Keegan Bradley’s decision went beyond golf. 1 Ryder Cup question remains

The past 12 months have had a little bit of everything – a career Grand Slam, Ryder Cup chaos and more. As 2026 approaches, our writers look back at the most memorable moments of 2025 and explain why they mattered.

No. 15 – Zero-torque putter movement | No. 14 — ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ suddenly takes golf | No. 13 – Joaquin Niemann’s 2025 major (also relevant in 2026) | Number 12 – JJ Spaun kills Oakmont | No. 11 – Online invitation | No. 10 – Jeeno Thitikul’s record year | No. 9 – the next role of Tiger Woods | No. 8 – Tommy Fleetwood breaks through | No. 7 – Introduction of TGL

The greatest golf moments of 2025 No. 6: Keegan Bradley’s decision

When the PGA of America surprisingly tapped Keegan Bradley as the captain of the 2025 Ryder Cup in the summer of 2024, the writing was on the wall for the trouble he would face.

After Zach Johnson left him in the 2023 team, the American PGA named Bradley, who had no experience of the vice-captain and was already one of the best American golfers in the world, the captain, because they were upset about what happened in Rome. At the time, Bradley said he would only be on the team once he was able to get in. Naturally, he played great golf in 2025, won the Traveler Championship and started moving goals as to whether he would use the captain’s choice for the 2025 team.

For months, Bradley’s decision dominated the professional golf world. Everyone was always asked about it. They were asked what Keegan Bradley is he should doif he which I did and what was the best of the American team that would have been a slight favorite at Bethpage Black. Bradley said he was “heartbroken” by the decision, but ultimately decided not to vote. In a cruel twist of fate, Bradley, who lives for the Ryder Cup, was once again robbed of his dream. Although he is clearly one of America’s 12 best players, he would not continue the course he used to sneak in during his time in St. Louis. John’s. He had a different job to do. A new dream to try and achieve.

“I grew up loving playing Ryder Cups. I grew up wanting to fight these guys, and it broke my heart not to play. It was real,” Bradley said. “But in the end I was chosen to do the job. I was chosen to be the captain.”

But Bradley’s decision not to play was not the end of the story. It was just the beginning.

The church in Bethpage saw Bradley’s flaws as an inexperienced but fully realized captain. He took out the worst US foursomes in a pair and took them out again after being kicked out. He sent Scottie Scheffler-Russell Henley to put together the wrong girls and that mistake was only corrected on Day 2 with the suggestion of the caddies. He admitted he had made a mistake with the set-up, which allowed the Europeans to roar in anger before stopping an angry US meeting on Sunday.

Ultimately, the Ryder Cup loss at home fell at Bradley’s feet. That is a pain that has not been erased.

“It’s probably the darkest time of my life,” Bradley said on Hero World Challenge about life after the Bethpage loss. “I mean, I don’t know how else to explain it. Definitely, definitely for my job.”

Any Ryder Cup loss brings overreactions and questions. Is there any way the US can compete in 2027 at Adare Manor? Do they have to start completely from scratch? What is the path back to Ryder Cup relevance for the American team that seems to be lost right now?

But as Bradley’s self-sacrificing Ryder Cup decision and subsequent loss recede from the rearview mirror, the picture ahead is becoming clear.

We are still four years removed from the Americans’ stunning 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits, a product of the superior talent and work ethic of the Americans who were expected to be the mainstay of the teams for years to come. The attack on the Americans in Rome, combined with Tiger Woods’ decision not to captain in 2025 and Phil Mickelson’s move to LIV, caused the Americans to go off the board in selecting Bradley, the empath behind the 2023 snub, as a surprise captain. After that, everything that could go wrong did. Bradley was put in a position to fail and ended up in trouble after he played so well that he was not expected to be in the team, if there was someone else who was the captain. After choosing the captain for his Ryder Cup comeback, Bradley did not put his team to success as his lack of experience in the American Ryder Cup system became clear.

America’s failures were everywhere in Bethpage Black, however, the path ahead is not hard to see.

Americans still have talent on paper. The Europeans are a well-oiled machine, but it wasn’t long ago that the Americans seemed to have learned from their opponents, resolved their failures and seemed ready to have the upper hand after Europe’s dominance in the crisis. Losing the road and a combination of bad decisions led to the Bethpage disaster. But the US doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel; maybe it just needs to get back on the road it was on before Rome. There is no need to overreact to Bethpage, just a simple lesson correction.

Bradley’s Ryder Cup future is unclear, leaving the question hanging in the air. Will Bethpage be the end of Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup saga? Or is there another chapter to be written?

“I’d like to avenge that loss, but that’s not for me,” Bradley said about potentially becoming captain again. “That’s not right – I don’t think it’s right for me to come out here and say that. But I’d like to do it again sometime. I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen, maybe it won’t happen. I think if you ask any losing captain if they’d like to do it again, they’d all want another shot.”

The hardest thing to do in life is to forget. Forget your scars, your mistakes, your decisions. Forget what could have been, what could have been.

For Keegan Bradley, an unexpected run as Ryder Cup captain has taken something out of him and left him hoping for a chance at Ryder Cup redemption.

We just don’t know if that opportunity – as a player or captain – will ever come.