Keegan Bradley might do what no golfer has done in 62 years at Bethpage in 2025.
Arnold Palmer captained America on his second Ryder Cup appearance in the 15th edition of the event, scoring four points in six matches across what used to be six sessions.
The concept of the playing captain preceded the creation of the European team even by 16 years, exemplifying how rare it is to simultaneously lead and compete at the event. This trend could be bucked by one of the tournament’s most left-field captaincy selections ever next year.
Bradley could make his own team but, as Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murray points out, this could cause problems if his leadership and competitive duties become spinning plates from now until the end of the qualifying process, which is just over five weeks before the balls go up in New York in September.
“The difficulty is it’s hard to get a young captain because a young captain is more than likely still playing and still playing well, someone who is thought of as a captain. The problem Bradley will have is that his inclusion, should he make the side, will go all the way to the end of the qualifying process. So much work is done from now until the end of that process,” Murray told NCG.
“If he does make it, what happens then? To me, he would have to have someone alongside him right now and they take the journey together to that date and if he does make the team, and he’s more than capable, a good competitor and a good player, if he does it then the other lad is up to speed, the one who has been shadowing him for nine months. The question is, who would shadow him?
“Because that’s the only way it would work. It’d be no good him doing all of the work until (the end of the qualifying period),” Murray added about Bradley, who has appointed Brandt Snedeker and Webb Simpson as vice-captains. “Say he finishes second in the Tour Championship, gets enough points to get in the top six and then it’s, ‘Well I don’t play’, I don’t think a player would want to step down.
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“Maybe he has already made that decision. If he was to play, right now he would need someone right alongside him from now until August.”
Murray spoke to NCG in November 2024 and now in June 2025, Bradley won the Travelers Championship and propelled himself into the thick of Ryder Cup contention.
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Keegan Bradley: Ryder Cup captain under pressure to maintain home team success
The result of the Ryder Cup will be forensically dissected regardless of who wins, scrutiny Palmer likely wasn’t afraid of as the playing captain in 1963 at Atlanta Athletic Club, against a GB team weaker than the European team that emerged in 1979 and what has developed to today’s outlook.
The daggers will jab Bradley if he doesn’t win the 2025 Ryder Cup for America for many reasons, one being that a home team has lost once since 2006 and another being the PGA of America’s outlandish idea to select him in the first place, whether that was his making or not.
Murray, a former tour player and caller of countless Ryder Cup matches since his booth debut in 1989, suspected Bradley’s form might dip given the nature of the captaincy in this era. He will need to memorise every statistic about every player and make sure every blade of grass is bent to favour the US team at Bethpage.
There is also the underdog complex that surrounds Team Europe. Team USA regularly possesses more major champions, higher-ranked players and a higher tally of PGA Tour wins, but Murray told NCG he wasn’t fooled by these numbers on paper and believes Europe can repeat the heroics of Medinah in 2012, the last time they, or anyone, won a Ryder Cup on away soil.
“There’s something about that that’s not right. When you say they’re the best on paper, I know exactly what you mean as if you look at the world rankings and the average world ranking, they’re always going to be ahead of the Europeans, and everyone looks at that and thinks it’s the strongest team,” he said.
“They’re playing for more world ranking points than anyone else, so that’s why on paper, they’re going to be the strongest team. I don’t think we’ll stand at Bethpage Black on the first tee next September and think, ‘This is going to be tough’.
“We say it every two years and you look at the performance in Rome, where on the first day, I look at Bob MacIntyre and he looked out of his depth, because it’s his first Ryder Cup and there are millions there and he hasn’t won a lot by that time, and yet Justin Rose put his arm around him and they managed to get half a point and then Bob went win-win. Three games played, no losses.
“I see that with the European side, they have a strong connection with each other, the Americans to me are more individual players. Our players are individuals for most of the year, but for some reason when they get together, they gel better, they work as a unit rather than individuals.
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“They’re wonderful individual golfers,” he added. “Scottie Scheffler is a fantastic player. Over the last three years, he’s been number one by quite a long way – I just feel they turn up and they play, then they turn up, they play and they leave.
“I don’t see the closeness that the Europeans enjoy in the Americans. I see them as wonderful golfers, but individual golfers. I don’t want to turn around and say, the New York crowd is going to be loud, it’s going to be difficult to play against. Donald will prepare them for all of that.”
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Murray, the European players and many fans supported Luke Donald‘s reappointment as captain. He emotionally galvanised the 12-man European team to win in 2023 with his calm and sophisticated manner, having been a stellar competitor in his playing career.
The Englishman played in four Ryder Cups and won four Ryder Cups, spent 56 weeks as World No.1 and made eight top-10s at major championships. His career stacked up to make him an appropriate candidate for Team Europe, but his suitability for the role became more obvious in Rome and there was seemingly no need to go looking for another leader for 2025.
Donald will be the first Ryder Cup captain to serve successive terms since Bernard Gallacher in 1995 and he will hope to harness the camaraderie again that has so often given Europe an extra kick.
“We also have one of the best Ryder Cup captains that we’ve ever had in Luke Donald,” Murray said. “He’s just phenomenal and a lot of the things behind the scenes that people don’t know about, he did them quickly, quietly and efficiently, and he had that team – it was like one great player these 12 players and I think that is so important at a Ryder Cup because everything happens very quickly at the Ryder Cup.
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“Once you tee off in the fourballs or the foursomes on a Friday morning, before you know it, you’re into the singles on Sunday, and it moves at a tremendous pace. If you’ve got that momentum for these players to take out on to the golf course, then it’s worth two or three points.
“Donald did that brilliantly. I thought it was an outstanding performance.”
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