Keegan Bradley is robbed of his Ryder Cup dream. He built a new one
Last fall, after He offered the U.S. Presidents Cup team a championship, Keegan Bradley stood on the 18th Green side of the Royal Montreal Golf Club and considered an already imminent decision.
Bradley just got a back-and-forth victory over Si Woo Kim, and in his 2-1-0 week he became the last entire champion of the emotional leader of the American victory. Bradley was ecstatic. He breathed a sigh of relief. He was exhausted. It would be unfair to ask him to look forward to progress – but it could be the best time to assess the potential challenges waiting for next year’s Ryder Cup captain. Deleted for a few minutes from the fires of the team’s game, Bradley thought he would give a double mission and Leading the American team?
“Jez,” he said. “Have you experienced it? I don’t know if I can. I really want to do it. But I can’t imagine doing it [U.S. captain] Jim [Furyk]work and play. I don’t know how you can do this. ”
He paused, unwilling to let the idea go away completely.
“I’m going to have a great assistant captain, … I’ll cross that bridge later. I’m going to have to do something special to join the team.”
Bradley outlined the stress of that morning: he felt uncomfortable in the team room and he couldn’t eat it. He thought he might throw it away. He said he never felt that way. Don’t participate in the Grand Slams, don’t participate in large-scale competitions. It felt like an electric current flowing in his body.
“As a captain’s draft pick, you don’t want to let them down, you don’t want to let the captain down. It’s really heavy,” he said.
On the roller coaster that followed, Bradley’s first 15 years started with his T8 at the PGA Championship and his T7 at the Memorial, his victory at the Travelers Championship, and his rise in the top ten in the world – I’ve been in that moment, I’ve been back to that moment, wondering if it’s really heavy, if it’s really heavy, if it’s really heavy, if it’s really heavy, if it’s really heavy, if it’s really heavy, if it’s really heavy also Heavy. On Wednesday, we got the answer: Despite the top 12 resumes, Bradley took himself away from the 12-man U.S. team. This is a moment for selfless leadership. However, this news also has painful subtext:
Keegan Bradley was robbed.
Dreams never Become the Ryder Cup team leader. At least not yet. It wasn’t the idea of Bradley’s golf moments over the past decade to be a Ryder Cup player, partly because of how much he lived in those big games, partly because he’s been pursuing redemption after heartbreaking losses in 2012 and 2014.
Bradley said before the 2023 team pick: “I think every second. I want to sit here and lie to you, saying I’m not thinking about that, but will show up regularly throughout the round.
When he just missed that team (probably the 13th team on Zach Johnson’s 12-man roster), he admitted it almost made him fall. But it also fueled him. Bradley doubled, he kept winning and entered his second career. That’s what made him particularly tricky when he was selected as the next Ryder Cup captain in the United States last summer. Captaining is a huge honor. This is also shocking because the Ryder Cup captain is not a Ryder Cup player.
Bradley admitted on the day he was introduced: “I don’t think I’ll be surprised in my life.” But he also made a second goal: “One thing that’s important to me is that I want to be on the team. I feel like I’m still at the top of my career and can be this team.”
In the following months, he won the BMW championship, made his way to the Presidents Cup team and starred in Montreal. This makes his campaign for Bethpage even more realistic. But this week’s requirements also clarify how difficult this will be. Dreams are closer, but farther.
On Wednesday, when he left the team, he spoke with those who coexisted, clashed.
“I think I know in my mind that I just want to be the captain,” he said, adding:
“I wanted to play the Ryder Cup since I was a kid. I wanted to fight with these guys when I grew up. It broke my heart and didn’t play. It did. You did it forever.
There are some nobles About Bradley stepped on the side. And there are cool sub-pictures and signs of selflessness from his vacancy.
In 2023, the biggest snub besides Bradley was Cameron Young, who finished his 9th year in the Ryder Cup rankings but was eliminated. This year? Bradley picked himself when he was young.
In 2023, the last person to enter the team is likely Sam Burns, who was selected as Bradley. But instead of re-engaging in some kind of revenge, Bradley chose his own burn this week instead of making some kind of compassionate call.
“I love you,” Bradley told Burns. “And, I’m proud of the way you played with your shoulders in the last month of the season.”
Leaders can bring sacrifice. Bradley made it clear that he didn’t want his story to be the center of attention. He made it clear that he considered himself a team but never committed to the idea and surrendered as several other competitors continued to move forward. He also made it clear how painful it was to make the last call, to be sad, to deny his dream of playing on another Ryder Cup team, when, ironically, any captain named Keegan Bradley would choose Keegan Bradley.
“Yes, Monday was tough for me. I was just with the guys who didn’t make up the team. I was walking around. I was frustrated.” He never said that, but it was humanity and he must have wondered at some point in that process if he would rather be a player than a captain.
Who should blame it? I don’t think pointing at fingers is of much use, because I’m not even sure I’m referring to them. I think Bradley’s choice of captain was an inspired person. After Phil Mickelson left Liv and Tiger Woods to reject the role, there wasn’t a particularly obvious choice for our captain, and Bradley was excellent. It’s a dark irony that Bradley’s captain robbed Bradley’s Ryder Cup. Therefore, this moment requires acceptance of a new goal, a new standard of success.
“But very quickly, you quickly realized that being a Ryder Cup captain was a dream, and being a Ryder Cup captain who I know very well was a dream,” Bradley said. “There is also a Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage Black, where I showed up in St. John, an 18-year-old who dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour and never dreamed of being Ryder Cup captain, and I could go back to the same class with the captain of the guys representing our country, and that was important, it was important.”
It sounds like he even convinced himself.
Still, it would be much better if he played the next one.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback via dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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