It didn’t take long after Keegan Bradley’s victory Sunday at the Travelers Championship for the U.S. Ryder Cup captain to consider the irony.
“My whole life, every year I was out here, I wanted to play on the Ryder Cup team, and then this would be the first year where maybe I didn’t want to,” said Bradley, a two-time Ryder Cupper, though not since 2014, who was named captain exactly a year ago Sunday.
“I just wanted to be the captain and, of course, you know, this is what happens.”
For months, Bradley has been adamant that he wouldn’t pick himself. The only way he’d be a playing captain, he’s said consistently, is if he qualified for the 12-man American team based on points.
Even in the moments after he sank a 5-footer for birdie to win the Travelers for the second time in three years, Bradley dodged the obvious question from CBS reporter Amanda Balionis.
Have you convinced yourself that you would be additive to this team now?
“Go U.S.A.!” Bradley answered.
But once he had settled behind the interview podium, Bradley had allowed himself to be realistic. His win projected to move him not only to seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking but also ninth in U.S. Ryder Cup points. The last time a top-10 player in the world was left off a Ryder Cup team was 2016, when Bubba Watson was denied a spot on the U.S. squad despite being ranked seventh in the world. Bradley is also now 10th in total strokes gained this season on Tour and third in strokes gained tee to green.
There’s a lot of golf still to be played before the six automatic selections are finalized on Aug. 17 after the BMW Championship and the six captain’s pick are chosen following the Tour Championship.
But if things were decided today, Bradley would be hard-pressed to not call his own number. He knows it, too.
“This changes the story a little bit,” Bradley said. “I never would have thought about playing if I hadn’t won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not, but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team, and we’ll see.”
When Bradley got the call a year ago, then PGA CEO Seth Waugh told Bradley that he wanted him to be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Palmer would go 4-2 that year at East Lake in a dominating U.S. victory.
“My head was spinning, I didn’t know what they were talking about, but they knew that that was a possibility and that we would have things in place for that,” Bradley said. “But you know I’m always trying to be the best that I can be, and I feel like I’m playing the best golf of my career right now.”
Later, while on the Golf Central set with Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner and Brandel Chamblee, Bradley said that if he plays at Bethpage Black, he will not relinquish his captaincy. Instead, his assistants – Jim Furyk, Webb Simpson, Kevin Kisner and Brandt Snedeker – would just absorb extra responsibilities.
“I will play if I feel like it will help the team,” Bradley added.
Right now, there’s no doubt he would.
The door is wide open for that.
