Keegan Bradley being a playing Ryder Cup captain is ‘almost impossible’ | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Paul McGinley joins Golf Today to give his insight on Keegan Bradley ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup and the unlikely possibility of Bradley being a playing captain for the U.S. at Bethpage. #GolfChannel #RyderCup #KeeganBradley
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Keegan Bradley being a playing Ryder Cup captain is ‘almost impossible’ | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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Paul the American team seems to be looking for an emotional patriotic passionate leader and we’ve seen occasions where that works guys like Paul ainger or seevi on the European side but we’ve seen plenty of passionate patriotic guys who didn’t actually work well as captains or who didn’t get the win you know a lanni wkins a Hal Sutton a Curtis Strange passion isn’t enough for this job though is it yeah hi guys uh yeah I mean look the the the the role of of captaincy as we know is elevated and and and moved quite a lot in the last couple of decades uh into a a very complex role in a lot of ways and you know data is a big part of it you know dealing with uh players certainly from a European context who are spending all of the time pretty much in America now has made it very difficult uh for us and more complex for us in some ways and uh yeah I mean looking Dynamics come in and that’s what leadership is about you got to deal with those Dynamics and try to turn them around to your advantage so it takes a lot of critical thinking thinking outside the box and uh you know trying to mold together uh and unify guys uh that are making so much money nowadays and and that uh you know have got so many things going on in their lives it’s uh it’s a it really is a skill and and and sometimes it’s a very difficult skill believe me Paul separate yourself if you can from your role as a strategic advisor for team Europe and Pretender sitting next to brandle and Rich and put on your analyst hat just as a pick your thoughts on Keegan Bradley the choice to lead Team USA I surprised like everybody else when I heard um and uh not so much that Keegan is not going to be a great Captain we don’t know that yet but the fact that he’s got uh no track record in captaining in teams and the fact that he’s only 38 years old Damon that’s what is surprising um you know it’s I’m still kind of dumbfounded and we are all in Europe as to why uh there’s more more of a connection between President’s Cup and uh and rder cup in terms of you know preparing captains through that and obviously you’ve gone back to two ex rer cup captains in recent times to be captains at a President’s Cup and you know that surely is that not a great opportunity to uh get guys G ready for the ride a cup now I know it’s two different organizations PGA Tour PGA of America uh but but nonetheless you know it’s the same bunch of players and uh surprised that opportunity hasn’t been taken so be interesting to see if uh if Keegan is now going to be elevated in h as maybe as a Vice Captain for this President’s Cup or not uh but it’s a it’s a long it’s a it’s a long road ahead when you haven’t had experience of it h and certainly we in Europe had felt very strongly that uh you know the let one of the lessons that we’ve learned over the years is that no matter who the player was or what record he may have and the many majors he may won uh it’s still really important that uh he will have uh you know taken off his spikes and been uh in a team room first before he elevates into uh being being a r a cup Captain Paul in the in the press conference Keegan said that the first conversation he had with anyone about the job was when he was called to be told he had the job are you shocked that at no point was he asked how he would go about the job if he were to be given it yeah it does seem like a strange decision in a lot of ways uh aan I’d have to agree with that and and you know as I say the evidence of never have been captained before uh and he hasn’t played in the team either President’s Cup or write a cup for for 10 years H it really is H strange and particularly you know the way he was left out the last time where he said he really wasn’t part of the click of the of the modern player and maybe that was the reason why he was picked uh because he wasn’t part of of of the Inner Circle as it were and the the so-called task force and the group of people that seem to rotate over the last uh 10 years in between president’s cups and and Ryder cups and and he wasn’t part of it and they wanted to try something new um if that’s the case I don’t know if that was the right decision because Steve Ricker did Ricker did a phenomenal job when he captain in Whistling Straits and uh you know maybe is this an overreaction to losing uh last year in uh in U in Rome but whatever the reasons are they’ve obviously got good solid reasons to to do what they’re doing um I’m not going to dismiss the fact that he can’t be a good captain or learn the ropes very very quickly uh I like Keegan personally I think he’s a he’s a great guy and and what I really like about him is his passion and he there’s a realness about him there’s an authenticity about him he’s got a lot of integrity and he wears his heart and the sleeve and I think that will emanate really well and and resonate really strongly with the crowd in particular so there’ll be a lot of things where he’s going