Keegan Bradley has been handed the job of United States Ryder Cup captain for the event in 2025, and the PGA Tour star has provided a key update to LIV Golf players
Newly-appointed Team USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley has revealed he is more than happy to include players from the LIV Golf setup in his 12-man team that will host at Bethpage Black next fall.
It was expected that Tiger Woods was to be named leader of the United States team for 2025, but instead, it will be Bradley who will take charge in a bid to recapture the Ryder Cup crown. Having been announced on Monday evening, Bradley carried out his first duties as captain a day later, speaking in his first press conference.
While in front of the media, the two-time Ryder Cup player was unsurprisingly quizzed on the status of LIV players, and whether members of the breakaway league would be eligible to compete next September.
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“I’m going to have the 12 best players on the team. I don’t care where they play,” Bradley claimed. “We have a mission to win this tournament and I don’t care about the LIV stuff. I want the best players on the team.” The captain was also asked whether he would be open to turning up at LIV events to keep an eye on his potential players.
And despite his PGA Tour loyalties, this is something the captain would be more than happy to do. “By the time we get to Bethpage in 2025, we don’t know how things are going to look. As it comes to going to LIV events, if there’s guys that are on the fringe, I’m willing to do that,” he said. “My biggest concern is having the best players on the team.”
He later added: “Again, I think in 2025, by the time the Ryder Cup comes, maybe the golf world looks totally different. I just want the best players on the team. I think it’s silly for the U.S. team to not have the best players.
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“If that includes them then, yeah [they’ll be picked]. But it might not. I don’t know in a year and a half how that will look.” In 2023, the USA setup contained just one player from the LIV setup in Brooks Koepka. Having won the PGA Championship last May, Koepka went on to qualify automatically, before former captain Zach Johnson opted not to include any breakaway players in his six picks.
Bradley himself was also left out by Johnson, with his snub brutally caught by Netflix’s Full Swing cameras as part of their season two production. Nine months on though the 2025 skipper has revealed that it was Johnson who informed him of his appointment.
What is more, the PGA Tour star has also set sights on becoming a player-captain, but admitted he will have to play his way in, not using his power to pick himself. “I want to play on the team,” he said. “I feel like I’m still in the prime of my career and can make this team. I will either make the team on points or not pick myself.”