Keegan Bradley is the man who will lead the United States Ryder Cup team in their quest to regain the trophy at New York’s Bethpage in September 2025.
The 39 will be officially unveiled tomorrow at 17:00 Irish time, but the news has been leaked ahead of schedule and was first reported by Sports Illustrated, shortly after a The Telegraph piece announcing that Tiger Woods, who had been the reported frontrunner for the role, had turned it down.
Bradley appeared in two Ryder Cups, making his debut in 2012 at Medinah and forming a formidable partnership with Phil Mickelson, his other appearance came at Gleneagles in 2014 and he was unfortunate not to make it a hat-trick of appearances after an excellent 2023 saw him be the highest-ranked player not to get a captain’s pick from Zach Johnson.
But he’s now set to be the youngest U.S. Ryder Cup captain since 34-year-old Arnold Palmer captained the side in 1963, a year before capturing his fourth Masters title and seventh and final major.
“I am incredibly honoured to accept this opportunity to captain the United States Team at the 2025 Ryder Cup,” said Bradley. “I would like to thank the PGA of America Ryder Cup Committee for their trust in me as we embark on this journey to Bethpage Black.
“My passion and appreciation for golf’s greatest team event have never been stronger.
“The Ryder Cup is unlike any other competition in our sport, and this edition will undoubtedly be particularly special given the rich history and enthusiastic spectators at this iconic course. I look forward to beginning preparations for 2025.”
“Keegan’s past Ryder Cup experience, strong relationships and unwavering passion for this event will prove invaluable as he guides the US team over the next year and a half,” added PGA of America president John Lindert.
“We are confident that with Keegan at the helm, the 2025 US Ryder Cup team will compete at Bethpage with the same confidence and determination that has defined his career.”
Bradley’s passion for the event has been well publicised, so his words will come as no surprise, but he has yet to taste success in the event and hasn’t served his apprenticeship as one of the recent vice captains, something that’s seen as one of the keys to Europe’s success.
However, Bradley is no stranger to upsetting the odds, winning the 2011 PGA Championship in his first ever major start and though he hails from neighbouring Vermont, will likely find kindred spirits in the boisterous New York crowd who are expected to bring a whole new meaning to the terms ‘loud’ and ‘hostile’.
And he’s still haunted by the manner of the defeat at Medinah in 2012 as he explained to bunkered.co.uk in 2020.
“I just remember how bummed out I felt,” he said. “It was a tough deal. On Sunday night, that’s usually the night that everybody gets together, has some drinks and lets their hair down at the end of a long week. There was none of that for us.
“The next morning, I remember getting up and getting ready to leave and they were dismantling the team room, taking down the name tags, the decorations and so on, and it was really brutal. Like, ‘ten out of ten’ brutal.
“And like I said, it’s something I think about pretty often because the memories are so conflicted. On the one hand, they’re incredible but then, on the other, they’re not. I often find myself thinking what it would have been like if we would have won.”
Time will tell whether the bold move pays off or not, but after the lacklustre performance in Rome, something had to change. And something certainly has.