to hit the ground running with um the fact that he is a little bit of an outsider particularly the way the public perceived golf maybe at the moment may well work in his favor uh in terms of how the crowd will receive him uh because as we know the crowd are going to be very very important in uh in in New York so there’s a lot of things in his favor uh but the lack experiences is the glaring a mission not the fact that it’s Keegan or that he’s picked at 38 years of age but the the fact that he hasn’t been involved for so long and the fact that he doesn’t have any miles on the clock in terms of Vice capy is a surprising thing you’ve talked about his passion Paul but you’ve also used words like dumbfounded and strange throw into the mix the possibility that he becomes a playing Captain what challenge would that be in this modern era of both captaining and playing in a Ridder cup well put it this way Dam if America has a a playing rer Cup captain I think uh we will be quite happy in Europe if that was the case uh the role would become so complex so difficult and it you know as we know in this game at the very very elite level uh the ability to focus is often the determining factor between success and not success and if you’re trying to go out there and play in a in a very very hostile environment like a write a cop is combined with your head all over the place making decisions it doesn’t matter if You’ a Vice Captain or anybody else in place no matter how good that person may be it’s a very very difficult thing to do uh almost impossible I would say impossible um I know there’s been talk about maybe Rory doing it in a d manner but I think that’s very very strong odds against you know when when what he’s realized now certainly in Rome the work that Luke has done behind the scenes and what it’s involved nowadays in becoming a wrer Cup captain and and executing the role of rder Cup captain that it’s it’s it’s it’s very very unlikely I’d be really surprised uh if Keegan went down that route of of of trying to do both you captained against Tom Watson whose tenure led to the care of the task force Paul is this taking a sledgehammer to how the task force has operated over the last 10 years in terms of having that small Core group of guys who seem to have a revolving door through captaincies and vice captaincies that it’s a complete generational and Attitude Change yeah I yeah I know I mean my first reaction was is just an overreaction what I heard about it it was uh uh because yeah I know Rome didn’t go very well but look we got hammered by a record margin in whisman trits and one of the things we kept saying behind the scenes was not to overreact here um and and not get it wrong and then we put Henrik in his captain and then that all went wrong as he went to live and it was like wow we really got egg in our face here but again it was a case of not overreacting um all both teams whether it be Europe or whether it be America have really struggled away from home and and you know that’s why we’re in you know looking at things differently and when I’m involved again uh now going into Beth Page is to try to help Luke and his team and his back room team draw up a template for winning away it’s a very very very different Dynamic winning away and just because you win at home doesn’t mean necessarily that the things you did the structures you used are going to work away from home in a very very different environment with different sets of Dynamics in play so so we’re going about this in a very very different way and our first step in doing that was to reappoint the captain who already had miles on the clock and we didn’t have to embed a new captain into the role as well as with him dealing having to play away from home we felt that was a a mistake of the past so so we’re trying to go at things a little bit differently um but yeah I mean I take all your points uh was it an overreaction I don’t know maybe you know it could be inspired who knows um yeah we just got to let let it kind of play out from here and where it’s going to go I think what he is going to bring is a a lot of passion to the role and I really do think the crowd in particular will uh unite in behind them you know a guy who words his heart on his sleeve um comes across really really well in the public and his sheer honesty as we saw on the Netflix Dr there uh of not getting picked uh the sheer honesty really resonated well and came across really well on TV and uh you know if he didn’t like Keegan before you certainly liked him more uh when you saw him how he dealt with such you know really tough news that he got in front of his family H and his final words were come on we let’s take this into the chin and you know we still got to unite behind America and you know that resonates a lot and that certainly pulls in a heart strings and you know full credit to him for how we reacted there because that was all live that wasn’t orchestrated in any way and I thought you know that was a that was the best bit that I’ve seen in in in the two episodes or two series that we’ve seen of Netflix that little snapshot of what he did right there that 10 seconds 15 seconds as he got the news H just epitomized a lot about uh Keegan and who he is as a person so um interesting to see if he kind of takes that and runs with it and and and makes it into a big part of his captaincy Paul we always appreciate your insights Beth pagee will be loud and fascinating thanks so much for the time you’re welcome guys thanks see you see you soon