ATLANTA—Keegan Bradley admits the situation is a bit awkward.
The 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain who has already been appointed as an assistant to Jim Furyk for next month’s Presidents Cup in Montreal is now in the mix for an at-large spot for the U.S. team at Royal Montreal.
His victory on Sunday at the BMW Championship at Castle Pines moved him into 10th place in the points last at the final qualifying event, with the top six players earning a spot and six more to be chosen by Furyk on Sept. 3.
“I want to do what's best for the team. I truly, truly mean that,” Bradley said Wednesday at East Lake Golf Club, where the season-ending Tour Championship begins Thursday. “If what's best for the team is for me to play, then I want to play. If what's best is for me to be the vice captain and there's better pairings, then I'm happy to do that.
“Jim has been an incredible leader. I've learned so much from him already. Jim is a guy that when I first came out on Tour, he was a guy that I really looked up to. To be able to be around him and sort of hear his insight, just a few of the little things that he's told me, has really, really helped and I think will help my captaincy at Bethpage.”
When Bradley was the surprise choice of the PGA of America last month to lead the U.S. team next year at Bethpage, he made clear his desire to make his own team—and said that again Sunday after his victory.
Nobody gave much thought to him playing in the Presidents Cup, although making him an assistant was an obvious move to give him a sense of leadership in a team setting. Bradley last played in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup in three consecutive years from 2012-2014.
Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Sahith Theegala are automatic qualifiers for the team. The next six on the points list are Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Russell Henley, Bradley, Brian Harman and Max Homa.
Chris Kirk and Akshay Bhatia are next. Justin Thomas and Billy Horschel are also on the outside.
For Bradley, there is the personal desire of wanting to play countered by the idea of learning on the job to help his Ryder cup captaincy.
“I think there's pros and cons to both sides,” he said. “I think certainly being a vice captain would help me being a captain at Bethpage because when you're playing, your mentality changes a bit. You're more stressed out. You're thinking about, geez, I've got the alternate-shot hole, I've got the tough drive. So there's other things on your mind.
“But also being inside the ropes with these guys in the battle, in the heat, reminding myself how tough this is, and if a situation arises where I am playing at Bethpage, playing this, playing at the Presidents Cup would certainly help.
“I've gone back and forth, and I think that there's pros and cons to both of them. Whatever happens, I'm going to have to figure out how to make the best of it.”
Bradley, 38, who won his seventh PGA Tour title with his victory at the BMW and starts the Tour Championship in fourth place in the FedEx Cup standings—thus four shots behind Scottie Scheffler in the starting strokes format—said he has spoken to Furyk briefly since his win and plans to do so more this week.
“He's largely left me to playing these last couple weeks,’’ Bradley said. “You've always got to remember that these guys were players, too, and Jim is a Hall-of-Fame player, and he knows what it's like to be—he was explaining to me a situation, I forget which Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup it was, he was in a very similar spot that I was; he was a vice captain but he was still trying to make the team. So he knows what I'm going through.
“I think as it comes to this week, I think with the different format and stuff like that, I think it shouldn't come down to one week that you decide whether a person is going to play a month later. But there's part of me that feels terrible I put him in this position. But I want to be as up front with him and honest with him, and he's been great.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Keegan Bradley Is Set to Be An Assistant Captain at Next Month's Presidents Cup, But Now He Might Make the Team.
