Golf Central’s Ryan Lavner reacts to the announcement of Keegan Bradley being the U.S. Ryder Cup team captain and how more accomplished players on the team may treat him in 2025. #GolfChannel #RyderCup #KeeganBradley
» 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
Ryan Lavner on Keegan Bradley as Ryder Cup captain: ‘I love this move’ | Golf Central | Golf Channel
https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1
joined by Ryan lavner now on golf Central and boy lab there were a lot of names that were tossed around none of them were Keegan Bradley there were rumors floating about tiger there were rumors floating about Stuart sink were you surprised by the announcement I was certainly surprised by it with but I absolutely love this move by the PJ of America to bring on Keegan Bradley for 2025 Beth Page black is such a unique venue that I really think that you need a leader that you need a captain who can match the passion and the intensity of the crowd which is going to be a rer cup unlik any of us have ever seen before if you cannot get Tiger Woods and it’s pretty clear that the PGA of America was courting tiger over these past couple months and apparently he thought that the gig would be too much of a responsibility uh in addition to all of his other duties that he has particularly as a player director on the PJ tour policy board and kind of determining what the future of the pach tour is going to look like then I love sort of going bold taking a little bit of risk if you’re an American golf fan I think you’d probably prefer to see some of these risks uh play out overseas where they have not won since 1993 I think we all saw how that went with Tom Watson but the American side has such a deep support staff that Keegan’s going to have plenty of help but I think it’s very beneficial for the PJ of America to have a face of the team that’s just as passionate about the event as the fans of the event are first thing I thought of was JJ reck being hired to coach the Lakers it’s that kind of a move if it works great if it doesn’t how much criticism has the PGA of America opened itself up to oh tons there’s absolutely going to be a ton of pressure on Keegan Bradley to deliver you you look at you know besides the Meltdown or Miracle at Madina however you want to frame that one the Americans have been uh have defeated the Europeans by a score of 36 to 20 over the last two editions winning an away Ridder cup is the most difficult task in all of golf conversely winning a home Rider cup should be one of the easiest tasks and so there’s going to be a lot of pressure not just on how Keegan Bradley handles sort of the week of Duties but also in how he formulates that team he knows as good as anybody that just how difficult it is to make those decisions the qualif qualification criteria has not come out for 2025 but you have to think that we’re probably looking at this sort of six and six split that we’ve seen over these past couple years with six automatic qualifiers six Wild Card picks Keegan Bradley is going to have to nail those Captain’s picks I think Zack Johnson deservedly got some criticism for the picks that he made in 2023 and Kean Bradley knows just how important those are going to be towards the eventual success of this American team when Tiger Woods captained the President’s Cup there was never a doubt if the players would listen to him or not he’s Tiger Woods in this case with Keegan Bradley I he’s going to be on a squad with Scotty sheffler right now Bryson to sh ambo is second in the standings as of right now he’s going to be in a room with players who are more accomplished than him do you think that will have any effect at all on his efficiency no I don’t think so you look at Keegan Bradley he’s still a very accomplished player and a player who is is still a worldclass player on the PGA tour he’s ranked 19th in the world look at his FedEx Cup Standing he’s still 37th in the standing as it stands right now he would be exempt into all the signature events on the PJ tour and 2025 he’s going to be getting a close uphand look at at that he’s a major Champion he’s played he’s been in this Arena before he’s so passionate for the event I don’t think that his experience is necessarily going to be a a hindrance or uh any sort of of of of drawback to Keegan Bradley’s potential leadership there is no prerequisite for Success that says you have to be a a former assistant captain or having been in this back room staff before you mentioned sort of JJ reic but but Aaron Boone uh or Steve cerr in the NBA those are are players who did not have any sort of coaching experiences who have now had decorated careers in their respective leagues and so I I don’t see it I don’t think the lack of respect I keep hearing the fact that you know Keegan Bradley was not part of the Inner Circle for that 2023 Ridder cup he still lives in South Florida he’s still friends with all these players he still plays frequently with them on the PGA tour and practice rounds and at home I don’t think that’s going to be an issue whatsoever