Keegan Bradley is no longer an ‘outsider’ as US Ryder Cup captain

No one saw this coming.

Probably not even Keegan Bradley.

Sure, you were surprised by the news on Monday that Bradley, 38 years old and in the prime of his playing career, will be the 31st U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2025 at Bethpage Black, where the matches will be played Sept. 26-28.

Sure, you wanted Tiger Woods, who was the first to be asked to the prom by the PGA of America.

But Woods turned the organization down, presumably, so he could lead the U.S. side in 2027 in Ireland at his friend P.J. McManus’ Adare Manor.

And sure, before Woods was seemingly the certain choice you wanted Phil Mickelson, because Mickelson and Bethpage Black go together like a Scottish Open Championship and haggis.

But Mickelson has been blackballed by golf’s mainstream establishment since he was the lead villain to take the Saudi money and join LIV Golf.

So, with Woods and Mickelson out of the mix, anyone the PGA of America was going to trot out as the next captain was going to be met with a collective yawn from golf fans.

I don’t believe the selection of Bradley, however, should be met with that kind of nonplussed reaction.

Was this an outside-the-box choice?

Absolutely.

But, if you root for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Bradley was an excellent outside-the-box choice.

With apologies to the players who were rumored to be in the running for the 2025 job, Bradley is a more exciting candidate.

Compared to Stewart Cink, who I greatly respect, and Davis Love III and Jim Furyk, both of whom have been captains before, and Fred Couples, who has a great track record as a Presidents Cup captain (though that’s like lauding the Harlem Globetrotters for always beating up on the Washington Generals), Bradley is a much more dynamic pick.

He becomes the youngest Ryder Cup captain since Arnold Palmer captained the team at age 34 in 1963.

Bradley brings with him to the first tee everything you want in a Ryder Cup captain, which is as much passion as anyone has perhaps ever had for the event. He bleeds for the Ryder Cup and wears that blood on his sleeves.

Bradley has famously kept his Ryder Cup bag from 2012 at home and has never opened it, vowing to make another team and win the Ryder Cup before doing so.

“I just hope, some day, I get to win a Ryder Cup and open that thing and just have, like, a peace-of-mind moment because I’m thinking about the Ryder Cup every second of every day,” Bradley said in an episode of “Full Swing,’’ the Netflix documentary about the PGA Tour.

Bradley, who has a 4-2 record in his two Ryder Cup appearances as a player in 2012 and 2014, was controversially left off the 2023 Ryder Cup team by captain Zach Johnson.

He won the Zozo Championship and the Travelers Championship to put himself in position to make the team on points. But with only six automatic qualifiers, he failed to make it on points, and his fate was left to a captain’s pick by Johnson.

Finishing 11th in the final points standings, he was bypassed in favor of Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, all of whom had fewer points than he did.

Bradley was gutted by the snub, and he wasn’t shy about letting everyone know. He, too, was critical of Johnson’s process, pointing out Johnson’s close friendships with Thomas, Spieth and Fowler, calling it out as a “boys” club.

“The thing is, those guys are close,’’ Bradley said in an interview after being snubbed. “They’re not just PGA Tour-close, they’re close friends. If you take golf out of the equation, they’re legit close friends.’’

Bradley lamented that he was an “outsider’’ compared to those players.

On Tuesday, when the PGA of America makes what it announced on Monday official during a press conference at NASDAQ, Bradley won’t have to worry about the “boys’’ club issue anymore. He’s no longer an outsider. He’s the boss.

Sure, Bradley’s from Vermont, a native New Englander who worships the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. But he played his college golf at St. John’s, which practiced at Bethpage Black.

Bradley’s passion for the Ryder Cup and Bethpage should make for a beautifully combustible week and — America hopes — a U.S. victory.

The PGA of America chose passion over politics with this appointment.

Good for the PGA of America, which has spent far too many years trying to fit what it felt was the check-the-box, next-in-line candidate into the role even if that person wasn’t the right fit. (See Tom Watson and Zach Johnson, to name a couple flameouts.)

Bradley is the right fit … even if he doesn’t even know it yet.