Montreal (AFP) – Don’t expect Keegan Bradley to be a US playing captain at next year’s Ryder Cup even after capturing the deciding point in a 10th consecutive American triumph at the Presidents Cup. Bradley delivered a 1-up victory over South Korean Kim Si-woo on Sunday at Royal Montreal to seal the Americans’ 18.5-11.5 victory over the Internationals.
“This is up there with as great a moment in my career as I’ve ever felt,” said Bradley, who won his major debut at the 2011 PGA Championship. Bradley, a 38-year-old pick by US captain Jim Furyk, was named the 2025 US Ryder Cup captain last July but had not played on a US squad since dropping the decisive point at the 2014 Ryder Cup.
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“I thanked him so much for picking me. I really thought these days were over. Even playing my best, I didn’t know if I was going to ever be on one of these teams. So to come here and do this is a highlight of my life.” The Americans extended their domination over the non-European side to 13-1-1, the Internationals getting their only win in 1998. In the Ryder Cup, Europe beat the US team 16.5-11.5 last year in Rome for a fifth victory in the past seven events — a fact Bradley says adds to the weight on next year’s showdown at Bethpage Black.
“These boys know how important this Ryder Cup is in a year. I think it’s arguably one of the most important Ryder Cups the United States has ever had,” Bradley said. “We’re going to go in there ready to play and we’re going to go there to win the Ryder Cup and I’m going to take a lot of lessons I learned from Jim…and apply that to next year’s team.”
Putting himself on the team, however, isn’t something he expects to see unless he plays unexpectedly well — even after winning last month’s PGA playoff BMW Championship. “I would love to join these guys and play next year. I don’t know how that would ever be possible,” Bradley said. “I’m going to push that down the road. If I make the team on points, I’ll consider playing, but outside of that, I won’t do that because this is really important to me next year. I don’t care about my personal gains of playing in the tournament. I only care about winning the Ryder Cup. I think the best way to do that is let these boys play and let them do what they do. But we’ll see. I don’t see it happening, but we’ll see.”
– ‘I learned a lot’ –
Bradley has been making mental notes all week. “We’re going to copy a lot of what Jim Furyk did this week,” Bradley said. “He set a culture here for us and we’re going to carry that over to Bethpage and I hope a lot of these 12 are on that team.”
It’s no wonder given the US roster featured 12 of the world’s 25 top-ranked players, including world number one Scottie Scheffler, whose eight wins this year included the Olympics and Masters, and second-ranked Xander Schauffele, who won this year’s PGA Championship and British Open.
“We all have different personalities but we all vibe really well together,” two-time major winner Collin Morikawa said. “We all know what to focus on and we don’t have to tell each other that.”
Bradley listed the little things he got from Furyk. “What Jim did with the team room, what he did with team meetings, what he did with the pairings, what he did on Sunday through Wednesday, having us play matches against each other — you’re not going to find a tougher match than within our own team,” Bradley said. “I learned a lot.”
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