Ryder Cup Golf: Bradley’s Big Decisions Coming Soon

By: Jonathan Howard, Staff Writer
August 15, 2025

With September right around the corner, we’re inching closer and closer to the 2025 Ryder Cup set to be held at the Bethpage Black Course in New York. And with this week’s BMW Championship, the last leg of the PGA Tour FedExCup Playoffs that count towards Ryder Cup points, we’re approaching some big decisions from United States captain Keegan Bradley. Chief among them – who will be his six captain’s picks … and will he be one of them?

For those that don’t know, the Ryder Cup is a 12-v-12 competition between the United States and Europe. Players earn points through their performances in events on the PGA Tour as well as the DP World Tour. LIV Tour events do not count towards the standings. After this week’s BMW Championship, the top six players from the United States and Europe will be automatically qualified to represent their respective teams. The final six picks on each side are selected by their captain. The competition includes five rounds of varying games over three days.

Why Are Bradley’s Choices Important?

The fact that the United States lost two years ago, a 16.5-11.5 defeat at Italy’s Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, isn’t itself a huge deal. After all, since the competition began in 1929 (when it was just the United States vs Great Britain), the majority of Europe’s victories have come when the United States has traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, the United States isn’t coming off a long losing streak, like it was in 2016 when a 17-11 victory at Hazeltine National Golf Club broke a three-competition skid. But the 2023 loss was marred with controversy on the U.S. side, starting with the captain’s picks made by Zach Johnson.

Johnson’s selection of Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Collin Morikawa were universally accepted as they all had solid seasons, were part of past victorious Ryder Cup teams, and all sat inside the top 10 of the Ryder Cup rankings. More controversial, however, were the picks of Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns. All three ranked inside the top 15 of the Ryder Cup player standings and had positives attached. Fowler and Thomas were both Ryder Cup veterans. Burns had three top 15 finishes in August, including a top 10 at the TOUR Championship. All three had very good relationships with other players on the team, and Johnson hoped the natural chemistry would play out well in the team event.

However, Thomas battled injuries for much of the 2023 season and missed five cuts over his last eight events before missing out on the FedExCup Playoffs. After winning The Rocket Mortgage Classic in early July, Fowler didn’t crack the top 20 of a tournament until the TOUR Championship, which is a small field event. Burns looked the best of the three, but his inclusion felt more like a favor to Scottie Scheffler than an earned spot and came at the expense of players such as Bryson DeChambeau, who had two LIV wins and a sub-60 round in the months leading up to the event, and Bradley – who had Ryder Cup experience and was a spot higher in the rankings. In the 2023 loss to Team Europe, the three captain’s picks in question combined for just two wins, a half and six losses.

All of this is just to show, as much as camaraderie is a big part of a team event, picking players who are friends and friends of friends isn’t going to work out if they aren’t playing their best golf. As of this week, Scheffler, J.J. Spaun and Xander Schauffele are the only three players to lock up a spot on Bradley’s squad. The remaining three auto qualifiers will be locked in after this week’s results and Bradley’s captain’s picks will come into full focus.

Should Bradley Be a Playing Captain?

In 1963, Arnold Palmer captained the U.S. to an impressive 23-9 win over the team from Great Britain. Palmer contributed four points to the victory, marking the last time a player has both been the captain of a team while also playing in the event.

Make no mistake, being the captain of a Ryder Cup team is not an easy job with a meaningless title. Your goal is to bring together 12 individual athletes, decide which players are playing the best while also taking into consideration who plays well together in different formats. When every eyeball in golf is on you it can be a lot of pressure to get right, which is why it's been more than 60 years since a captain has also played.

But, also, there aren’t a lot of years in which a player selected to be the captain is also in the running for a spot on the team. Just like in 2023, Bradley finds himself solidly in the rankings mix – currently ranked at 10th with this week’s results pending. With five top 10 finishes and a win at the Travelers Championship in June, Bradley has played well in 2025 – although he has finished outside the top 30 and missed a cut in his last four events. There’s a sense that Bradley could “right a wrong” from 2023 by selecting himself and he certainly has a vote of confidence from players who have been on the team in the past.

It’s an unfortunate situation for Bradley, who was on the 2014 team that lost to Europe at Gleneagles Resort in Scotland. At 39 years old, this could very well be his last chance at making a Ryder Cup team, which tends to have rosters of largely five to 10 years younger. On the other hand, placing himself on the team comes with the heavy weight of trying to focus on your own game, while taking into consideration the value of everyone else on the team.

To walk away as a playing captain and a hero, Bradley would have to play well – perhaps not even lose a match – and the United States would have to win. The stakes seem too high to put that sort of pressure on. Ultimately, it makes more sense to captain the team exclusively and focus solely on the management portion.