The last 12 months had a bit of everything – a career Grand Slam, Ryder Cup chaos and much more. With 2026 on the horizon, our writers look at the most memorable moments from 2025 and explain why they mattered.
no. 15 – Impeller motion with zero torque | no. 14 – ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ takes the golf world by storm | no. 13 – Joaquin Niemann’s big 2025 (and crucial 2026) | no. 12 – JJ Spaun kills Oakmont | no. 11 – Online invitation | no. 10 – Joan a Are nites who has been a sinner and 3. | no. 9 – Tiger Woods’ next role | no. 8 – Tommy Fleetwood breaks through | No. 7 – Launch of TGL
Greatest Golf Moments of 2025 No. 6: Keegan Bradley decision
When the PGA of America surprisingly intercepted Keegan Bradley as captain of the 2025 Ryder Cup in the summer of 2024, the writing was on the wall for the dilemma he would face.
After Zach Johnson left him out of the 2023 squad, the PGA of America named Bradley, who had no previous captaincy experience and was still one of the best American players in the world, captain, apparently because they felt bad about what happened in Rome. At the time, Bradley said he would only be on the team if he automatically qualified. Of course, he played great golf in 2025, won the Travelers Championship and started moving the goalposts of whether or not to use a captain for the 2025 team.
For months, Bradley’s decision loomed over the professional golf world. Everyone was constantly asking about it. They were asked what Keegan Bradley should doif he could do it and what was best for an American team that would be a slight favorite at Bethpage Black. Bradley said he “agonized” over the decision, but ultimately made the selfless decision not to select himself. In a cruel twist of fate, Bradley, who lives for the Ryder Cup, his dream was taken away again. Despite being arguably one of the top 12 American players, he wouldn’t do that a course he secretly attended while he was in St. He had another job to do. A new dream to try and realize.
“I grew up wanting to play in Ryder Cups. I grew up wanting to fight alongside these guys and it broke my heart not to play. It really did,” Bradley said. “But in the end I was chosen to do a job. I was chosen to be captain.”
But Bradley’s decision not to play was not the end of the story. It was just the beginning.
The week in Bethpage saw Bradley’s flaws as an inexperienced captain on full display. it emerged from the worst possible pairing of four in the US and sent them back after they fell. He sent Scottie Scheffler-Russell Henley joining the wrong tees and this mistake was only corrected on Day 2 with the suggestion of corpses. it admitted that he had made a mistake with the setup, which allowed the Europeans to roar into a commanding lead before holding off a frantic US rally on Sunday.
In the end, a home Ryder Cup loss fell at Bradley’s feet. This is it a pain that cannot be hidden.
“The darkest time of my life probably,” Bradley said on Hero World Challenge about life after the Bethpage loss. “I mean, I don’t know how else to describe it. Definitely, definitely of my career.”
Every Ryder Cup loss brings overreactions and questions. Is there any way for the US to compete in 2027 at Adare Manor? Do they have to start completely from scratch? What is the path back to Ryder Cup relevance for an American team that currently seems lost?
But as Bradley’s selfless Ryder Cup decision and subsequent loss recede in the rearview mirror, the picture ahead is clearer.
We are still only four years removed from the Americans’ resounding 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits, the product of supreme talent and a successful and competent American operation that was expected to be the foundation for teams for years to come. The Americans’ implosion in Rome, combined with Tiger Woods’ decision not to captain in 2025 and Phil Mickelson’s exodus to LIV, saw the Americans go off the table by choosing Bradley, a sympathetic figure after the 2023 snub, as a surprise captain. After that, everything that could go wrong did. Bradley was put in a position to fail and eventually found himself in an impossible situation as he surprisingly played well enough to be in the team if someone else was captain. After choosing captain over his return to the Ryder Cup, Bradley did not set his team up to succeed as his lack of experience in the American Ryder Cup system became clear.
American failures were everywhere in Bethpage Black, and yet, the way forward is not hard to see.
The Americans still have a talent advantage on paper. The Europeans are a well-oiled machine, but not long ago the Americans had apparently learned from their adversary, worked out their failures, and seemed poised to have the upper hand after European dominance in stocks. A road loss and a combination of poor decisions led to disaster in Bethpage. But the US does not need to reinvent the wheel; maybe it should just go back to the way it was before Rome. There is no need for an overreaction to Bethpage, just a simple course correction.
Bradley’s Ryder Cup future is less clear, leaving one question hanging in the air. Will Bethpage be the end of Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup saga? Or is there another chapter to be written?
“I’d like to avenge that loss, but it’s not up to me,” Bradley said of the prospect of being captain again. “It doesn’t depend — I don’t think it’s fair for me to come out here and say it. But I’d like to do it again at some point. I don’t know if it ever will, probably not. I think if you ask any losing captain if they’d like to do it again, they’d all want another shot.”
The hardest thing to do in life is to forget. Forget your wounds, your mistakes, your decisions. Forget what could have been, what could have been.
For Keegan Bradley, a surprise run as Ryder Cup captain took something out of him and left him hoping for a chance at Ryder Cup redemption.
We just have no idea if that opportunity – as a player or captain – will ever come.
