Keegan Bradley, when he comes down from the competitive high of playing in the Presidents Cup, will soon turn his attention to next year’s Ryder Cup. The U.S. captain will be part of a one-year-out celebration next week in New York, and before long, the matches at Bethpage Black will come into focus.
Bradley certainly got plenty out of his experience at Royal Montreal, both as a player and a captain.
One of the takeaways might just be that he can’t do both.
“After going through it, I don’t know if I can, honestly,’’ Bradley said after earning the clinching point in the U.S. victory over the International team, 18 ½ to 11 ½ . “I couldn’t imagine doing Jim’s (Furyk) job and playing. I don’t know how you can physically do it.
“I will have great assistant captains. Brandt (Snedker, who was an assistant in Montreal) will be one of them. I’m going to cross that bridge. And I’ll have to do some special stuff to get on that team.”
Another takeaway: tales of U.S. angst in the team room is not an issue.
This might be something a skeptic would question. What is Bradley supposed to say? The thing is, Bradley broached the subject himself, obviously well aware of the chatter that not all was harmonic last year in Rome.
“I hadn’t been in a team room in 10 years,’’ Bradley said, referring to the 2014 Ryder Cup where the U.S. lost in Scotland. “I had sort of heard the team room wasn’t great. (But it was) head and shoulders better than any team room I’ve ever been in. I can’t imagine a better one.
“These guys are all legit friends. Not PGA Tour friends, they’re “we’re- going-on-vacation-for-a-week-type friends. Their wives are friends. The wives all get along. The caddies are all friends. There are two, three four layers of this being close. The coaches are all friends. It’s really special. I was telling my wife (Jillian) every day. I just couldn’t believe it. It shocked me. These guys really care for each other.”
That’s all fine and good but Bradley knows none of that gets you a victory in the Ryder Cup. The U.S. teams at times have been accused of being too individualistic, so perhaps this is a good, welcome step. But Bradley, who played on two losing Ryder Cup teams and now two winning Presidents Cup teams, is well aware that none of that hits a shot.
Barring something unforeseen, Bradley is likely to see a good number of his Presidents Cup teammates playing for him.
Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay would appear to be locks. Tony Finau and Max Homa now have several teams of experience. Sam Burns was the only player on either side this year to go undefeated, posting a 3-0 record, and has now played on three consecutive teams. Russell Henley, making a team for the first time, was a nice surprise and partnered well with Scheffler.
That’s eight players right there. Bryson DeChambeau from LIV Golf seems a likely candidate and Brooks Koepka (he is third in the admittedly early points race), who played in the 2023 Ryder Cup, is another possibility.
What about Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth? Do they have a resurgence in 2025? Billy Horschel played on the Presidents Cup team two years ago. Sahith Theegala got experience at this Presidents C up. And then there’s Bradley himself, who might make things interesting if he plays well enough in 2025.
After getting walloped in 2021, the European side came back with a vengeance last year. Armed with a returning captain in Luke Donald and stalwarts such as Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood and others, Europe will be highly motivated to win its first away match since 2012 at Medinah.
“We've got a year to go here, and these boys know how important the Ryder Cup is in a year,” Bradley said. “I think it's arguably one of the most important Ryder Cups the United States has ever had. We're going to go in there ready to play, and we're going to go in there to win the Ryder Cup.
“I'm going to take a lot of lessons I learned from Jim (Furyk and his wife), Tabitha, all the vice captains and apply that to next year's team.”
Max Homa’s Trying Year
Since a tie for eighth at the Wells Fargo Championship in May, Max Homa did not post a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour the rest of the season. He was third at the Masters but had poor performances at the other majors, including a missed cut at the U.S. Open.
In six tournament starts following the U.S. Open, Homa didn’t finish inside the top 30.
Why Jim Furyk picked him to be on the U.S. Presidents Cup team might be a bigger deal if the competition had been closer. Homa was the only player to post a winning record for the U.S. Ryder Cup team a year ago in Rome and he went 5-0 two years ago at the Presidents Cup in Charlotte.
So perhaps past success—and the idea that Homa will be part of these teams in the future—was part of the thinking.
