SUTTON, Massachusetts – Keegan Bradley was so distraught after he captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team to a 15-13 loss to Europe last month, he didn’t feel like talking about it.
If anyone understood how he felt, it was his aunt, Pat Bradley, whom he calls his hero. The World Golf Hall of Famer captained the U.S. team that lost the 2000 Solheim Cup to Europe, but although the two have exchanged a few text messages, he hasn’t been able to bring himself to talk about it at any length.
“I haven’t said any deep conversions with anyone,” he said. “It’s too painful. I’m not ready. I’m more hiding out.”
Finally, on Monday, Bradley talked publicly about the disappointing U.S. performance for the first time since the Ryder Cup wrapped up on Sept. 28 at Bethpage Black on Long Island.
“I’m trying to come out of this Ryder Cup fog,” he said.
“It’s the weirdest time in my career that I’ve ever had.”
Bradley provided plenty of candid remarks while speaking as the defending champion at the Travelers Championship media day at Pleasant Valley Country Club.
“Since the Ryder Cup to now has been one of the toughest times in my life,” he admitted.
Europe took an 11-½-4-½ lead after the first two days and the U.S. couldn’t quite overcome the deficit despite winning the singles matches, 8-½-3-½ on Sunday.
Bradley said he felt as captain instead of a player, “the burden is much higher, the stakes are much higher. The stakes are, you win, it’s glory for a lifetime. You lose, it’s, ‘I’m going to have to sit with this for the rest of my life.’ There’s no part of me that thinks I’ll ever get over this.”
Bradley posted a 4-3 record for the 2012 and 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup teams, but he and many others felt he was unjustly left off the U.S. squad in 2023, the year he captured the first of his two victories at the Travelers. After he was selected as captain of the 2025 U.S. team, he wouldn’t have been questioned if he had selected himself as one of his six captains picks even though no U.S. captain has played in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Bradley ranked higher in the Ryder Cup points standings than three of his six captain picks, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns, but decided against selecting himself. Young posted a 3-1 record against Europe last month, but Cantlay was only 1-3-1 and Burns was 0-1-2.
Bradley admitted that during the first day of practice, he wished he were playing. He changed his mind after staying up so late planning and feeling so physically exhausted and emotionally drained after the next two days.
“It was a good thing I didn’t do this,” he said. “It would have been bad.”
In response to a question from New England dot Golf, Bradley admitted he wonders how he would have performed for the U.S. if he could have concentrated on being a player and not a player-captain.
“Yeah, I think about it,” he said. “I would have loved to have played Bethpage, but I was asked to do a job by my peers and I don’t really know how to do things half-assed really. I don’t know how to do that so I pour myself into whatever I’m doing. I just didn’t think I could do both jobs and I really would have felt weird about appointing a captain and me stepping down to somebody that hadn’t been elected to this position.”
He added, “I’ll forever wonder and wish that I had the chance to play there for sure.”
Bradley was criticized for pairing Collin Morikawa and Harris English together even though neither is a long hitter and for going with the basically same lineup for the first three sessions even though the Europeans dominated them.
Bradley said if he could give a future Ryder Cup captain any advice, it would be to go with his gut once in a while instead of following the data and analytics. The data and analytics take into account an entire year more than the tournament at hand.
“When it comes down to that one match for that one day,” he said, “the data may not apply. That’s something I regret doing.”
Bradley said serving as captain was “way more than I expected. Way more stress, way more physical activities.” He said representing his country proved to be “really intense,” but he enjoyed the support he received as Ryder Cup captain at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and throughout the golf season leading up to the Ryder Cup.
“I’m the Ryder Cup captain,” he said, “but also competing at a very high level and winning tournaments and contending in tournaments and it was really incredible.”
Bradley believes he’s playing the best golf of his life so he’d like to play in another Ryder Cup, win another major to go with the 2011 PGA Championship he captured as a rookie and to get to 10 PGA tour wins.
“I’d love to play in another one,” he said of the Ryder Cup. “Who knows? This effing event has been so brutal to me, I don’t know if I want to play. No, I do, but it’s just a weird thing to love something that just doesn’t give you anything. So it’s tough.”
Bradley won the Travelers for the second time last June, becoming the only eighth golfer in the 74-year history of the event to win multiple times. It was his eighth PGA Tour victory. Winning the Travelers twice means a lot to Bradley, who grew up in nearby Vermont and Massachusetts and remembers watching the tournament when he was young.
“To win it is really like fairy tale stuff,” he said.
Bradley trailed by three shots with four holes to play last summer, but he beat Tommy Fleetwood and Russsell Henley by a shot. He drained birdie putts of 40 feet on 15 and six feet on 18.
“I always feel the 18th hole on golf courses should be a birdie hole,” he said. “I hate these holes that you get to 18 where it’s the hardest hole on the golf course and I hate it. I think the Travelers’ 18th hole is so perfect. You have to hit a good drive, but I think it’s the best finishing hole in the world that I’ve ever played.”
His only lead in the tournament came after he sank his last putt. He remembers doing the same in the 2012 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational when he beat Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker by a shot.
Fleetwood bogeyed 16 and 18 at the 2025 Travelers, but he went on to finish his golf season in style by capturing the Tour Championship and the FedExCup and posting a 4-1 record in the Ryder Cup to help Europe beat Bradley and the U.S.
In 2023, Bradley won the Travelers by shooting a tournament-record 23 under par.
Bradley plans to play in the Panther National on Nov. 28 and in the Hero World Challenge Dec. 4-7. It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction he’ll receive from the fans.
The Travelers will be held June 25-28, 2026, at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn.
