Should Keegan Bradley pull off the iconic Arnold Palmer 1962 Ryder Cup move? If you ask Rory McIlroy, he shouldn’t. Logistical nightmares, he reasons. Having faced the prospect of possibly becoming a playing captain last year, McIlroy pointed at the “commitments of the captains” and added, “there’s a lot of things that people don’t see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup.” And so, becoming a playing captain in the current golf atmosphere, where the “Ryder Cup has become so big,” would be nothing short of a nightmare.
Of course, this dismissive stance of Bradley possibly pulling off (or not) that move does not take away the fact that he is playing well. Brilliantly well, in fact. Just this season, aside from his Travelers Championship win, he has posted 5 top 10s and 9 top 25s. And we are not even talking about his other stats. Like SG, where he ranks 14th (0.994) on the Tour, or SG off the tee, where he is placed 29th (0.351). On top of that, he is currently 10th in the Ryder Cup standings with 8103.00 points.
Although 2004 Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton acknowledges these numbers, he still thinks Bradley should avoid being a playing captain. In a recent appearance on Golf’s Subpar, Sutton began, “You know, I think he ought to play, to be honest with you. If he called me and asked me, what I’d say is play. I always had more fun playing because you can affect the outcome playing.” But what happens if Bradley decides he can handle the pressure of being a playing captain? Would Sutton be on board with that?
Sutton simply replies, “Just play.” If Bradley chooses to go with the role anwyay, he’d be juggling prep for his own matches with captain duties like picking pairings, firing up the team with speeches, and dealing with media. Assessing himself objectively would be tough since he’d be competing for spots with his own teammates. So, Sutton’s reply makes sense.
On the other hand, when one of the hosts, Drew Stoltz, repeats, “Just play. Defer the captaincy to someone else,” the veteran pro agrees, “Yeah, because it takes your mind off of the playing if you’ve got to make some decisions on being a captain, too. He’s got qualified people that are assistants. He can let one of them do it, you know.”
3 spots locked up on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team
This time next week we’ll have all six automatic qualifiers headed to Bethpage Black.
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— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) August 11, 2025
Sutton’s right on point. Jim Furyk’s a Ryder Cup vet, playing in nine of them and leading the 2018 team in Paris. Webb Simpson’s played the Ryder Cup three times. Branden Snedeker’s got solid Ryder Cup creds: played in two editions, went 3-0-0 in 2016 at Hazeltine when the US won.
Additionally, Kevin Kisner’s got Presidents Cup experience. He played in two editions and was a captain’s assistant in 2024 at Royal Montreal. Gary Woodland is stepping into Ryder Cup involvement for the first time, though he played in the Presidents Cup in 2019, bagging 1.5 points. Essentially, Keegan Bradley has plenty of options and vice-captains to defer the captain responsibilities, if he is ready for it.
Captain America definitely thinks he is.
Keegan Bradley says, “we’re ready” against the Ryder Cup playing captain arguments
Keegan Bradley’s feeling the pressure ramp up as the Ryder Cup looms, but he’s dead set on being ready for the player-captain combination – even with Rory McIlroy saying it can’t be done. But with Bradley at the helm at Bethpage Black, it looks like it’ll happen. Bradley’s not biting back at McIlroy, instead admitting ahead of the 2025 BMW Championship, “He might be right. We don’t know. No one knows.”
But he’s sounded determined, banking on his vice-captains to share the load, insisting, “We’re ready for this if it happens.” With his captaincy duties parked when he’s playing, Bradley’s snagged a win this year and’s playing some of his best golf, sitting 10th in USA Ryder Cup standings. And he’s hyped to prove doubters wrong if he ends up playing at Bethpage Black.
And Bradley’s fellow Americans do feel that.
Rickie Fowler, for instance, said Tuesday ahead of the BMW Championship, “Yeah, I would pick him too. I think it would be hard to find really any or many Americans that would argue that point.” Fellow pro, Patrick Cantlay shared a similar response, saying, “If I was the captain, I’d pick Keegan [Bradley]. I think he’s [Bradley] played great.”
Keegan Bradley’s got about two weeks to make it into the top 6 of the U.S. Ryder Cup standings to lock in an automatic spot on the team. If Bradley manages to squeeze into the top 6 by then, his spot on the team is pretty much fixed.
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