Why Keegan Bradley looks likely to be first Ryder Cup playing captain since 1963

Not after Keegan Bradley, the man appointed by the PGA of America, to lead the United States into battle in the biennial match at Bethpage Black on Long Island in September, landed an eye-catching win in the Travelers Championship on Sunday and suddenly started talking up such a possibility.

When he agreed to take on the post just under a year ago, it was apparent that Bradley, who had been controversially overlooked by Zach Johnson for the 2023 match in Rome, had a chance of making his own team.

He’d done a decent job of dancing around the subject when asked about the possibility of him being a playing captain if that was indeed the case, but has now been forced to admit that a huge call is looming on the horizon.

On the back of winning the PGA Tour’s latest $20 million Signature Event, the 38-year-old is up to a career-best seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking and now sits ninth on the US Ryder Cup points list.

Only Scottie Scheffler, who has already qualified for the team, Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Ben Griffin sit ahead of him, with Bradley now ahead of Harris English, Maverick McNealy and Brian Harman.

“Listen, this changes the story a little bit,” admitted Bradley as he savoured his eighth PGA Tour title triumph and second success in this particular event in three years. “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.”

I have to admit that my initial reaction to the possibility of this edition involving a playing captain was that it shouldn’t happen because I honestly don’t think it’s a role that can be taken on in the Ryder Cup these days.

With all due respect to those who did so in the past, there’s so much more required from a captain these days, especially so when it comes to media commitments during the week, and it just seems an almost impossible role to take on.

Bradley couldn’t be involved in key decisions about pairings if he was in the heat of the battle in a morning match and would he be able to play his best golf over the three days if he was trying to balance two roles instead of just one?

I now have a feeling, though, that Bradley will decide to be a playing captain rather than, for example, handing over the reins to Jim Furyk, who is currently set to be a vice captain along with Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Kisner.

As was evidenced at TPC River Highlands at Cromwell in Connecticut on Sunday, the two-time Ryder Cup player is a hugely-popular figure with American fans and will have a galvanising effect if he stays as captain but also decides to play as well.

Yes, that would create some issues, but, with all due respect to Furyk and the other vice captains, the home fans will only want one man to be leading the US into battle against the Europeans later in the year and, right now, it seems to be a risk worth taking.

Not, of course, that European captain Luke Donald will be either paying attention to or getting worried about what or what might not happen in the 45th edition from an American perspective.

The Englishman already has a tried-and-tested template from the 2023 match at Marco Simone Golf Club and has been working hard to add elements to it that can give Europe a chance to land the event’s first away win since 2012.

There’s still a fair bit to go, including the Genesis Scottish Open, The Open and the FedEx Cup Play-Offs, but Donald’s team is shaping up very nicely indeed, with Rory McIlroy having already secured his spot and Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Bob MacIntyre, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka being the others currently in the automatic berths.

With Rasmus Hojgaard, Ludvig Aberg, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland, Thomas Detry and Matt Wallace next on the points list and Jon Rahm, of course, set to be a certainty if he needs a captain’s pick, it’s probably looking not too far off how Donald would want it to be, though it’s likely, of course, that someone will come with a late charge and throw one of those spanners in the works.

The bigger question, though, is how late will Bradley leave it to make his call and, by the sounds of things, the PGA of America appointed him half expecting that he would indeed end up being a playing captain.

“To be honest with you, I never really planned on playing,” he admitted on Sunday. “I really wanted to just be the captain. I really felt strongly about that. I want to serve the guys. They asked me to do a job. I want to do it to the best of my abilities.

“Now, with the amazing vice captains that I have, and I have a better perspective of playing in the Presidents Cup and being around a lot of the guys, I feel a lot more comfortable if I went that route.”

Palmer may have been a winning playing captain in 1963, but that was at a time when the US totally dominated the Ryder Cup. That, of course, is not the case anymore and Europe will be ready in September no matter who is at the helm for the Americans in New York.