Keegan Bradley will lead Team USA at the Ryder Cup later this year and has made it clear he will be selecting the 12 best players, regardless of where they play their golf
Keegan Bradley will captain Team USA in 2025 (
Image: Getty)
Team USA captain Keegan Bradley has expressed his willingness to include players from LIV Golf in his team. The event is set to take place next year at Bethpage Black in New York next year.
Bradley’s aim is to reclaim the title that Zach Johnson and his team lost to their European counterparts in Italy last autumn. The selection process for the 2023 team has been one of the most eagerly awaited in the history of Team USA, especially given the division between the PGA Tour and LIV.
Several key players who contributed to the U.S. victory at Whistling Straits in 2021 have chosen to switch to the Saudi league. That includes Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, all of whom have left the PGA Tour.
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Despite the move not officially disqualifying them from competing, only one member of the breakaway league, Koepka, was selected by Johnson after winning the PGA Championship four months prior. It seems their only chance of participating will be as a captain’s pick.
Currently, half of the American team consists of the top six players in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. However, this could pose a problem for Koepka and his colleagues, as points are only awarded at PGA Tour events, from which they are of course banned.
Golfers who have been shunned by the PGA Tour will still have a slim chance to prove themselves in the four majors, but they’ll be facing an uphill battle. Despite the Tour’s bias in qualification, Bradley remains open to selecting players from both the PGA and rival circuits for his team, aiming to assemble the strongest squad possible.
“I’m going to have the best 12 players, so the PGA of America… we’re going to have the 12 best players, so they need to figure that out, if that’s their problem,” Bradley declared following his win in Colorado. “I know you have to be a PGA (of America) member to play in the Ryder Cup.
Brooks Koepka could make the Team USA squad ( Getty Images)
“That’s the only stipulation that you need. So we’ll make sure if some of those guys that we think might make the team, we’ll make sure that they are a member.”
Despite the exclusion from LIV events, Bradley has expressed contentment with the current system. “I don’t see there being any big tweaks,” he commented.
“The only weird area is the LIV guys, what they do, and where they fall on the list. We’re going to have to really get with the captains, get with the team that’s going to be there, and figure that out. But I think the system works.”
Bradley has previously stated that he won’t dismiss players from the controversial Saudi-backed league. “I want the 12 best players and I don’t care where they play,” declared the seven-time PGA Tour champion following his recent appointment. “As it comes to going to LIV events, if there’s guys that are going to be on the fringe, I’m willing to do that.”
