Roundtable: Assessing Keegan Bradley’s fit as Ryder Cup captain | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Shane Ryan, Ryan Lavner and Rex Hoggard join Golf Today to discuss Keegan Bradley being named captain for the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team. #GolfChannel #GolfToday #RyderCup
» Subscribe to Golf Channel: https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1
» For the latest news around golf: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf

Welcome to Golf Channel’s official YouTube channel. We are the #1 destination for everything golf – 24/7. Find golf instruction tips, sneak peeks to our original series, news and tournament coverage. We are part of the NBC Sports Group.

Discover what else Golf Channel has to offer:
Live Coverage on Peacock: https://peacocktv.smart.link/v82e9dl56
Live Scores: http://bit.ly/GCScores
TV Schedule: https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/schedule
Instructional Tips: https://www.golfpass.com/learn
Golf Course Reviews: http://bit.ly/GCCourseReviews

Roundtable: Assessing Keegan Bradley’s fit as Ryder Cup captain | Golf Today | Golf Channel
https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1

Rex hoger Ryan lavner we have Shane Ryan from Golf Digest great to see you gentlemen Shane I want to start with you you wrote pretty pointedly I would say in Golf Digest your thoughts about Keegan Bradley as the United States Rider Cup captain what do you think well first of all we’re always trained to say something positive first so I want to say that Keegan Bradley I thought was quite good in the press conference today I was really impressed by him now let me uh let me stay away from there into saying that this is one of the most Stupify decisions in the history of the sport of golf okay the only way the only way this would have made sense is as John Linder sat up there and said look we were in a tough position the pipeline is empty because tiger doesn’t want to do it Phils that live so we interviewed you know 30 people and you wouldn’t believe how impressive Keegan Bradley was he he blew our socks off this is our guy then you start to say okay I kind of get it they didn’t talk to him he didn’t know this was coming they got on a phone call as soon as they could they looked at a list and apparently Keegan Bradley’s name which is a shock to everybody else apparently it was this unanimous pick you know Eureka moment total Enlightenment came over Keegan Bradley’s name I don’t get this okay if you look at linder’s press his quote in the press release from yesterday he cites his experience his relationships and his passion let’s look at experience he’s played in two Rider cups it’s the lowest total for an American captain in 30 years all right he’s never been a Vice Captain he’s certainly never been a captain before there’s no experience his relationships Keegan Bradley I thought had a wonderful moment in the Press where he said you know I regret coming out in tour and treating everybody like they were my enemy uh especially when he sees how the young guys are all friends today by his own Reckoning this is not the first time he said this he doesn’t really have these relationships and then we go to Passion which I’ll Grant him but it doesn’t amount to a hill beans this is like going to a Dunkin Donuts and they serve you a baked salmon now the baked salmon might be good but it doesn’t quite work for the Dunkin’ Donuts right it’s not normal there and if that sounds like a weird like nonsensical thing well it was a weird nonsensical decision bottom line they put a blindfold on they threw a dart it landed on Keegan Bradley’s name and they are hoping that he bails them out Rex you’re like me you have a few gray hairs unlike these other kids here have you ever interviewed for a job where they never asked you how you would go about doing that job are you surprised by this aspect of the story let’s be honest amen that’s probably the only way I’m going to get a job if they don’t in mean beforehand uh yes I think I’m as stunned as anyone and to be fair and I want to address what what Shane said to start out with the Positive he has the credentials he’s won a major championship the PJ Championship that seems to count he has played on two ryer cups as Shane just pointed out he won one of those Rider cups so I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility he could be a captain however I think it’s a bad decision only by comparison if we were doing this round table five years ago we would be breathless right now talking about the prospect of a Ridder cup at Beth Page New York City who you would have some combination of Phil Mickelson on one side and either Sergio Garcia and Ian polter on on the other side that is as good as golf gets we would just be breathless about the idea that fell through because of live GF the alternative was Tiger Woods will take the US capy that will get things moving that will get the crowd fired up now we don’t have that now we have Keegan Bradley no offense to Keegan because no one else was going to step up there wasn’t going to be a better option L we’ve had a lot of jaw-dropping days in the game the last couple of years where does this one rank is this is a shock to the system is this a genius move you know where do you sit with the decision on Keegan I actually really like the move to appoint Keegan Bradley as a rer Cup captain in 20125 and here’s why I’m with Shane completely where I think it was bizarre and even a little bit outrageous that the PJ of America did not have a single conversation with Keegan Bradley before po pointing him for the captain for Beth Paige black and yet Keegan Bradley still seemed like the best available option once Phil Mickelson was voted off the island once Tiger Woods declined that invitation Keegan Bradley was the most inspired choice these support staffs now for the rder Cup teams are so deep and they’re so comprehensive that what you’re essentially doing is creating basically a face of the program someone who uh sort of sets the tone with his personality who stands up to the media and explains his decisions who is deeply connected to the players as Keegan Bradley world number 19 and in Signature Events for 2025 if they ended right now on the PG tour would be someone who sort of breaks ties with with his competitive instincts as well as um you