channel a different championship Boston coach: Doc Rivers. “I like the energy he projected,” he says of the passionate but unflappable former Celtics coach. “The most important thing is, he had the respect of the players.” Bradley hasn’t reached out to Rivers for counsel but has bent the ear of two GOATs he counts as friends, Brady and Michael Jordan. (After once woofing that MJ is his personal ATM, Jordan shot back on Twitter, “Last time I looked, you were wearing MY shoes. You don't see me wearing Air Keegans…”) Says Bradley, “The most important thing they’ve told me is to just be myself. I think players can tell when the captain or the coach—whatever you want to call it—is not being authentic to who they are. So for me, I'm a fiery, excited guy, a rah-rah guy, and I’m not going to hide that, because two of the greatest athletes of all-time keep telling me it's important for the leader of a team to just be who they are.”

It's one of the most remarkable things I've seen in 17 years on TOUR.

Bradley’s metamorphosis into the heartbeat of Team USA began at last year’s Presidents Cup, where he clinched the winning point in a hard-fought singles win versus Si Woo Kim. It was Bradley’s first time wearing the stars and stripes since the 2014 Ryder Cup. “His passion was really infectious,” says Max Homa. “His energy was nonstop and that definitely rubbed off. It was cool to see how he connected with all of us.” Bradley was so grateful for the support of his teammates and captains that he sent each of them a bottle of tequila afterward.

Throughout this season, Bradley had numerous lunches, driving range rap sessions and practice round money games with prospective team members. Once the tournaments began, he kept pushing to make his own team by finishing in the top six of the automatic qualifying criteria. A victory at Hartford—his eighth on TOUR— turbocharged his bid. “With everything he's had to deal with,” says Woodland, “all the obligations and the preparation, all the media scrutiny, I have no idea how he was playing golf at such a high level, I really don't. It's one of the most remarkable things I've seen in 17 years on Tour.”

Knowing what he has given up, his players are gonna run through a wall for him.

And then Bradley made the excruciating decision not to pick himself for the team. He may never get another chance to play in a Ryder Cup but, he says, “It’s not about me. It’s about winning the Ryder Cup for the United States. That is literally the only thing that matters.” Bradley’s selflessness and broad perspective cemented his standing as a towering figure in the game. “Any other captain would have picked him for the team,” says TOUR veteran Kevin Streelman. “The way he has handled all of this has been incredibly impressive. Knowing what he has given up, his players are gonna run through a wall for him.”

Or, more impressively, get on an airplane. In 2023, most of Team USA went into Rome rusty after a month off following the FedEx Cup. Bradley talked ten of his players into competing in the sleepy Procore Championship in Napa two weeks ago (and LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau flew in for the hang but was not allowed to tee it up, per the ongoing tour wars). Bradley organized a rental house for the players, wives and caddies to hang out and bond. At dinner on their initial night in town, Bradley got up to address his team for the first time since it had been finalized. He had tears in his eyes. Every person in the room got swept up in the emotion of the moment. “That was so awesome to see,” says Woodland. “What a journey it’s been for him.”

At the Ryder Cup, captains tend to get too much credit and too much blame. But not this time. Bradley’s decision not to pick himself as a player, when he is clearly one of the 12 best Americans, will loom over everything that transpires. His ability to inspire will be the crucial x-factor against a stacked and cohesive European squad.

Win or lose, this is Keegan’s Cup now.