PGA Tour Players Plea For Keegan Bradley To Pick Himself, Be Playing Captain For Ryder Cup
Players are officially going on record for Keegan Bradley to be a playing captain for the U.S. team.
The 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black will officially get underway in less than 45 days, and the biggest question facing the U.S. team is whether Keegan Bradley will solely serve as captain, or will he wear two separate hats, and be a playing captain.
Bradley will announce his six captain's picks later this month following the conclusion of next weekend's Tour Championship leaving a little less than two weeks for things to naturally fall into place. However, the way things have been trending, the 39-year-old will likely wait until the selection day to let the world know whether he'll be serving one role or two on the 12-player team.
Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley Can't Wait For U.S. To Be Doubted At Bethpage Black
Bradley currently ranks 10th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, meaning if he hadn't been named captain, he'd be among the heaviest of favorites to be selected via captain's pick. When you're the captain, however, that makes things a bit more complicated.
Keegan Bradley has a tough decision to make regarding the 2025 Ryder Cup. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images and Gary Kellner/PGA of America/Getty Images)
Ryder Cup veterans Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler, however, don't see it that way. They've officially gone to bat for Bradley using one of his six captain's picks on himself for the biennial event.
"I know he's maybe getting to the area on points of where he may think, like, 'Is this a spot where I should not pick myself?'" Fowler said ahead of this week's BMW Championship. "I feel like a lot of times there's really only one or two [golfers] that maybe fluctuate based off of people that were maybe inside the top 12 on points that maybe don't get picked.
"Like I said, I don't think you're going to find any or many Americans that are going to argue that he shouldn't be on the team."
Barring back-to-back wins to close out the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Fowler will not make the cut for the U.S. team. Cantlay, however, is a favorite to receive a captain's pick, and he's all-in on Bradley teeing it up at Bethpage.
"If I was the captain, I'd pick Keegan. I think he's played great," Cantlay said. "I think he has a lot of responsibility that week. So if he feels that he can play golf like a normal week, given all his other responsibilities, I'm just saying that if I was the captain, I think he's definitely one of the best American players, and his results have shown that."
Bradley represented the U.S. in both the 2012 and 2014 Ryder Cups, both losses for the American side, and holds an overall record of 4-3-0. After winning the Travelers Championship in June, he has not finished inside the Top 30 over the course of his last four starts, which also includes a missed cut at the Wyndham Championship.