Keegan Bradley Better Bring His Clubs to Bethpage

Keegan Bradley has backed himself into a corner.

Since he was named captain of the 2025 United States Ryder Cup team, he’s said on several occasions that he’ll suit up for the squad if he’s one of the automatic qualifiers—the top six players in the rankings after the BMW Championship—but would not use one of his own captain’s picks on himself.

Well, if he wants to fulfill his duties and put together the best team possible, he has to go back on his word. There aren’t 12 Americans playing better golf than him right now. Across 15 starts this season, Bradley’s made 14 cuts, finished inside the top-25 nine times, the top-10 five times, and since missing the cut at the Masters, has finished T-33 or better in six straight straight starts.

He’s peaking at the right time.

And all that good play culminated in a come-from-behind, unthinkable W on Sunday afternoon at the Travelers Championship. Not only did he enter the final round three shots back, he trailed Tommy Fleetwood by a shot on the 72nd hole.

Both players hit perfect drives, but Fleetwood’s approach came up short and left, swinging the door back open for Bradley to step right through it. But he did more than just that. He kicked the whole damn thing down.

He stuffed a wedge to 5’8” and poured it in for the win after Fleetwood’s par putt hit some sort of debris on its way to the hole and missed right.

A joyous moment for the New England native, and utter heartbreak for the Englishman, who’s now still looking for his first win on the PGA TOUR.

After his second Travelers win in three years, Bradley is up to eighth in the U.S. Ryder Cup Rankings, comfortably inside the “next six” after the automatic qualifiers—Nos. 7-12. Not picking himself, at this point, would be malpractice.

With his son in his arms and standing on the 18th green, CBS’ Amanda Balionis asked Bradley if he’s convinced himself that he’d be an additive to the squad. All he had to say was…

“Go USA.”

So, yeah, I think it’s safe to say Keegs will be pulling double duty at Bethpage Black in a few months. But he doesn’t have to…

I saw some folks on Twitter throwing around the idea of having Bradley step down as the captain for this biennial bash so he can play unburdened by other responsibilities, and have a Mr. Tiger Woods pick up the reins.

All the press tours are done, all the extracurriculars that captains are obligated to attend are over, and it’s time to start thinking about the golf, the competition, the fight. Those are the things that matter to Tiger.

Make the call to the bullpen and bring in the closer.

It feels like Team USA could use a shot in the arm, a kick in the ass, or any other cliche you want to use. Bringing in the Big Cat would do just that.

It would have to be Bradley’s decision, this is his team. But the amount of pressure on a playing captain is undeniable, and it’s hard to focus on putting the team in the best position to win while also playing three or four matches over three days.

The best thing for Team USA might be Captain Cat and a fiery, passionate Keegan Bradley leading the player’s locker room—it'll never happen, but a man can dream.