NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — It’s been a year almost to the day since Keegan Bradley was the surprising choice to be the U.S. Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage Black in September.
At the time, Rory McIlroy was asked if he believed it was possible for a player to serve as both captain and player, a strong possibility given Bradley’s playing form.
And McIlroy’s answer was an emphatic “no.”
Now that it’s looking more of a possibility following Bradley’s Travelers Championship victory, McIlroy was again presented the question as to whether or not he felt the arrangement could work.
“Hopefully it is impossible,” McIlroy said to laughter at the Renaissance Club, where a second-round 65 got him into contention through 36 holes. “Keegan has played great. He’s had a great year. He had the win at the Travelers. Obviously I’m not in those conversations and from an outside perspective, it’s going to be interesting to see what the U.S. team does with that.
“I definitely think the U.S. team is better with Keegan playing than not playing. I definitely think he’s one of the best 12 American players right now. It’s going to be an interesting couple months to see how that all shakes out.”
Bradley is ranked seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking, with five Americans ahead of him—Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Russell Henley.
All five of those players are expected to be on the U.S. team. Bradley is ninth in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, with the top six through the BMW Championship automatically qualifying.
If Bradley earns his way onto the team or is picked, he’d be the first U.S. playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
McIlroy noted that the U.S. system today is different than how it works in Europe.
“It really feels like it’s a player-led team in America, and obviously we have our input as players on the European team but we do have that one figurehead in Luke [Donald]. I think that's important. I think even going back to Rome, when the Americans got off to a pretty rough start, I think because Zach [Johnson] gave the team so much ownership, they had no one to look to.
“They were looking at each other instead of having a focal point, tell us what to do. That is something that Europe has done very, very well. But also the players have allowed the captain to be a captain as well.”
Donald was the winning captain in Rome and has been brought back for a second captaincy.
The recent results have been somewhat lopsided for the home team, which has won each of the matches going back to 2012, when Europe stunned the Americans with a big rally on the final day at Medinah.
Last year, McIlroy made it clear he felt a playing captain could not work.
“No, absolutely not,” he said. “I’ve contemplated it for Adare Manor [in 2027 in Ireland] but there’s too much work that goes into it. I’ve seen what Luke went through preparing for Rome.
“There’s no way you can be as good a captain as you need to be and be a playing captain as well. If you want to be the best captain you can be, you can’t play. And if you want to be the best player, you can’t captain. So it’s one or the other, especially with how big the Ryder Cup has become and how many things you have to do in the lead-up to the event.
“Keegan is the 19th-ranked player [at the time] in the world so he has a great chance of making the team. If he does, I think he’s going to have to give that captaincy role to one of the vice captains.”
Bradley and other U.S. players have said various plans have been discussed as how such a situation might be handled. Jim Furyk, one of his five assistants, was the U.S. Presidents Cup captain last year and also was the U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2018.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy Says U.S. Ryder Cup Team Would Be Better With Keegan Bradley Playing.
