Opinion: Keegan Bradley Deserves Credit Despite Key Ryder Cup Mistakes

Ever since Keegan Bradley was appointed the US Ryder Cup captain, it seemed like a risk, not least because, as well as lacking experience, his playing career was still thriving.

He wasn’t even the PGA of America’s top target for the role, with the organization courting Tiger Woods long after it had been confirmed that Luke Donald would retain his position for the Europeans.

Still, you could hardly blame Bradley for accepting the position. This was a man who had laid his emotions bare in the second season of Full Swing, which showed him taking the call from 2023 captain Zach Johnson to tell him his services would not be required at Marco Simone.

Of course, someone who so coveted a third Ryder Cup appearance as a player must have been thrilled to get the chance to lead the team at Bethpage Black.

The fact that he took on the biggest role of his life and came up short means that even the most fervent Team Europe fan could feel some sympathy for him in the aftermath of defeat.

While Bradley's team rallied from a forlorn position on Saturday evening to add respectability to the score, a loss is still a loss.

However, a 15-13 defeat, while devastating for Bradley, at least holds up reasonably among the other ten Team USA has endured in the last 30 years.

Regardless, it seems unlikely to save Bradley’s job, but I don’t think he was a bad US captain.

In fact, I saw enough positives to suggest that, maybe in a decade or so, he could be ready for another crack at it. And don't forget that Luke Donald's European side will go down as one of the greatest Ryder Cup times of all time.

The inquest into the US’s latest defeat has already started, but I saw a maturity from Bradley that suggests he was just a few tweaks away from a very different outcome.

Perhaps a couple of different pairings and a Scottie Scheffler, who went 1-4-0, firing on all cylinders would have swung it the USA's way.

How many leaders fail to recognize their own shortcomings, finding excuses or pointing the finger at others? Not Bradley.

Take his frank admission that he didn’t get the course set-up right.

He touched on the issues his team faced with the course after Saturday’s four-ball session, but note how he refused to blame those who prepared it.

“I think it's been difficult, but the course is in incredible shape,” he said. "The people here at Bethpage have done such a great job. What an incredible venue Bethpage Black is.

"It's really such a grand stage and a place that we all really look forward to playing. I hope we come back here for more Ryder Cups, more Majors, more playoff events, whatever it is.”

The next day, he was more open about his role in the set-up, saying: “We tried to set the course up to help our team.

“Obviously, it wasn't the right decision. I think anytime you're the leader of a team or the captain or the coach, or whatever, we talked about this last night, you're going to get the accolades and you need to take the blame for when things don't go well.

“I definitely made a mistake on the course set-up. I should have listened a little bit more to my intuition.

“For whatever reason, that wasn't the right way to set the course up. The greens were as soft as I've ever seen greens without it raining. Especially here, it can get pretty firm, and they never firmed up.”

Holding your hands up to a mistake like that is not a sign of weakness, but evidence of having the maturity to be honest with yourself.

So what about the US camp? Isn’t one regular accusation that Team Europe seems united, while the Americans rarely are?

Two years ago, at Marco Simone, that certainly could have been an argument, but not under Bradley.

He laid the groundwork early as part of the Presidents Cup team a year ago.

Previously seen as something of an outsider, he was an integral part of the team, bonding with the others on the way to taking two points from his three matches, as well as holing the winning putt.

While the US struggled badly in the opening two days at Bethpage, it never felt like a divided camp, simply one beaten by the better team.

Bradley appeared to have the respect of the locker room, too, with Scottie Scheffler saying afterwards: “Keegan and our vice captains put us in a position to succeed. They did everything that was asked of them.

“I had extreme confidence in what this team could do, and that's due to our captain. I think they did an amazing job. Keegan did an amazing job.”

You can’t escape the fact that at this stage of his career, Bradley shouldn’t have been considered for the role, but that’s not his fault, and of course, he backed himself as the man to deliver success.

Yes, there were mistakes, not just in the course set-up but elsewhere, such as his decision to send Collin Morikawa and Harris English out twice when it was clear to many after the Friday morning foursomes that the pairing didn’t work.

But maybe mistakes were inevitable when he had to combine his Ryder Cup preparation with a full-time playing career on the PGA Tour.

Bradley was honest again in the team’s press conference following the defeat, admitting that “I had to learn a lot on the fly.”

Somewhere down the line, when the timing is better, I wouldn’t be surprised if the powers-that-be look back at the things Bradley got right at Bethpage Black and offer him the chance to try again.