United States Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley made it official Wednesday that he will not serve a dual role for the 2025 edition of the biennial competition set for Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black. Choosing not to pick his own name and put himself on the playing roster — as it was long expected he would and many believed he should — he squashed the thought of a playing captaincy in one of the most unselfish decisions professional golf has seen in quite some time given his well-documented heartbreak of being left off the Ryder Cup team in 2023.
The six captain’s picks are Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns. Four of the six selections have prior Ryder Cup experience with Griffin and Young set to make their debuts. Thomas, Morikawa, Cantlay and Burns were all members of the U.S. team that lost in Rome two years ago.
At age 39, Bradley’s opportunity to strike shots for the Americans is nearing its end, making the choice all the more difficult for the man who has yet to unpack his suitcase from the 2012 Ryder Cup that the U.S. lost in excruciating fashion.
While the top six players in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings at the end of the BMW Championship — the penultimate tournament of the season — automatically qualify for the 12-man team, the remaining six players are chosen by the captain. Bradley finished the season 11th in the standings but was as high as the single digits at multiple points throughout the campaign.
“The decision was made a while ago that I wasn’t playing,” Bradley revealed Wednesday. “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. All these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto this team. That’s something that I’m really proud of and something that I really wanted, but it was an extremely difficult decision, one that I’m really happy with and really happy with these six players.
“I’m glad it’s over.”
Bradley is the youngest U.S. Ryder Cup captain since Arnold Palmer (34) in 1963, and his selection to the role came not only due to his passion for the competition but at least partially the fact that he was passed over as a player on the 2023 team by then-captain Zach Johnson. It was related upon his promotion to the 2025 captaincy that the PGA of America was supportive of him being a playing captain; Bradley claimed he would only consider playing if he earned it through his play throughout the season.
“When they called me and told me that I was being the Ryder Cup captain, the first thing they said was, ‘We want you to be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in [1963],’ and I mean, my head was spinning,” Bradley related after winning the Travelers Championship earlier this year. “… They knew that that was a possibility and that we would have things in place for that. I’m always trying to be the best that I can be, and I feel like I’m playing the best golf of my career right now.”
Bradley explained Wednesday that he only truly considered adding himself to the team as a player after the Travelers. He was focused on being captain the entire year with a lone goal on the Americans positioning themselves to win on Sunday of the Ryder Cup, saying “that’s the only outcome I care about.”
Bradley provided further insight into his decision not to play despite the Ryder Cup standing out as the most important event to him personally.
“I grew up wanting to play Ryder Cups. I grew up wanting to fight alongside these guys. It broke my heart not to play — it really did — you work forever to make these teams,” he explained. “Ultimately, I was chosen to do a job. I was chosen to be the captain of this team. My ultimate goal to start this thing was to be the best captain I can be. This is how I felt I could do this. If we got to this point and I felt like, ‘You know what, this team is better with me on it,’ I was going to do that. I was going to do whatever I thought was best for this team.
“I know 100% for certain that this was the right choice. These six guys played so incedibly down the stretch here and made my decision a lot easier.”
Automatic qualifiers on his roster that consist of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau. Scheffler, Schauffele, English and DeChambeau were all members of the last U.S. team to claim victory in the 2021 Ryder Cup, while Spaun and Henley will make their first appearances in the competition.
2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team
* Captain’s pick
|
Scottie Scheffler (1) |
3 |
2-2-3 |
|
J.J. Spaun (2) |
1 |
— |
|
Xander Schauffele (3) |
3 |
4-4-0 |
|
Russell Henley (4) |
1 |
— |
|
Harris English (5) |
2 |
1-2-0 |
|
Bryson DeChambeau (6) |
3 |
2-3-1 |
|
Justin Thomas* (7) |
4 |
7-4-2 |
|
Collin Morikawa* (8) |
3 |
4-3-1 |
| Ben Griffin* (9) | 1 | — |
|
Cameron Young* (14) |
1 |
— |
|
Patrick Cantlay* (15) |
3 |
5-2-1 |
|
Sam Burns* (16) |
2 |
1-2-0 |
Bradley was not short on options for his selections. Among the top 12 not to be chosen for the team, passed over was Maverick McNealy (No. 10), who finished higher than three captain’s picks in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. Brian Harman (No. 12) rounded out that group with Andrew Novak (No. 13) moving in and out of the last spot over the final few weeks of the season.
Bradley went with experience in lieu of playing level leaving McNealy off the team for Cantlay and Burns. In total, the U.S. will have four first-time participants.
Vice captains Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner, Gary Woodland, Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker will support Bradley in his efforts leading the team. Furyk will likely take on the second-most duties to Bradley given his experience captaining the 2018 Ryder Cup and 2024 Presidents Cup teams. Following an amendment in the captain’s agreement this year granting vice captains the ability to give advice to players, it was expected that these men would take some of Bradley’s responsibilities if he played. Alas, that is no longer needed.
Ryder Cups held in U.S. since 1995
|
1995 |
Oak Hill |
13.5 |
14.5 |
|
1999 |
Brookline |
14.5 |
13.5 |
|
2004 |
Oakland Hills |
9.5 |
18.5 |
|
2008 |
Valhalla |
16.5 |
11.5 |
|
2012 |
Medinah |
13.5 |
14.5 |
|
2016 |
Hazeltine |
17 |
11 |
| 2021 | Whistling Straits | 19 | 9 |
The United States has lost 10 of the last 14 Ryder Cups to Europe with all four of its victories coming on home soil. Home-course advantage has proven monumental in recent playings of the event with the last road victor coming in 2012 — a Ryder Cup dubbed the “Miracle at Medinah” after Europe overcame a 10 to 6 Sunday singles deficit to shock the U.S.