‘He’s not in tight with them’: Fred Couples explains Keegan Bradley Ryder Cup snub
Ryder Cup vice captain Fred Couples said Keegan Bradley wasn’t ‘in tight’ with the rest of the US candidates
Keegan Bradley described himself as an “outsider” after missing out on a Ryder Cup pick.
US vice-captain Fred Couples added credence to this statement when explaining why Zach Johnson overlooked Bradley as one of his six Captain’s picks.
Couples suggested the picks were made with partnerships in mind on his SiriusXM PGA Tour show, and this contributed to Bradley being overlooked.
“There’s no ‘outside’,” he said. “I saw Keegan Bradley’s statement. I left him off the team (as 2011 Presidents Cup captain) when he won a PGA. It’s the harshest thing you can do to a guy.
“I feel like it’s the players’ team, but you can’t have guys telling the captain ‘Here’s who I want, should be on it,’ unless you’re a Jordan Spieth or a Scottie Scheffler, or a Cantlay.”
“Now they’re picking other guys that may not have the record of Keegan, but they pair them up perfectly,” Couples added.
“I like Keegan. He’s an older guy, and he’s not in tight with them. If that had 20 per cent to do with it, I won’t argue that.”
Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka were chosen by Johnson, while the other picks of Justin Thomas and Sam Burns were perhaps spots for debate.
Bradley’s snub from the US side heading to Rome has been a point of contention as the 2011 PGA Champion won twice on the PGA Tour this season.
He won the ZOZO Championship last October before claiming the Travelers Championship in June. He also came second at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Bradley last played in the Ryder Cup in 2014 at Gleneagles, two years after making his debut at Medinah. In a post on X, the 37-year-old vowed not to open his 2012 Ryder Cup bag until he wins the event.
Cameron Young wasn’t chosen despite finishing the season in 9th on the Team USA Ryder Cup standings.
He also finished runner-up at the WGC Match Play, while Couples himself had said earlier in the year that Young “would be in Italy”.
What do you make of this Fred Couples Ryder Cup admission? Who would you have left out? Let us know with a post on X!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
