Keegan didn’t pick Bradley and that undoubtedly will be the subject to some debate as the Ryder Cup approaches. It is fair to wonder if the U.S. team is weaker without Keegan Bradley the player, who decided against being the playing captain when undoubtedly he could have been a member of his own team.
But there are margins with any Ryder Cup team and the intrinsic nature of the various permutations for matchups and team unity are perhaps better served by Bradley stepping aside and where just one hat and not two.
If he were to play it means someone like Ben Griffin, a rookie who in every other way is deserving, or Sam Burns, perhaps the U.S. team’s best putter, would have been left off.
And there is clearly value to having them on.
It is interesting that Bradley noted in his news conference Wednesday that there was “no scrambling in the last 48 hours” and that the team had been set for some time, despite the impression that the last few days were agonizing.
Certainly, deep down, it had to be painful in some way for Bradley. He played in two Ryder Cups in 2012 and 2014 and said, “You think you are going to be on these teams for the rest of your career.” And the fact that he had come close previously, especially two years ago, weighed heavily.
“I grew up wanting to play Ryder Cups,” he said. “I grew up wanting to fight alongside these guys. And it broke my heart not to play because you work forever to make these teams but ultimately, I was chosen to do a job. I was chosen to be the captain of this team.
“And my ultimate goal to start this whole thing was to be the best captain that I could be. And this is how I felt like I could do this. If we got to this point and I felt like the team was better with me on it, I was going to do that. I was going to do whatever I thought was best for the team.”
Bradley said his decision was made easier by players such as Griffin, Burns and Cam Young having a good run of success lately. Ryder Cup rookie J.J. Spaun made the team on points, and Bradley remarked at how cool and calm he looked in winning the U.S. Open.
“All these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto the team,” Bradley said. “And that’s something I’m really proud of and something I really wanted. I’m really happy with these six players and I’m glad it’s over.”
Scottie Scheffler, Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau made the team on points.
Bradley selected Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Griffin, Young, Patrick Cantlay and Burns to join them.
This U.S. Team Will Likely Feature New and Experienced Pairings
Once you get past the incessant speculation about who Bradley would and would not pick, it’s instructive to look at a team of players that—while not everyone has been firing at all times this year—gives the Americans a nice mix of experience and new blood.
Griffin and Young, who is from New York and has plenty of Bethpage experience, were the only two rookies selected. Young came on strong at the end of the summer and has shown a huge improvement in putting. Griffin, it is often forgotten, won the team at event at the Zurich which uses fourball and foursomes on alternating days—the same team format used at the Ryder Cup.
Burns went 1-2 in his rookie Ryder Cup showing in Rome, where the only American with a winning record—Max Homa—was not part of the conversation this time. Burns was the lowest in points at 16th but is statistically the best putter on the PGA Tour.
Cantlay was 15th in points and had a disappointing season, missing the cut in three majors and extending what is now a three-year victory drought. But he’s played on five straight U.S. Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams and has a good pairing with Schauffele. He’s 15-6-1 in team events.
Morikawa might have the poorest resume of the candidates, which is saying something for the eighth-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s still one of the game's best iron players, ranking third in strokes gained approach. To leave a top-10 player in the world off would be highly unusual.
Sometimes overlooked in all the chatter is the fact that just last year at the Presidents Cup, the U.S. team—captained by Jim Furyk, who is now one of Bradley’s assistants—revealed several new useful pairings.
In that competition at Royal Montreal, Scheffler and Henley went 2-1 as a team. Cantlay played twice with Burns in fourball and went 2-0 and played twice with his longtime partner Schauffele in foursomes and went 1-1.
Scheffler also played once with Morikawa and won a fourball match. Morikawa played with Burns in foursomes and also won.
Those are some experienced, winning combinations from which Bradley could mix and match.
Given the fact that Bradley said that much had already been decided prior to Wednesday, it is also quite possible that several decisions have already be made about the Ryder Cup. Pairings, order, the first day lineup. A lot of time has already gone into this, and while there might still be some number-crunching to be done, the heavy lifting is complete.
“We look mostly at who has the lowest score at the end of the tournaments,” said Bradley, who nonetheless chose three players—Morikawa, Cantlay and Burns—who have not won this year. “We look at the data. We look at the analytics, and we look at how they would fare at Bethpage, how they would fare in each format, but ultimately we want to see the guys that win and the guys that are up in the majors, the guys that are up in the playoff events.
“The data and the analytics isn't going to matter on that first tee when there's 40,000 fans screaming at you. We take that into account and we look at it and we apply it when we can. But we want guys that we know can handle the situation, that can handle the moment and are going to go out there and win points.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why This U.S. Ryder Cup Team Is Set Up for Success.