‘It Was Devastating’ - Bradley Reveals Netflix Filmed Ryder Cup Phone Call

Keegan Bradley says a Netflix film crew rushed around to his house to film him as he was told he didn't make the Ryder Cup team

Keegan Bradley takes a shot in the Tour Championship at East Lake
(Image credit: Getty Images)

We've often heard about Ryder Cup captains having to make the hardest phone calls to players who didn't quite make the team - but we'll soon get to see exactly how it played out when Zach Johnson told Keegan Bradley he wasn't going to Rome.

In what will be compelling but tough viewing, the second series of Full Swing on Netflix will feature Bradley taking the call that every golfer who has a sniff of the Ryder Cup team dreads.

Bradley has opened up on the brutal circumstances of him being left out of the Team USA side, which included a restless night's sleep followed by having his reaction caught on camera.

It could not have gone worse for the 37-year-old, who says having the camera crew come over gave him hope that he had made the team, only to have his hopes very much publicly dashed.

"I got a text from Zach, saying he you guys I'm going to be calling everyone tomorrow morning," Bradley explained on the Fore Play Podcast.

"I thought I've got another night now of sweating this out. I wake up, I'm very tired and I get a call from Netflix and they say 'Keegan we've got a camera crew five minutes from your house'.

"Why would they be sending a camera crew if I'm not going to get picked? For the first time I let my brain think I did it. Why would they be rushing a camera crew to my house?

"And as soon as I picked up the phone he was like a 'hey Keegan...' one of those and I look over at Jill (Bradley's wife) a second into the call and go 'no'.

"He was really nice and hung up the phone and, I mean you're all going to see this. This is all real life, no one's ever seen this call before. It was devastating."

Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.