Keegan Bradley eyes playing captain role at Ryder Cup after win

NEW YORK – Keegan Bradley could become the first Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963 after jumping to seventh in world rankings following his PGA Tour Travelers Championship victory.

The 39-year-old American’s fightback triumph on June 22 over England’s Tommy Fleetwood brought an eighth career PGA crown, his fourth in as many years, and sparked already brisk talk about Bradley playing on his US squad against Europe in September at Bethpage Black.

“Yeah, I mean, listen, this changes the story a little bit,” said Bradley, previously reluctant to consider a playing captaincy.

“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 and we’ll see.”

Bradley leaped 14 spots in the world rankings and into ninth in the US team points qualifying. While still shy of the six automatic qualifying spots, he is in a position that would typically be worthy of a captain’s pick.

“It’s still June, so we still got a long ways to go,” Bradley said. “This definitely changes things a little bit and we’ll all get together and figure out the best way to do this.”

The six automatic qualifiers will be set after the BMW Championship on Aug 17 while the six captain’s picks will be chosen after the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Aug 21-24.

“I will play if I feel like it will help the team,” he added.

Bradley has fielded questions about playing in the Cup all year.

“I never really planned on playing,” he said. “I really wanted to just be the captain. I really felt strongly about that. I want to serve