To play or not to play? That’s the question

This probably places me in the minority, but I’ve always liked Keegan Bradley. Sure, he’s a little kooky, maybe a little goofy, and his pre-shot routine ain’t pretty, but I’ve always looked beyond that.

He’s not exactly fast, but he’s not that slow either. It’s just the last 10 seconds of his pre-shot routine that makes it seem so, as he appears unable to commit, jerking backwards and forwards, but once he takes his stance and flips his club over three or four times, he pulls the trigger pretty quickly, which I’d take over the endless waggles or the half-swing, stop, re-address that some others have adopted.

Bradley coming over to play the Irish Open in 2012, paying homage to his Irish roots – and probably getting a nice appearance cheque as well – helped endear him further because I followed him for two rounds playing alongside Rory and even though he missed the cut, the presence of another major champion helped add a little extra spice to an event that had lost much of its international lustre in the depressive late noughties and early ’10s.

I felt sympathy for him when he was overlooked for the Ryder Cup team in 2023, but when he suggested that it was because he wasn’t part of the Justin Thomas and friends ‘clique’, I was happy because, let’s face it, who really wants to be part of that?

Was he first choice as the man to lead the United States at Bethpage? No, clearly Tiger Woods had been pencilled in already and his late withdrawal from a one-horse race left the PGA of America in something of a crux. Bradley probably wasn’t second or third choice either, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t the right choice.

But now he’s a member of the Presidents Cup team and no longer an assistant captain to Jim Furyk, and I’m not sure that that’s necessarily a good thing for Bradley himself or for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

If he plays well and has, say, a 3-1-0 record, then that bolsters his credibility as a legitimate Ryder Cup player next year, and his determination to make the team will effectively double and the closer he is to automatic qualification, the easier it will be to back himself. And it’s not like there’s no precedence for a captain picking himself. It’s only five years since Tiger Woods did it, but even though the unwritten rule book is different for Tiger than for just about everybody else, it has been done.

And as a potential Ryder Cup player, that automatically puts him in direct competition with at least eight or nine of the eventual dozen players that will wear the Stars and Stripes in New York. Not Scottie Scheffler, not Xander Schauffele, probably not even Patrick Cantlay, but the likes of Wyndham Clark, Max Homa, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Brian Harman will all be looking at Bradley and secretly wishing ill fortune on the course over the coming 12 months, as they secretly will for each other. It’s only natural for competitors.

If he plays poorly at Royal Montreal, then his stock falls and the knives will already start getting sharpened a full 12 months out from Bethpage, and an under-fire Ryder Cup captain has seldom boded well for U.S. hopes. Hal Sutton, Corey Pavin, and Zach Johnson are just three of the more recent examples of captains whose selections and decisions were widely questioned and have since been effectively scrubbed from Ryder Cup annals.

I do think that good captaincy is overvalued, but on the flip side, I do believe that poor captaincy can be detrimental, and that doesn’t necessarily have to be because of the decisions made, it can be about the perception of the person making those decisions.

Maybe Bradley’s relative inexperience in the backroom of a team competition can work in the United States’ favour, but he’ll arrive at Bethpage as a rookie in that regard and each and every situation where Europe get the better of the US will be chalked down to Luke Donald having a wealth of experience in opposition.

It would be better overall for the US prospects if Bradley was an assistant captain first and a player second at the Presidents Cup, but at the same time, he’s good enough and playing well enough to be a playing member of the team so who could blame him for making that choice.

After all, golfers grow up dreaming of playing in Ryder Cups and only when they’re on the way down from the mountain top do they start dreaming of captaining a Ryder Cup side.

And there’s definitely a case to be made that Bradley’s descent has yet to begin.