Welcome back to SI Golf’s Fact or Fiction, where we are happy to volunteer for a U.S. Ryder Cup Vice Captaincy if the team may soon have an opening..
Once again, we’re here to debate a series of statements for writers and editors to declare as “Fact” or “Fiction” along with a brief explanation. Responses may also (occasionally) be “Neutral” since there's a lot of gray area in golf.
Do you agree or disagree? Let us know on the SI Golf X account.
Keegan Bradley won the Travelers with a stunning birdie on the final hole to flip a one-shot deficit into a victory. With the win, speculation has ramped up that Bradley will be on his own Ryder Cup team this fall, but Bradley serving as a player-captain would do more harm than good for the U.S. team.
Bob Harig: FICTION. This has been discussed behind the scenes for months. Jim Furyk is an assistant with tons of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup experience. Brandt Snedker, who will be the Presidents Cup captain next year, is also involved as an assistant. This is not heavy lifting. They can take care of the duties during a three-day event that requires no strategy after the pairings are made. And let’s be honest, will Bradley play all of the matches? The guess is he’d play only once a day. If he’s one of the best players he should be playing.
Max Schreiber: FACT. As of right now, Bradley absolutely deserves to play on this team. And there’s a case he doesn’t deserve to be captain. He hasn’t played on a Ryder Cup team in over a decade, and his two appearances came in losing efforts. The PGA of America was thinking outside the box by choosing him a year ago, and perhaps it was the right call, trying to inject new energy into the U.S. squad. But now, it’s teetering on turning into a fiasco, taking the focus off the task at hand: winning back the cup. When Arnold Palmer was the last playing captain in 1963, the Ryder Cup was a completely different event. Maybe Bradley can follow in the King’s footsteps successfully, or perhaps this whole thing blows up in Team USA’s face.
Jeff Ritter: FACT: Bradley deserves to play on the team—in fact, the U.S. roster currently looks thin and it’s fair to say they need Bradley to play. But simultaneously serving as captain is a huge role and a distraction not just to Bradley, but one that would ripple through the rest of the squad. He should either deputize one of his vice captains, possibly Jim Furyk, to be “on site captain” that week or—if we really want to juice the team—hand the job to Tiger Woods, who might be thrilled to skip all the administrative stuff and go straight to leading the squad at Bethpage.
At the Travelers, Tommy Fleetwood had a one-shot lead on the final hole and stood in the 18th fairway with a wedge in his hands. He left the approach short and made bogey to cough up the tournament. He now has 42 top-10s without a Tour win and he will end his career without a PGA Tour title.
Bob Harig: FICTION. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win the Scottish Open or the British Open. Or a FedEx Cup playoff event. That was a tough-luck loss for sure and he did not play well down the stretch. He showed some nerves. But Fleetwood has not contended much this year. Watch him be a star at the Ryder Cup.
Max Schreiber: FICTION. He’s too good to never win, and he likely has many years left on Tour in an age where players don’t age as fast as they used to. Plus, if he really wants to get over the hump, he can always play the John Deere Classics and Mexico Opens of the schedule. Or, ditch some DP World Tour events in the fall and play the Tour’s fall series. Does being a Butterfield Bermuda Championship champion have a nice right to it?
Jeff Ritter: FICTION. It is tough to win on the PGA Tour and just because Fleetwood has been so close so many times, we can’t just assume he’s going to run up another 42 top-10s and stumble into a win along the way. The biggest thing working for him: he’s 34 years old, so still plenty of prime years left. I think the odds are slightly better that he wins eventually, but I have to admit that I don’t feel much conviction about this one.
Minjee Lee won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and the course in Frisco, Texas is set to hold several more major events in the coming years, including the 2027 men’s PGA Championship and quite likely a Ryder Cup. But at the women’s event last week, rounds regularly exceeded five hours on the tough, windy setup. Players were critical (one even called it “boring.”) This golf course isn’t ready for prime time.
Bob Harig: FACT. The course might ultimately be fine but there are so many, many choices for a PGA Championship. It just seems too soon.
Max Schreiber: FACT. Forget the setup and conditions this past week, which made for a brutal combination—the course is not aesthetically pleasing and is apparently bad for spectators, which will reduce the major’s juice as a television product. But it’s the PGA of America’s baby, built to stage majors. Luckily for the men, the issues that plagued the women can be rectified in two years.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fact or Fiction: Keegan Bradley Would Do More Harm Than Good as a Ryder Cup Playing Captain.
