Following Sunday’s win at the 2025 Travelers Championship, Keegan Bradley might become the first playing captain for the U.S. Ryder Cup team since the ’60s.
Keegan Bradley’s Epic Win
A KEEGAN COMEBACK NOT TO BE BELIEVED! pic.twitter.com/forvvtlOEZ
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) June 22, 2025
For Bradley to pull off the epic comeback, two things needed to happen: he had to hit putts, and leader Tommy Fleetwood had to collapse.
Bradley was three shots behind Fleetwood with four holes to play. The 39-year-old birdied two of his final four holes, including a six-footer on 18 to bring his tournament score to 15-under.
Meanwhile, Fleetwood bogeyed two of his final four holes to finish at 14-under. Had Fleetwood held on to win, it would have been his first victory on the PGA Tour (0 for 84 in regular PGA Tour starts).
For Bradley, it’s his second win in 10 months, the most by any American except for Scottie Scheffler.
It’s also Bradley’s second win at the Travelers, having previously won the event in 2023.
Will Keegan Bradley Play In The Ryder Cup?
Captain Keegan Bradley has moved up to No. 9️⃣ in the latest U.S. Ryder Cup Team Rankings 👀 🇺🇸
Full Rankings ➡️ https://t.co/2jXIaRlJOH#GoUSA pic.twitter.com/GrtQ9LCtpW
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) June 23, 2025
Bradley was never going to play for Team USA at this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black had he not won a tournament.
Sunday’s win “opens the door” to becoming the first playing captain for the United States since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
“This changes the story a little bit,” Bradley said after the win via ESPN. “I never would have thought about playing if I hadn’t won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not, but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team.”
The win moves Bradley to a career-best No. 7 in the Official World Golf Ranking. More importantly, it moves Bradley to No. 9 in the Ryder Cup standings.
The top six players after the BMW Championship on Aug. 17 will automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup team. Bradley will then fill out the roster with six captains’ choices.
Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, has already qualified. Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau, and Justin Thomas round out the top six.
Bradley has about two months to try and move up into the standings and become an automatic qualifier.
Bradley wasn’t considering suiting up for the U.S. in Sept. Now, he’s more open to the idea.
“I’m going to do whatever I think is best for the team. Whether that’s me on the team — this certainly changes a lot of things,” Bradley said via Fried Egg Golf. “I was never going to play on the team unless I had won a tournament, and so that’s changed, but we’ll see.”
The Ryder Cup will be held Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black on Long Island, New York.
Keegan Bradley on playing his way into Ryder Cup consideration:
"Yeah, it's insane. My whole life every year I was out here I wanted to play on the Ryder Cup team, and then this would be the first year where maybe I didn't want to. I just wanted to be the captain and, of course,… pic.twitter.com/2wxSYuxc4E
— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) June 22, 2025