what kind of a manager do you think he’s going to be what kind kind of leadership style do you think he’ll exhibit uh I think he’ll be exuding passion and energy I think that’s probably something that was lacking most certainly in the most recent Ridder Cup in 2023 at Rome I think as Keegan looks to make sort of those captains picks he’s going to be looking first and foremost for players who desperately want to be on that team as much as he wanted to be on that team in 2023 I think that’s first and foremost and then I also think the experience that what you saw Luke Donald in Rome it wasn’t necessarily the Strategic elements that he brought to that captaincy but it was some of the motivational speeches and some of the inspirational videos all the little touches he did with uh the players and the players wives that made it feel like a very inclusive environment for a player who oozes as much passion and energy about the Ridder cup as Keegan Bradley does I expect that to to begin basically as soon as he takes this appointment officially on Wednesday yeah the AP is reporting that he already is in New York already was in New York receiving media training so this announcement was going to come but maybe not come uh as quickly as it did because news began to leak out uh during the day on social media do you have any idea uh how the US Ridder cup committee landed on Bradley uh I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of that right now with but it’s it’s pretty clear that they were uh first and foremost looking for Tiger Woods and Tiger Woods is recently as the PGA Championship expressed doubt publicly uh that he was going to be uh able to assume those rder cup duties uh I do know that web Simpson and Matt coocher were also on the short list of candidates and I think uh looking at sort of the blowback from what happened in 2023 the uh perception that this is an old boys club I think the PJ of America was determined to sort of smash that perception go in a completely different direction and Keegan Bradley who will be 39 next year certainly epitomizes that speaking of as you said earlier the the club the inner circle of captains and assistant captains and then the players that become assistant captains and they were kind of being cycled in a line of succession do you think this is the PGA of America’s way of saying we’re blowing that model up it may have worked in the past it may not have worked in the past but we’re doing something different I hope so and again it has been a very successful model at least for a home Rider cup if you look at if you take away uh Madina the Americans have been heavy favorites heading into the rider cup and they’ve certainly delivered one on home soil again I’d like to see a sort of different model work overseas to sort of buck that sort of trend uh but I do think that this is an important step for the PGA of America to get rid of that uh lingering perception and when you look at the game at large with the PJ tour in the game of golf in particular is is just skewing younger than ever before look at the John classic Davis Thompson 25 won the golf tournament Luke Clanton is still an amateur he’s a rising Junior at Florida State Michael Thor borenson just graduated out out of Stanford like this is the future of the PJ tour I think it’s only right that you have a captain who would now be the youngest since AR in 1963 when he was 34 years old like I think it’s it’s it’s it’s fitting that you now have a captain that looks more and more like the game of golf as opposed to sort of a past their Prime uh former assistant who is BAS getting a Lifetime Achievement Award which is what these captaincies have felt like in the past
4 Comments
Has he played any RCs recently?
Bring in Phil as an assistant coach.
He cannot be worse than last year and hell certainly be less bias to mates.
The Ryder Cup captain is the most absurd thing in all of sports. I could certainly pluck out a ten year-old child out of his grade school class, and he would not be guaranteed to lose if he was the Ryder Cup captain. That makes the whole thing a joke. Basically, the home team usually wins. Nothing you can do about it. Tiger would never take it at home because he would blow it and it would hurt his image. It takes essentially zero real work. Everyone knows who the likely players are, and everyone knows who the last four or five guys are who make up the last few picks. I mean, Keegan Bradley could simply show up the week of the Ryder Cup and do just as good of a job as captain. It is a nothingburger. When the results are known, the narrative is easy to figure out. Like, Azinger was a winning captain, then wrote a stupid book about "Cracking the Code". Certainly, Azinger's team could have lost, as the favored team in Ryder Cups is not much more than a 1-2 favorite ever. Usually is is roughly even money, a coinflip, with a slight edge to the home team. So, Azinger's team could have easily lost, even with his stupid formula. There is no code to crack. He doesn't write the book if they lose. It is nonsense.