know being a sort of avatar for the crowd Beth Page black is going to be such a unique venue that you cannot have someone who is stone-faced who is unenthusiastic to me he is the absolute perfect fit just because you are untested does not necessarily mean that you unqualified another thing you don’t want to Beth Page is a Red Sox guy as well I would think this is a cowd that could turn in the opposite direction Shane is the bu system dead cuz we’ve seen captains over the last 10 years function almost like conures and we saw Zach Johnson acknowledge in Rome that the six guys who made it on points had a huge influence on the six guys that he picked this idea that the players always have to be kept comfortable Keegan just told us that’s not how he’s going to run a ship I think any system is dead I don’t think there is a system in place anymore it goes back to I just think that one of the failures and I I say this the Ryder Cup task force I think genu genuinely did a very good job uh recovering from the 2014 disaster which was the latest of many disasters I think they’ve turned things around to a degree where now they’re winning at home the one failure they had is they didn’t kind of Groom another generation of captains and a little bit of that was of course unlucky with tiger and Phil uh Zack Johnson didn’t really do such a great job at Rome it’s not really their fault though so it was always going to come to this moment where they didn’t have a good answer for who was going to be the captain and so Keegan Bradley is their answer it’s completely out of the box yeah I think the buddy system is effectively dead he was the biggest victim of the buddy system uh and he got stabbed in the back by it last time this is sort of like Julius Caesar coming back to life and murdering all the Roman Senators you know this is the buddy system is clearly dead I don’t think there is the system anymore Ryan pick up the thread are you still with us La your thoughts on the the juggling act potentially that Keegan Bradley who you know is going to be trying to make as many birdies as possible between now and Beth pagee yeah Damon I don’t see the possibility of of Keegan effectively being a a playing Captain we saw with Tiger Woods in 2019 and yet that us team almost lost at Royal Melbourne uh when he was the playing Captain although tiger played well he made some Curious decisions as well five years ago that nearly cost The Americans on the road history shows us that it is insanely difficult to maintain a competitive playing schedule as well as balancing the the Myriad duties that a Ridder Cup captain has I did think it was curious however that Keegan Bradley said that he actually prefer fewer Auto fewer Captain’s picks at more automatic spots potentially increasing that number from six to eight that at least increases the possibility that Keegan Bradley who will be in his age 39 season still very much in his athletic Prime just a year removed from winning a signature event on the PJ tour could qualify on that team but I don’t think that it’s eventually I think eventually it’s going to become a a moot point Shane I’m curious about this idea of the disconnect in terms of relationship ship between Keegan and and the younger generation who are making up the majority of the teams now and he’s talked about that particularly when he didn’t make the team in Rome he even talked about it this morning we heard from Justin Thomas and Jordan spe earlier two guys who were on the Ryder Cup committee who presumably gave a thumbs up to this appointment but it was noteworthy that not a single member of that Ridder Cup team posted any social media congratulations on any platform as of a couple of hours ago for Keegan Bradley does that suggest anything to you you know it may it may the the relationship question is always hard to answer because you hear of guys and and again by Keegan Bradley’s own you know admittance he was a loner he is a loner uh and that’s how he came up on the PGA tour and I think he realized in a big way last Ridder cup if he didn’t already know it that fundamentally these are human institutions and they’re going to be influenced by human relationships right I don’t think there’s anyone even if you think it was the right pick which I do I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t think that Justin Thomas being a good friend of Zack Johnson’s had a big influence on Justin Thomas being picked right these are how things worked so that I would say is a is a given in terms of you know whether these players you know whether we can read into their social media accounts uh that they hate Keegan Bradley or something like that I think that might be taking it too far I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know the extent of of how much he’s you know liked or anything like that but we do know he’s a loner and so maybe that sure maybe that has something to do with well in the spirit of how the American Rider Cup teams we welcome Rex back again for another appearance here Rex is do you think Keegan’s going to be the guy who will break a few eggs along the way here and won’t be worried about that and secondly are we putting money on Tiger Woods to be the captain two years down the road at a Dar Manor in Ireland I would say that tiger being a captain two years down the road is pretty much a lock I think there was a little bit of confusion about why he didn’t want to do it this time around he had a statement that was read during the press conference a few hours ago that essentially painted a picture of how busy he is as a board member on the PGA Tours board and that it is consuming by all accounts he’s doing meetings almost every single day so it’s certainly understandable the other half of this is is yes I can see Keegan definitely breaking some eggs the conversation that you just had with Shane he’s not part of the cool kids club that’s probably why he wasn’t one of the picks last year so I don’t think he’s worried about offending anyone or hurting anyone’s feelings I can see him coming out making some really really tough decisions I was a little surprised that he wanted fewer captains picks than one because he seems to me the kind of guy that wants to be able to control everything major champ Boston Strong and just maybe will be opening up that long ago duffel bag from 2012 at Madina on the set at golf today