Keegan Bradley came close to engineering one of the greatest sporting turnarounds in recent memory, but his time as Ryder Cup captain will still be viewed by many as a missed opportunity.
Over the first two days at Bethpage, Team USA fell well behind. Their fightback on Sunday was admirable, but Europe only needed to win one singles match to take home the trophy.
Throughout the week, Keegan Bradley appeared a step behind his counterpart Luke Donald.
While Kevin Kisner claimed that Team USA had been equally thorough in their preparations, it was clear that Europe’s planning paid off.
The Americans made several unusual choices. One of them involved Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler starting together on odd holes during Friday’s foursomes. Another was sticking with Collin Morikawa and Harris English across both morning sessions.
But there is another decision that could end up defining Bradley’s time as captain.
A decision Keegan Bradley made before the Ryder Cup brought a lot of criticism his way
Bradley’s ties to Bethpage Black were something the US team talked about a lot in the build-up to the Ryder Cup, playing into how they wanted to frame their preparations.
That was not how Bethpage played during the tournament.
Former PGA Tour pro Brendon de Jonge spoke on 5 Clubs about his frustration with how it was set up, calling it a missed opportunity.
He said: “I’ve got to start with the course setup, I thought it was an absolute travesty. They stripped the identity of Bethpage Black the way they set that golf course up. Not only that, but you as the American team have the ability to make this your home field, make this the biggest home course advantage you can. By making that golf course as easy as they did, they completely threw that away.
“You look at the list of the guys that qualified, where did Russell Henley win? He won at Bay Hill, probably the hardest golf course that we play outside of the majors. Muirfield Village where Scottie Scheffler won, Ben Griffin finished second there. You’ve got the US Open champion on your roster in J.J. Spaun.
“Harris English played well in the majors, a couple of runner-up finishes. These are guys that are made to play difficult golf courses. Now you go ahead where you’ve got what is typically a very, very difficult golf course, and you’ve turned it essentially into a pitch and putt with zero rough, soft greens, absolutely dropped the ball there.”
Luke Donald’s only real misstep during the Ryder Cup
What will frustrate American fans even more is knowing that Europe will be quick to review their performance, looking for ways to improve despite the win.
The focus will not stay on Bethpage for long, with attention already shifting to Adare Manor in 2027.
Whether Donald remains captain is still up in the air. If he does continue, he may reconsider one particular decision from Saturday afternoon when Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, and Jon Rahm were all sent out.
De Jonge noted that this might have been Donald’s only real misstep of the week.
“The only thing that I could really question is that they had too many guys playing five matches. And if you look at it, all those guys that went five, they lost their singles matches. Rory, Fleetwood and Jon Rahm all went five sessions, and all three of those guys lost on Sunday.
“Rory spoke to it, he was like, ‘I had absolutely nothing on Sunday’. If you could avoid getting to that point where these guys are absolutely gassed come Sunday because it is a long week and it’s a tough walk around that golf course. Obviously, it’s fine, you’re going to nitpick some stuff; but that would be the only thing I would say maybe the European staff got wrong.”
Despite that decision, there were positive outcomes, as McIlroy and Fleetwood secured their points on Saturday afternoon. Their substantial lead meant they could even risk squandering it on Sunday.
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