Why did Keegan Bradley not pick himself for the 2025 Ryder Cup? Reason explored

Keegan Bradley announced the captain's picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup team on Wednesday, August 27. The golf world was surprised to see Bradley not being one of the playing 12 after news of him considering the dual role made rounds post his Travelers Championship win. The eight-time PGA Tour winner decided to prioritize his role as a captain and picked six other remarkable players for the 45th edition of the team event.

Bradley was chosen to lead Team USA in January this year, and for the longest time, there were no questions about him playing. However, following his incredible victory at the Travelers Championship in June, discussions about him playing for the team circulated. If he had picked himself, Keegan Bradley would have been the first captain in 62 years to play for the team after Arnold Palmer assumed the dual role in 1963.

During the press conference, Bradley was asked about his decision to abstain from joining the playing 12. Standing by his tough decision, he explained (22:54 onwards):

"Ultimately I was chosen to do a job. I was chosen to be the captain of this team and my ultimate goal to start this whole thing was to be the best captain that I could be. And this is how I felt like I could do this. If we got to this point and I felt like, the team was better with me with me on it, I was going to do that."

"I was going to do whatever I thought was best for this team. And I know 100% certain that this is the right choice and these six guys again played so incredibly coming down the stretch here and made my decision a lot easier," he added.

Keegan Bradley went on to say he would call Arnold Palmer if he could for the latter's advice. Bradley's focus is solely on getting the Ryder Cup home, and he wishes to accomplish that as captain.

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Keegan Bradley spoke about the situation over the past two days before the final announcement

Keegan Bradley revealed the six players for the 12-player team for the upcoming Ryder Cup. Besides the automatically qualified players, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay, Ben Griffin, Collin Morikawa, and Sam Burns will be a part of the US team.

When asked about the decision-making process, especially over the past two days, Bradley shared (21:36 onwards):

"The decision was made a while ago that I wasn't playing. The last 48 hours we had the team set. We weren't scrambling at all."

"I would say there was a point this year where I was playing a while ago and you know all these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto this team. And that's something that I'm really proud of and something that I really wanted."

Despite dreaming of playing for the U.S. Ryder Cup team growing up, Keegan Bradley opted against playing to lead the team to victory.