Keegan Bradley was not the PGA of America’s first choice to supplement the US Ryder Cup team of 2025 that will try to struggle the trophy of the Europeans of Bethpage Black next month. For years, Phil Mickelson, who first made himself loved by new VultureERS with his spicy second place in the US Open from 2002 at Bethpage, was almost a lock to take on the role. But then Liv and Mickelson’s defect and therefore the need for a new skipper came.
Tiger Woods? The job was his if he wanted it. But after he was tormented about the decision for months, Woods decided in May last year that he was too busy with his PGA Tour Policy Board -Rol, TGL tasks and parenting responsibilities to give a Ryder Cup captain the time and attention it required.
But that did not mean that Woods would completely withdraw from the process, starting with him who expressed his views on who should have to Be captain. When a PGA from America director Woods suggested to name Bradley to Bradley, Woods thought that Bradley was ‘a brilliant choice’, a person near the Captain selection process told me earlier this week.
That respect works in two ways and has been released in Woods in an important advisory role from Bradley in the past year. “He is being consulted,” said the team source of Woods. “And I know he feels that he is part of Keegan’s decisions and how he thinks about it, and Keegan has had enormously respectful for that. Without giving [Woods] A big role, I think it is balanced and a bit suitable. He has been a kind of informal adviser or Dutch uncle. “
Such a chance to choose Woods’ brain came earlier this year when Bradley and Woods in the Seminole Pro member were linked in South Florida, an exclusive one-day event that brings a lot of the world’s best players from the business world and beyond every year. But Woods was not the only font of wisdom in the group. Together with them, Shane Battier, the former NBA star who spent his student years at Duke University, was under the supervision of the legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski. Bradley listened carefully, while Battier spoke about the team construction tactics and methods of coach K’s that he used to inspire his players and to earn their loyalty and trust.
Woods does not yet have a Ryder Cup team captain, but he helped a Presiden Cup team in 2019 when he expressed one of the picks of his four captain to himself. Woods made that self -selection particularly well suited to advise Bradley on the decision that had been on Bradley’s shoulders before Wednesday months as a lead weight: should he call himself after his own team? This would be defensible in view of the excellent form of Bradley this season. But the potential disadvantage of wearing two hats was also not difficult to see. Woods could relate to Bradley’s conundrum, which brought Bradley to consult Woods “a ton” about the issue, Bradley said at the Open Championship in July. Bradley added: “During this process he is one of the most helpful people I have had.‘
If Bradley is impressed by Woods, the opposite also seems to be true. In the aftermath of Bradley’s Wednesday press conference in Frisco, Texas, where he announced his jokert signs and explained his decision cool to abandon himself, Woods sent an SMS close to the team. The thrust of the message: “Our boy just crushed it. That was a great press.”
Assessment Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson is thinking of the ‘King’ | Weekend 9
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Nick Piastowski
It was. Bradley was composed and prepared. He offered color where he could (“It broke my heart not to play. It really”) while he protected other Intel (as far as his golf pal, Michael Jordan, could appear on Bethpage, Bradley said, “I’m not going to speak for him.”)
PGA from American officials knew that they might have brought Bradley into an uncomfortable bond when they asked him to be a captain when he was still at the top of his game. And yes, that’s exactly what happened. The fact that Bradley played just as well as he did in 2025 winning the Travelers Championship and five other Top-10 Finishes recorded the decision of his captain-pick unbearable. “I think we put him in a difficult place,” the source said close to the team. “We knew it at the time. He knew it at the time.” And while the year came out, the source added: “It could probably not have been a more difficult place.”
Do you regret the decision makers? None, the source said. “He did everything we hope he would do in terms of leadership and transparency and inclusiveness and kind of everything. And he does it with an iron fist. He has taken a lot of advice, but he certainly makes the decisions.”
When Bradley accepted the captain, he was a bit of a lonely wolf on tour of his own admission. Through a large part of his career, he made it a point to prevent him from dealing with his opponents during tournaments, and lived “in the shade”, as he said it on Wednesday. He would grind the reach, play his round and then retire to his hotel. He believed to make friends, He told CNN Last year, “would hurt me in one way or another.” More recently, however, the perspective of Bradley was reversed – and especially during his captain.
“One of the things he talks about a lot, which I think is significant,” the team source said, “is how this generation of players are kind of always rooting for each other and are friends, or their wives are friends, and they’re legitimately hoping, you know, if Jordan’s not winning, he’s rooting for JT or Scottie or whoever.
“I think that has changed him. I think he likes this [approach] More and appreciates it. “
How real are those bonds? The Ryder Cup will reveal that. It always does.
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