Keegan Bradley is assured of making another Ryder Cup team, this time as the U.S. captain. The PGA of America announced his selection on Monday after months of talking with Tiger Woods about taking the job.
The PGA of America released the news on Instagram after word began to leak during the day that Bradley, who has played on only two Ryder Cup teams and never was an assistant captain, was chosen to lead the 2025 matches at Bethpage Black in New York.
Bradley already was in New York going through media training, with a news conference to introduce him set for noon Tuesday at the NASDAQ building. At age 38, he will be the youngest American captain since Arnold Palmer was a playing captain in 1963 at East Lake.
Sports Illustrated was first to report that Bradley would be the next captain.
Tiger was always first option
Woods was the first choice of the Ryder Cup committee and had been in negotiations for months about what the job would entail and whether he had time to fulfill the duties, many of them involving promotion of the event.
While he plays only a limited schedule, Woods is the vice chairman of the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises board as it tries to hammer out an investment deal with the Saudi backers of rival LIV Golf.
He was a playing captain for the 2019 Presidents Cup when the Americans won at Royal Melbourne, and he served as an assistant Ryder Cup captain at Hazeltine in 2016.
“I’m dedicating so much time to what we’re doing with the PGA Tour. I don’t want to not fulfill the role of the captaincy if I can’t do it,” Woods had said in May at the PGA Championship.
Once Woods wasn’t an option, the PGA of America went for some local flavor with Bradley. He is a New England native who played his college golf at St. John’s.