Keegan Bradley has until Wednesday to decide on his six wildcard picks for next month’s Ryder Cup, with the Team USA captain yet to reveal whether or not he will include himself
Keegan Bradley says his selection process for Team USA at the Ryder Cup is going to be ‘pretty wild’
Team USA captain Keegan Bradley has described the process of selecting his six wildcard picks for the upcoming Ryder Cup as “wild”, with Donald Trump confirming his plans to attend the tournament.
He’s tasked with assembling a winning team to compete at Bethpage Black next month. Already, Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English, and Bryson DeChambeau have secured their spots for September’s tournament.
Now, Bradley must determine who will join them in facing a European team eager to retain their title on American turf. One of Bradley’s toughest decisions may be whether to include himself on the playing roster, given his impressive performance towards the end of the PGA Tour season.
Despite finishing 11th in the Team USA standings with 8,435.00 points, four others ranked higher than him. Moreover, Bradley has declared that he won’t use a captain’s pick to secure his own spot on the team.
As he contemplates the possibility of becoming a playing captain, he still has at least five other slots to fill, predicting a “wild” journey over the next few days as he finalizes his team.
“The only thing I care about is on Sunday of the Ryder Cup, that we win the Ryder Cup. Then I’ll know I made the right decision,” Bradley stated, reflecting on the impending team selection deadline.
“Until then, I won’t know. It’s going to be pretty wild. Whatever decision we make, we’re going to have to live with it. I love the guys on our team. They’re all playing great. It’s just really something else. It’s awesome.”
Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin and Maverick McNealy are among those vying to earn their spot on the Team USA lineup. Wyndham Clark and Sam Burns are also in contention.
J.J. Spaun (L) and world number one Scottie Scheffler qualified as the top two seeds in the Team USA rankings
“This is a whole ‘nother animal. I have no clue. This is going to be really difficult,” Bradley continued after Sunday’s concluding round of the Tour Championship, which saw Englishman Tommy Fleetwood claim his maiden PGA Tour victory.
“When I get done here, we’re going to talk to my vice captains. We sort of put everything on hold the last couple days. I think they were trying to leave me alone. But we’ll get in touch with them and get our final decisions together.”
Bradley also mentioned that witnessing numerous Americans perform exceptionally on Sunday left him “happy”, giving him tremendous faith in his squad regardless of his ultimate choice.
Last month, Bradley revealed that he’s consulted Tiger Woods about the prospect of taking on dual responsibilities as a playing captain for the United States Ryder Cup squad, having watched the golf legend effectively handle both roles at the Presidents Cup in 2019.
If he chooses to become the first playing captain since 1963, he maintains that the U.S. Ryder Cup squad is “ready” for him, despite Rory McIlroy needling him about the choice.
