Keegan Bradley Leaves Himself Off Ryder Cup Team: Bold Call or Costly Mistake?

Back in May, I was one of a small group of reporters who spoke to Keegan Bradley at the Truist Championship outside Philadelphia. Bradley was well out of contention by the weekend, yet he was hearing some of the biggest cheers on the course.

They chanted not just his name, but “U-S-A” with every step he took.

“I get this every week, and I did not expect this,” the U.S. Ryder Cup captain told us. “I did not expect to go to gas stations and people yelling at me, go to restaurants, people buying me dinner and desserts and drinks. … It’s been a bonus, but it’s really special.”

Golf fans nationwide have rallied behind Bradley in the lead-up to next month’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Many pleaded for him to put himself on the team, to show what was missing when he was snubbed in 2023.

He didn’t listen. And we’re about to find out if it was the right call.

On Wednesday, Bradley announced his six captain’s picks to join the six automatic qualifiers on Long Island: Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, and first-timers Cameron Young and Ben Griffin.

Bradley arguably had a better 2025 season than at least three of those players. Morikawa, Cantlay and Burns have gone winless on the PGA Tour since 2023. But each has been part of winning Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup squads in recent years.

It feels odd for Bradley to lean on the old guard. Critics argued that a boys’ club mentality cost him a spot in 2023 in favor of a struggling Thomas and Rickie Fowler, players who leaned on friendships and vague chemistry arguments.

Chemistry hardly paid off, as Thomas and Fowler went a combined 1-4-1 in a 16 1/2-11 1/2 loss to Team Europe while Bradley watched from home.

Bradley declared after his appointment 13 months ago that he would not spend a captain’s pick on himself. That fell by the wayside during a late-career resurgence with wins at the 2024 BMW Championship and 2025 Travelers.

Come Wednesday, Bradley pitched his decision as a sacrifice for the good of the team.

“It broke my heart not to play, it really did,” he said. “Because you work forever to make these teams. But ultimately I was chosen to do a job: I was chosen to be the captain of this team. And my ultimate goal to start this whole thing was to be the best captain that I could be, and this is how I felt like I could do this.”

He knew the stakes. Last Friday he said whatever he chose to do would be controversial. He called it “the biggest decision of (his) life,” presumably counting the decisions to marry his wife and have two children.

Yes, keeping himself off the roster frees him up to focus solely on captain’s duties, from strategy and team-room cohesion to media commitments and sponsor obligations. Bradley doesn’t need to keep his own game sharp on top of all that.

But the U.S. could use a player as well-rounded and experienced as Bradley on the roster. Not even for all five sessions—he could play once a day, and his tee-to-green game would complement just about any teammate in four-ball or foursomes.

Whether Bradley admits it or not, the biggest reason he should be playing is that American golf fans have embraced him. They watched Full Swing document his heartbreak in 2023 and wanted redemption.

After all, there’s no greater show in golf than a Ryder Cup.

Picture the first match Friday: throngs of New Yorkers (Donald Trump among them) filling the stands and flattening the grass around the first fairway. Keegan Bradley appears, and then his caddie hands him a driver.

There are only so many ways to squeeze every drop of home-field advantage out of a Ryder Cup. You don’t get there with an off-putting figure like Cantlay, not after his strange no-hat “protest” in Rome. For Bradley, fans would go ballistic.

It won’t matter if the U.S. wins back the Cup. But if the team is a few points short Sunday, no one will be wondering “What if?” louder than Bradley himself.