Keegan Bradley speaking with the media after his win at the Travelers Championship Photo Credit: Sky Sports on YouTube
By Reice Shipley on

Viewers of Netflix’s Full Swing series are well aware of the desire of captain Keegan Bradley to play on the U.S. Ryder Cup team after being snubbed of a spot in 2023. And after his victory on Sunday at the Travelers Championship, that desire could very well become a reality.

Bradley was named the captain of the Ryder Cup last July, a role that he has embraced with open arms. And as captain, he has the final say over who the final six players on Team USA are, after accounting for the six automatic qualifiers who get in based on a points-based system centered around the amount of money they have earned on the PGA Tour and major championships throughout the year.

On Sunday, Bradley certainly strengthened a legitimate claim for himself to be the first captain to play for the U.S. Ryder Cup team since Arnold Palmer did so in 1963.

Benefitting from a disastrous bogey on the 18th hole from Tommy Fleetwood, the leader by three strokes heading into the final round, Bradley would birdie the 18th hole to win his first tournament of the 2025 PGA Tour season.

Even though this was Bradley’s first win of the year, his results have largely been overwhelmingly positive, finishing inside the top 10 in five of his 15 starts on the year.

Naturally, Keegan Bradley was asked after the Travelers Championship whether this victory would perhaps make him more willing to be both a player and a captain on Team USA. And while Bradley wasn’t ready to fully commit to playing, he did admit that this victory “changes things” in regards to his potential plan.

“Listen, this changes the story a little bit,” said Bradley in his post-tournament press conference. “I never would have thought about playing if I hadn’t won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not. But I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team. We’ll see, it’s still June, we have a long way to go. But this definitely changes things a little bit. We’ll all get together and figure out the best way to do this.”

Clearly, if Bradley is going to play, he wants to feel as if he has fully earned that spot on the 12-golfer roster. Fortunately, he does have his share of supporters who believe he has done enough to play for Team USA.

Bradley also discussed the topic with Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner and Brandel Chamblee after the Travelers concluded, with Chamblee in particular speaking to Bradley’s stellar resume this year.

“As a captain, your job is to put the best team out there,” Chamblee told Bradley. “Now, let’s just imagine you are the captain and we are looking at a player objectively. Date Golf, which I tend to go to because the world rankings are a little skewed these days, Data Golf has this player at eighth in the world. Strokes gained total, I look at that a lot, who is playing the best right now? Your seventh, I mean, this player is seventh. Scoring average, this player is eighth.

“He finished eighth in the PGA (Championship), finished seventh in the Memorial, he just won the Travelers. And Rich, he has the crowd on his side. This guy has got the crowd, right? He’s got the momentum. You are the captain. I mean, do you not give this player a hard look?”

Ultimately, it will be up to Keegan Bradley himself to decide.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley