JJ Spaun reveals the real reason he was benched at the Ryder Cup

The 2025 season was a big one for PGA Tour veteran JJ Spaun. He captured his first major winning US Open at Oakmont. Then, as a rookie in the 2025 Ryder Cup, Spaun’s stellar play was one of the few highlights from the American team devastating 15-13 loss at Bethpage Black.

One of the biggest controversies to come out of the Ryder Cup (that didn’t involve loud fans) was the reason Spaun was benched for Friday and Saturday’s foursomes, in which the European team dominated the Americans.

While some have suggested the captain Keegan Bradley benched Spau because of his golf ball, which turns out not to be the case. Spaun revealed the real reason he only played three games at Bethpage Black in a recent podcast appearance.

But that’s not all. He also claimed that the whole team wanted Bradley to be a captain in the game and that Bradley deserves to be captain again, maybe not in 2027.

Spaun explains why he was left out of the Ryder Cup four

The first two days of the 2025 Ryder Cup were a tale of European dominance, but it was the foursome sessions specifically where they got the results.

Europe defeated the USA 3-1 in both foursomes on Friday and Saturday morning, making Sunday’s comeback all but impossible (though the Americans nearly pulled it off anyway).

Spaun, who finished second in the US Ryder Cup rankings and is in the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings, sat on the bench for both of those matches.

When he played brilliantly despite losing Friday’s fourball, and then won his Saturday fourball and Sunday singles matches, many questioned why Bradley had not let Spau play the foursome.

In an appearance in Trey Wingo’s Straight Facts Homie! Podcast after the Ryder Cup, Colt Knost Spaun claimed he knew he wouldn’t play foursomes at Bethpage because he was the only member of the team playing a Srixon golf ball.

But in his latest guest spot on Wingo’s podcastSpaun revealed that he was surprised he didn’t play the foursome and that Bradley’s real reasons were to want experienced Ryder Cuppers in those matches.

“Maybe a little bit,” Spaun said, admitting he was surprised to be benched in Bethpage. “I wasn’t sure what formation I was going to start in. I spoke to Keegan (Bradley) a couple of weeks ago, and he was adamant about having a pretty heavy line-up for the veteran going into the first game, which was a four.”

He continued, explaining that his device was not the culprit:

“So it wasn’t about how I was playing, it wasn’t about the equipment I was playing,” Spaun said. “He wanted to get guys out first who have been in that arena and had success, and have the experience against getting my feet wet in four balls, which is probably an easier format, I think it was appropriate.”

This is his explanation for not playing foursomes on Friday. But Spaun is less sure why he was left out again when Bradley made his pairings for Saturday’s foursome, which included coming out again with the team of Collin Morikawa and Harris English after they were heard at Friday’s hearing.

“But who knows? I don’t know what the thought process was going into Saturday’s games, but I think Keegan didn’t want to freak out and start changing things, just guessing, putting the batting lineup in there and eventually turning things around,” Spaun told Wingo. “I thought it would make a little bit of a difference, whether it was somebody else — I think Cam (Young) was the only one that went into the top four on Saturday that was different, maybe.”

Ultimately, Spaun argued that the lineup changes wouldn’t have made a difference because the entire European team was playing extremely well on Friday and Saturday, especially in green.

“Honestly, though, the European team was playing so well. They were putting up amazing results. They were shooting eight under par in alternative shots, which is very hard to do.”

He used his loss to Scottie Scheffler in four balls on Friday as an example, explaining that at one point he and Scheffler made five straight birdies … and didn’t win a single hole.

“It came down to the setting … they just beat us on Friday and Saturday and, unfortunately, we were way behind going into Sunday.”

Spaun says the US team wanted Keegan Bradley to play in the Ryder Cup

Another hot topic of Spaun’s interview with Wingo was Captain Bradley. The biggest question leading into the event was whether Bradley would use one of his captain’s picks for himself and play for the team in addition to serving as captain.

In the end, Bradley decided it was better focuses on the duties of the captaindespite being one of the best American players.

But this was not what the players of the American team wanted. According to Spaun, they tried to convince Bradley to choose himself.

“He was put in a tough spot. The whole team really believed he should have been on the team. And we tried to almost talk it out,” Spaun revealed.

And it landed before Bradley decided to go against their wishes.

“It was so close before he had to make the choice. He thought about it for so long that he had to finalize the line-up. We all said, ‘if you weren’t the captain and you were sitting here No. 10 in the world, would he make you the captain?’ Of course, 100% of the time,” said Spaun.

Spaun also said he has so much respect for Keegan because he did “triple the work” as a normal captain, due to the fact that he was still playing and competing at a high level on the PGA Tour.

But should Bradley be captain again? When Wingo asked Spau that question, he said, “I think (Bradley) deserves another chance,” but suggested the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor might not be the time.

“I think it would be the ultimate redemption if he plays his way (on the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup team), plays, and then maybe two years later he’s captain and wins,” Spaun imagined. “That would be the ultimate comeback.”

Spaun feared ‘letting his teammates down’ at the Ryder Cup

Another topic of conversation at Spaun’s appearance was what the experience was like playing in his first Ryder Cup.

He admitted that from the moment Bradley told him he would be in the team after his US Open win, the Ryder Cup dominated Spaun’s thoughts and he experienced a huge amount of stress.

“Ok, that’s how I was emphasized for the Ryder Cup … From that point on all I could think about was the Ryder Cup, how am I going to perform, am I going to be ready? Can I afford this? Honestly, leading up to it was so much stress. I tried to put it to the back of my mind … but it just consumed so much of my mental space … The Ryder Cup was the only thing I could think about,” Spaun explained. “I was worried that I wouldn’t play well because I don’t mind playing poorly and being disappointed. “But here I am in the Ryder Cup team and you can let your teammates down, your country, your captains down and I’m like ‘I don’t know if I’m ready for this’.”

So how did he end up playing so well? It turns out that Bradley and teammate Justin Thomas spoke to him when he arrived in Bethpage, explained that he earned his spot on the team and reminded Spau that he and Scheffler were the only players on the U.S. team to have earned majors in 2025.

Despite the tough talk, Spaun said she felt a lot of nerves when it was time to lift it.

“Yeah, I was really nervous the first game. I was nervous every shot, literally.” But after his first game, a loss, he “calmed down.”

In the end, Spaun finished with a 2-1-0 record and nearly helped the USA pull off a historic comeback on Sunday. But he also secured his spot on future U.S. teams, where it would be unwise to rule him out of any games.

You can check out Spaun’s full appearance on Straight Facts Homie! Podcast here.

“>