But Furyk then didn’t put either Homa or Brian Harman in a position to succeed. The 11th and 12th players in the points standings, they seemed to be viewed as afterthoughts. They were put in the final positions in singles and then paired together in both foursomes sessions, a competition that is not ideal for someone who is struggling. They lost both matches they played.
Homa, whose strokes gained statistics at the Presidents Cup were respectable, has been struggling with all aspects of his game. He began the year ranked seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking and has slipped to 25th. He did win his singles match on Sunday, holing out for an eagle on the first hole along the way.
“My golf swing feels great. I just needed some time,” said Homa, 33, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour. “I just don't think people understand how impressive it is when golfers like a Scottie (Scheffler) or a Wyndham (Clark), or anyone on our team goes through a week slump and then it ends. It's just not that easy. The back end of our season, it goes from the Open and the playoffs and you just don't get a lot of time to go through and work things out as fast.
“So having two, three, four weeks off to work on it, I used Napa (the Procore Championship) as a check, checking the box of, okay, how is this going to be in competition, and I was really pleased with how I drove the ball there. So it was good.”
Homa, who went through numerous struggles before finding success on the PGA Tour, said it’s part of the process.
“Golf is just a frustrating game,’’ he said. “I've seen the bottom of this game on tour. It's not like new to me but I've always considered myself a grinder. I work my ass off in that aspect. Just felt like at times golf wasn't being fair to me. I wasn't getting back what I was getting in and that part can get you a little bit tilted.
“As I've gotten older, I realize it's a long career and I have a lot more golf in front of me, and it's just preparing for the future at times and I know that that stuff will work itself out.”
To that end, Homa recently parted ways with his coach Mark Blackburn.
“It's just a tough year,” he said. “Time for a change. It's unfortunate, I love Mark. He's basically a part of my family. He's just been an amazing human being.
“But at times, the communication gets hard. I think everyone in here has gone through that at some point. It's one of those things, more for me I need a break and sometimes I don't do a great job of taking ownership of my own golf swing so kind of putting the ball in my court a bit, and you know, trying to figure it out myself.
“I mean, as much as a coach can be brilliant, a genius like Mark, I know my golf swing better than anybody, and I can see it and feel it. Just trying to take some ownership like that.”
Jon Rahm’s Whirlwind Week
Jon Rahm was coming off a weekend bout with the flu during LIV Golf’s team championship event in Dallas and then headed home to Arizona, where his wife Kelley gave birth to the couple’s third child. Within 24 hours, he was in Spain for the Spanish Open. And on Sunday he lost in a playoff, a record fourth Spanish Open title denied on the second extra hole.
“Thinking that on Tuesday morning I was in hospital in another country, on the other side of the Atlantic, in the end, I’m happy,” Rahm said. “It’s a pity to have lost in the playoff, but I can’t say it has been a bad week.”
Rahm played his first DP World Tour event since going to LIV Golf last year and was only allowed to play because he appealed his sanctions at the last minute prior to the entry deadline.
Like other LIV players who are members of the DP World Tour, Rahm was deemed in violation of the tour’s conflicting events rules by not seeking releases to play. He is believed to owe more than $1 million in fines, although the hearing on his appeal is likely months down the world.
In order to be eligible for next year’s Ryder Cup, Rahm needs to complete eligibility rules which require him to play a minimum of four DP World Tour events (not including majors) per year. The Olympic tournament counted so Rahm has two more to play.
He is scheduled to play this week’s Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, which will see a strong field including Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry and Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the tournament last year.
The event is played at the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns with the final round scheduled for St. Andrews.
Among the LIV players in the field are Rahm, David Puig – who led by three strokes early in the final round in Spain before falling back – Tyrrell Hatton, Brooks Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen, Dean Burmester, Branden Grace, Peter Uihlein, Talor Gooch and Patrick Reed.
Rahm is also expected to play the Analucia Masters in Spain later in the month which would complete the four-tournament requirement.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Next U.S. Ryder Cup Team Will Be Heavily Influenced By Victorious Presidents Cup Squad.