The potential of a playing captain taking charge of Team USA at the 2025 Ryder Cup could soon become a reality if Keegan Bradley’s start to the campaign in Hawaii is anything to go by.
Bradley currently finds himself just three shots behind 36-hole leader Hideki Matsuyama at the halfway stage of the opening event of the PGA Tour season at The Sentry. The 38-year-old followed up an opening four-under-par 69 with a superb nine-under 63 on day two.
It is the beginning of a huge year for Bradley, who has been given the honor of leading Team USA as captain at the Ryder Cup, two years after brutally missing out as a player.
Despite taking on the captaincy role, Bradley still has plans to make the team as a player after re-finding his best form in recent months. I would love to be a playing captain, the skipper said at the backend of last season. No one has really had the opportunity that Ive had.
“Its going to be really hard for me to make that team, but if I make the team, Ill play. I dont see myself being a captains pick, but Ill be proud just to be the captain. If I have to go out there and play, Id love to do that, too.
Bradley has been warned about taking on a dual role though. One man who knows exactly what it takes to lead a Ryder Cup team is three-time European captain Bernard Gallacher, and the Scot believes the demands of both roles make playing captaincy hugely difficult.
“They picked Keegan Bradley as captain and we are going to spend from now until then wondering if he is going to be a playing captain,” Gallacher told Mirror U.S. Sports last month.
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“If he plays as a playing captain then I think that is a big advantage to the European side. You cant play and be captain. You have to be totally focused on one thing or the other. If you are a playing captain you are supposed to put the foursomes and fourballs for the afternoon at 12 o’clock when people are on the course. How can you do that as a player?”
Bradley has previously revealed that he will only play if he qualifies automatically, and if he does achieve the feat he appears ready to hand some responsibility to his vice-captains. Every vice-captain that I am choosing will know that this is a possibility,” he said last October.
“So, they will know what’s going on in that way. I also have John Wood who has come on. But I think my vice-captains are all going to be more than capable of doing this, and I hope someday they will all be captains. But again, we’re so far away from that that I’m really focused on being a captain right now.”
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