PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Keegan Bradley will not commit to play in the Ryder Cup. Not yet. Too much can still happen, he believes, for him to definitively say he will play on his U.S. team in September at Bethpage Black.
But Friday’s result, while just a single round in a single tournament, sure makes the idea of him sitting out seem more and more unlikely. Certainly Bradley is one of the best 12 U.S. players at the moment. Isn’t he?
Bradley, 39, shot 67 on Friday at Royal Portrush to move into the top 10 at the British Open and easily make the 36-hole cut.
The latter has been a bit of a problem. Bradley had failed to play on the weekend at the game’s oldest championship in five straight Opens. He’s never been better than tied for 15th. It was, to say the least, annoying. But Portrush has been a different story.
“That was fun,” Bradley said after he made an eagle and two birdies with no bogeys. “Played really, really well. I’ve been playing so poorly here over the last couple years. It feels nice to put a nice round together, nice two days together. I played nice yesterday as well. But what a fun day.”
The difference? “Just playing a lot better,” he said. “I’ve really struggled on the greens over here the last handful of years. I’ve struggled on slower greens, had a better game plan and had to feel a longer stroke and made a lot more putts, but also driving the ball well, which is huge.”
Bradley hit half the fairways and 11 greens in regulation. Avoiding bogeys is his real key.
“I really am proud of that,” he said. “Like I said, I’ve struggled here, so to be in contention, to have played the way I did today means a lot. I never know what I’m going to get when I come over here, so this is a nice bonus.”
And it inevitably led to questions about the Ryder Cup. Even before he won the Travelers Championship for his eighth career PGA Tour victory last month, there was plenty of chatter about Bradley being a member of his own team.
But that victory ramped up the talk and it’s hard to argue with the idea. If you want the 12 best players—as he has said—it’s difficult to make a case against having him. Bradley is currently ranked seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking and ninth in the U.S. Ryder Cup team standings with the top six through the BMW Championship next month automatically making the team.
Bradley might need another victory or a high finish to crack the top six but he’s clearly got seventh or eighth in range, which would make it even more silly to not play.
“It certainly won’t be easy,” he said. “Nothing about picking whoever it is is going to be easy, but if I get to that position and I feel like I’m going to help the team, then I’ll consider playing,” Bradley said. “But I really get asked that question 10 times a day, and I don’t really have an answer.
“I want to obviously wait until the time comes to pick the players and see how I’m doing, and if there’s somebody that is playing great that can take my spot, I’ll be thrilled for that. I just want to put the best team on the course at Bethpage.”
That seems fair enough, even if it appears more and more to be an exercise in futility.
Bradley said only a win would make him absolutely commit to taking himself at this time.
“Again, I want to make sure I put the team in the best position to play,” he said. “I have to really figure out how this would work. But I’ve got great vice captains. Jim Furyk is, like, the best. He knows how to do this. Sneds [Brandt Snedeker] and Webb [Simpson] and Gary [Woodland], they’re a great team to lean on.
“I’m going to look at myself as just another player. It’s tough to me, we have to look at every single possibility just like we’d look at any other player in my position. Anybody in the top 12 or top 15 or top 20, you want to look at the player that’s playing the best. We’ve still got a month, two months left before the Ryder Cup, and if I continue my play, then we’ll talk about this, but you never know how this golf thing is.”
Undoubtedly Bradley already has a contingency plan in place if he is to play. Furyk was the U.S. Presidents Cup captain last year and will likely have several players who were on this team—Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, to name just three—that are part of this one.
He was also the captain of the 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup team and while that team lost it also had a couple of players who should be part of this, including Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas.
“It’s interesting because so many times in my career I’ve leaned on other players to help me go through situations, whether it’s endorsements or certain situations or how I feel in tournaments,” Bradley said. “I have no one to talk to about this. I can’t call someone who's done it. Tiger Woods did it at the Presidents Cup. I’ve spoken to him a ton about this. There’s a few other guys that have done it in the Presidents Cup. The Ryder Cup is a much different animal.
“But we have a plan. We have a ‘for instance’ that could happen. That can obviously change during the week. You’ve got to see how each player is playing. But we’re learning as we go just like everybody else.”
For now, Bradley is happy to concentrate on being a player, something he is handling quite well.
“I really can just be a player when I’m inside the ropes. It’s the only time I can sort of not be the captain,” Bradley said. “When I’m inside the ropes with a card in my pocket, I really can just focus on playing, and then when I leave here, I’ll be the captain again. It’s impossible for me not to be. When I’m around the guys or talking to my vice captains or whatever that is or planning for Bethpage. But when I’m inside those ropes and I don't have my phone on, I’m a player, and that’s a big help.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Keegan Bradley Surges at the British Open, Keeping Ryder Cup Dual Role in Picture.
