Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup puzzle becomes more and more complex

Keegan Bradley has an enviable question. He played too much good golf for the Ryder Cup captain.

Bradley hasn’t won the Arnold Palmer Invitational Sunday afternoon, but his final round is arguably the most impressive of Sunday’s 49 non-champions. Eight points below 64, including the 29-game record for the first nine games, was the best round of the day. By the time the dust settled in the evening, he had finished T5, his third place in the 2025 season and was enough to rank in the top 12 in the Ryder Cup points rankings.

But the joy of player Bradley at Barhill on Sunday was on Sunday’s concerns on Ryder Cup captain Bradley. The “problem” is, if Keegan plays more golf, he can play the job of captaining the Ryder Cup – Enter Ryder Cup players’ jobs.

When the US PGA chose him as captain of the Ryder Cup, Bradley’s age was one of his greatest risks. Keegs represented one of the youngest captains in Cup history at the age of 38 – young enough to play in person. The idea is not surprising: a year ago he was almost qualified for the Cup in Rome and expressed his preference for that craze that made players of his age-level relevance to the Ryder Cup.

Bradley Play If so. (He stepped further into that during the Presidents Cup, where he served as the match assistant captain and expressed concern about doing the same in the Ryder Cup.)

But then he won a huge victory in the BMW Championship and then performed well under the Presidents Cup American flag. Suddenly, Bradley hedged his bets, saying he only qualified for one of six automatic bids under the Ryder Cup points system, he would only play on Ryder Cup teams and would treat himself as captain if such an incident occurred.

“It’s hard for me to build that team, but if I make a team, I’ll play,” he said. “I don’t think I’m a pick for the captain. But I’m proud to be the captain.”

Saturday’s 64 people at Arnold Palmer incited only the flames of a potential constitutional crisis. Although Bradley maintains a safe attitude in the field of automatic bidding, the fact that pushing Bradley’s name to the main position is not a spanning hot streak, the fact that it cannot even be denied in his post-interview.

“I will like it [to have a Ryder Cup singles match],” he said with a smile, blinking his eyes, his advice being the one he could play in the event. “I will love it. It’s always in my mind, but with days like this I can keep moving forward for the rest of the year. ”

Thankfully, we have removed from the rationality of the controversial meeting of the Ryder Cup captain for at least a few months. For six automatic qualifiers on the US side, the competition is fierce, with attractions currently occupied by Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, Mav McNealy and Patrick Cantlay. Three of these guys are the winners of the last four majors, and fourth place (Morikava) is the fourth-ranked player in the world. But as long as Bradley can avoid champions like Sunday’s winner Russell Henley, the remaining two attractions remain.

The split mind between the game and the captain is far from the ideal headspace for the captain, but when winter turns to spring, Keegan Bradley takes over the headspace. He must be in the position of the defending champion before the BMW Championship ends, where he will be the defending champion to position himself as one of the six automatic qualifiers in the Cup. If not, he will pick the remaining six “captain’s choices” at next week’s Tour Championship and bring the team to Bethpage next month.

But, for now, all he can do is play his best golf. This may complicate summers, but in this case, complexity may be good.