The scenes late on Saturday afternoon at Castle Pines were those that make the hair stand up your neck, just as they did a dozen years ago for the 39th Ryder Cup at Medinah. There was Keegan Bradley, looking only a smidge older, waving his hands to an enormous Colorado crowd to orchestrate “USA! USA!” chants as he mounted a late rally to seize an improbable lead in the BMW Championship.
Outside of Chicago in 2012, Bradley was a Ryder Cup rookie playing with mentor Phil Mickelson and firing up the gallery with his electric youthful verve, pumping his fists with wild abandon. He’d tie for the most U.S. points in those matches, going 3-1, though the Americans would ultimately lose to Europe on a crushing Sunday.
Now the captain of the U.S. team that will host the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in 2025, the 38-year-old Bradley says he wants every chance he can get to spend time with the potential members of his squad, and that’s why he was thrilled at being the 50th and last entrant into the penultimate PGA Tour playoff event, the BMW, after a nail-biting experience last Sunday in Memphis.
Bradley had no clue he’d become the center of attention this week with his own play.
Overcoming three straight bogeys in the middle of his back nine on Saturday, Bradley charged with back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15. He gave a stroke back with a bogey at the par-3 16th, but closed with two more birdies, including making an eight-footer on 18 the produced such a loud roar you’d have thought he won the tournament.
“I honestly wasn't expecting this,” Bradley, likely speaking of both his results and the crowd, said after his third round of two-under-par 70 put him alone at the top, one shot ahead of 54-hole leader Adam Scott (74). “But I love when we come and play in markets that we don't come to, and you can just tell the fans are really excited.
“For now, I feel like I need to carry the torch for the United States Ryder Cup team, and I hope I'm doing that.”
He could have only done it better if he’d been waving around an American flag like gold medal winners did at the Olympics.
It was only in early July that Bradley was named as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, a year after he was devastated to be left off the American team that ultimately lost the 2023 matches in Italy. The top job usually goes to players on the downhill side of their careers, but the New Englander has experienced a resurgence, winning once in each of the past two seasons while notching two runners-up this year.
Still, as a FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble boy, Bradley had to nervously watch the standings last week after tying for 59th. “One of the toughest afternoons of my PGA TOUR career,” he said. “It was really brutal.”
He started this week at 50th in the standings. If Bradley wins the BMW—which would be the seventh title of his career—he’ll jump all the way up to fourth ahead of next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake.
Ranked 22nd in the world, Bradley was asked Saturday if he feels a bit overlooked now as a player.
“A little bit, but that's sort of been how I've gone my whole career. So I'm fine with it,” he said. “To be named Ryder Cup captain and still be a full-time player is strange. I don't know anyone knows how to handle this situation. So, I'm doing the best I can. The only thing I can keep doing is play my best golf and maybe play my way on to some of these teams.”
Oh yes, “these teams” include this fall’s Presidents Cup in Canada, and though Bradley already has been named a U.S. assistant captain for Royal Montreal, he wouldn’t mind making skipper Jim Furyk ponder him competing against the Internationals with a late, strong playoffs run.
After all, Bradley already is giving Americans something to cheer about.