Padraig Harrington described Keegan Bradley as a “steely, determined and tough” competitor and a “very strong” choice of Ryder Cup captain for the USA in 2025.
The sport was largely stunned when the World No.19 was revealed to be America’s next captain succeeding Zach Johnson, given his relatively young age of 38 and high level of competitiveness on the PGA Tour.
After Tiger Woods turned down the opportunity to lead the United States at Bethpage in two Septembers time, attention turned to former Open champion Stewart Cink, but the PGA of America headed left of left field by calling upon Bradley who has won on the PGA Tour twice in the last two years.
Harrington, the captain of Europe at the 2021 Ryder Cup, was less surprised and full of praise for the decision to appoint the 2011 PGA Championship winner who was in contention for a captain’s pick ahead of the 2023 edition, only to be given an agonising ‘no’ which was caught by Netflix cameras for the documentary series Full Swing.
“We knew that Tiger was there but… maybe Tiger for 2027 at Adare Manor looks (likely),” he told NCG here at the Genesis Scottish Open. “He feels like he’s busy in his life at the moment, so that probably only left Stewart Cink and Keegan.
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“Keegan being a PGA Champion, I suppose the PGA (of America) are always going to go with Keegan in that situation. Stewart is obviously a bit more in the establishment of Ryder Cups, he’s been there before as the vice-captain.
“It’ll be new to Keegan, personality-wise he will be a tough competitor for Europe to go up against. He’s quite an individual, steely, determined, so I think they’ve picked a very strong Ryder Cup captain.
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“The thing for them is the fact he didn’t get picked this time, he’s already said he’s going to pick the best players, which is a shot across the bow that ‘I was the best player last time and I didn’t get picked’.
“I know he’s kind of referring to LIV Golf in that statement as well. He is a little bit of an outsider, he said it himself, he’s the one who said that. But from a European perspective, he is a tough character and Europe is going to have a tough job going in at Bethpage full stop, and I think Keegan will be a tough character and enjoy the home advantage.”
Padraig Harrington: Ryder Cup captaincy chance is never guaranteed to come around again
Europe were beaten in historically brutal fashion three years ago when Harrington took the reins, albeit against a rampant American side that wasn’t for stopping as they showed with a 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. The three-time major winner from Dublin played in six Ryder Cup teams himself.
Bradley revealed he didn’t know he was being considered to be US captain until two weeks before the press conference in New York that coincided with the official announcement. He admitted to being shocked and declared he’ll choose the “12 best Americans” and could consider reducing the number of captain’s picks from six to four.
Despite his surprise at his own ascension to the throne of the US Ryder Cup set-up, Harrington believes Bradley could not pass up this opportunity as there is no guarantee if and when the baton will ever be passed into your hands.
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“He’s a good enough player, that was interesting,” he added. “It probably was an opportunity that he couldn’t turn down. You’re never sure if you’re going to get the Ryder Cup again. It fits in nicely, it’s in New York, he went to college there.
“It’s a great opportunity and maybe Tiger takes the next one, I don’t know who’s coming on. You can’t be guaranteed – it’s one of these things you can wait in line for, you just can’t be guaranteed. If they miss you, will your turn come back up again?”
As is usually the case, Europe were underdogs compared with the USA at Marco Simone in Italy last year, but the red, white and blue team containing seven major champions were convincingly beaten and the continent reaffirmed its stranglehold on the biennial dust-up that was first played in 1927.
Europe has won eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups and while being part of four winning teams, Harrington believes this level of success has galvanised the Americans and now both sides are “deeply” determined to wrestle the trophy back each time they lock horns.
“We have to say nowadays that the greatest achievement of Europe in the Ryder Cup is we make the US care,” he added. “You could’ve said 20 or 30 years ago that they were looking for payment to play. Not anymore, they’re there and they don’t want to lose. They’re desperate to win… During the week, both sides deeply want to play and you could see the last time, there was a bit of argy bargy which always adds to the week.
“It’s a good thing. Back in my day, it was always that a conspiracy was going on, that’s kind of gone away because of the fact the players are very familiar with each other. But there’s still thankfully a bit of niggle on the golf course to make it the Ryder Cup that we so love.”
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