Bradley puts team before himself with safe Ryder Cup picks
They say there’s no “I” in team, and US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley proved that yesterday when he put the USA’s bid to win back the trophy before his burning desire to play in the match again.
Bradley played on successive losing teams in 2012 and ’14 and revealed after being denied a pick two years ago that he had vowed then not to open his luggage from that fateful debut at Medinah until he’d won the little gold chalice.
As the world number 11 and the 11th-ranked player in the US Ryder Cup qualifying race, he would have been a certain pick this year for any other captain.
But conscious that the modern Ryder Cup is a different animal to the event where Arnold Palmer was the last playing captain in 1963, the 39-year-old put his head before his heart at PGA of America HQ in Texas and arguably put the USA one-up ahead of next month's matches at Bethpage Black in New York.
In naming Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns as his picks to join Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau, he avoided a major misstep before a ball was struck.
“I was confident that if I did need to play, I had incredible vice captains that I could lean on, an incredible team that I could lean on,” Bradley said yesterday. “But, you know, I said through this process over and over and over, I was going to do what I thought was best for the team, and this was the decision that I thought was best.”
He clearly earned the respect of his team with an impressive media conference at PGA Frisco as Thomas remarked afterwards on Golf Channel.
“He is the only person that could truly make that final decision on if he felt like it was best or not,” Thomas said. “It takes a very, very strong person to kind of put pride or whatever you want, to call it aside, to leave himself off.
“It'd be very easy to do, but it's the way it worked out. And like he’s said and will continue to say, his only priority is what was best for the team.”
Bradley admitted yesterday that while he felt he might be an asset to the team after he pipped Tommy Fleetwood to win the Travelers Championship at the end of June, he had his mind made up as the season progressed and he battled to juggle playing with captaincy duties.
“The decision was made a while ago that I wasn't playing,” Bradley said. "The last 48 hours, we had the team set. We weren't scrambling at all.
"This was a really tough decision. I would say there was a point this year where I was playing a while ago, and, you know, all these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto this team, and that's something that I'm really proud of, and something that I really wanted.
“But it was an extremely difficult decision, and, you know, one that I'm really happy with. I'm really happy with these six players, and I'm glad it's over.”
The ball is now in Luke Donald’s court as he prepares to announce the six players who will join automatic qualifiers Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard, and Tyrrell Hatton at Bethpage Black.
It’s likely that Jon Rahm, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick will be the chosen six after this week’s Omega European Masters.
While Marco Penge, Aaron Rai and Nicolai Hojgaard have cases to make, Fitzpatrick is seeking a third win in Crans, where 12th-ranked Matt Wallace knows that even a successful title defence might not be enough.
“I won’t give up, there is an extra week,” he said. “I don’t believe I will be able to get a pick, but it is out of my control and my hands, so we will leave it up to Luke.”
Conor Purcell is skipping Crans as he prepares to join fellow invitees Robert Moran, Max Kennedy, Brooks Koepka, Seamus Power and Mark Power in next week’s Amgen Irish Open at The K Club.
Kennedy is resting this week as Mark Power, Liam Nolan, Jonny Caldwell, Jack Madden, Daniel Mulligan and John Murphy play the HotelPlanner Tour’s Dormy Open in Sweden.
Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow tee it up in the LPGA’s FM Championship at TPC Boston, while at the second-tier LET Access Series’ inaugural Women’s Irish Challenge at Malahide, Olivia Mehaffey is the best of the 14-strong Irish challenge heading into round two.
The Armagh woman opened with a four-under 68 that left solo fourth, just one stroke behind Germany’s Verena Gimmy, France’s Anne Charlotte Mora and Austria’s Isabella Holpfer.
Elm Park amateur Emma Fleming was the next best of the Irish, tied for 36th after a 74.
At the DP World Tour Qualifying School First Stage, Hugh Foley’s two over 72 left him tie for ninth at halfway at The Players Club in Bristol.
The top 17 and ties qualify for October’s Second Stage.
