Luke Donald, left, and Keegan Bradley in New York City on Monday.
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NEW YORK — If there were any lingering questions about how big Ryder Cup is done, they settled in Midtown Manhattan on Monday morning when the captains of 2025, Keegan Bradley (US of A.) and Luke Donald (Europe), sat down for a press conference in front of nearly 400 spectators, most of whom were not even members of the media.
Filling the seats in a glass-enclosed auditorium at the New York Times headquarters were various officials from the PGA of America and the DP World Tour; other associates and friends of the PGA of America; Bradley’s former college coach at St. John’s, Frank Darby; the newly appointed manager of the US team, John Wood; and a handful of New York area journalists. It was a packed house, never mind the upcoming Ryder Cup scheduled for it Black Bethpageabout 35 miles east of here, it’s still 355 days away.
But that’s what the Ryder Cup has become: busy, deeply anticipated and hugely profitable, lining the pockets not only of its organizing bodies but also of the cities that host the biennial event. The 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome drew more than 270,000 fans from 100 countries to the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, a population boost that led to nearly $300,000 million in economic activity in greater Rome, according to an independent. financial analysis of the event. Rome is a big market, but the Big Apple is even bigger. The 2025 Ryder Cup is sure to be a cash cow, media frenzy and, if previous big-ticket tournaments at Bethpage Black are any indication, the loudest and most raucous Ryder Cup in history. There’s just something about the Black Course that gets New Yorkers going.
“You ask any New Yorker, they’re very proud of Bethpage Black,” Bradley said from the stage Monday, Donald seated to his left. “This is their course. We have outstanding courses in the area – Winged Foot, Shinnecock – but true New Yorkers, they talk about Bethpage. They all have a history of playing with their dad, waiting in line in their car and going out and playing Bethpage Black, and that’s a huge thing for our team. We love Bethpage Black. We know how important it is to New Yorkers, and we’re going to go out there and love every second of it.”
Bradley is as familiar with the Black course as anyone in the top ranks of professional golf, which is partly how he landed the surprise captaincy. As a student golfer at the University of St. John in Queens, he and his teammates frequented the formidable AW Tillinghast Course after their other golf courses closed for the winter. With a wink and a pass from the superintendent, they would only play holes 3 through 14, which were on the other side of a fairway that bisects the fairway, away from prying eyes. In those days, Bradley surely could never have imagined that he would one day captain a US Ryder Cup team on this very course, at the tender age of 39, no less, when he would still at or near the peak of his career.
When Bradley was enrolling at St. John’s, only one major championship had been played on the Black Course: the 2002 US Open. But those four days in June were all it took to reveal to the golf world that Bethpage is not your typical tournament venue. The noises from the well-painted galleries left your ears ringing and your spine tingling; at some point Phil Mickelson had to retire from a tee shot on the 14th green because of adoring cheers from a tee box on the other side of the fairway, 100 yards away. Frustration was also common, with cheeky fans relentlessly tweeting Sergio Garcia about both his nervousness and celebrity girlfriend, tennis star Martina Hingis.
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Since then, The Black has hosted two more sensational championships, the 2009 US Open and the 2019 PGA Championship, as well as a pair of FedEx Cup playoff events. But the 2025 Ryder Cup will be on another level; Last week plans were revealed for a single towering grandstand, which will wrap around not only the first tee but also the 18th green. Bring your ears. With the USA looking for redemption after a modest defeat in 2023, Bethpage fans will be like a pack of wild dogs within sniffing distance of a juicy steak. Will they be unimpeded? for sure. Undisciplined? Yeah, maybe that too.
Bradley said he has “full confidence in the New York fans to cheer for their team, proudly and loudly” and that he doesn’t want them to “do anything that would affect the flow of the game.” But at the same time, he said: “It will be a difficult atmosphere. It will be difficult for both teams. I think Luke would say, you have to be ready for it.”
Security will monitor fan behavior from inside the ropes, Bradley said, with the goal of maintaining a fair playing field.
“Nobody on any team wants it to get awkward or weird out there,” he added. “But listen, you walk into Yankee Stadium, you walk into Madison Square Garden, you walk into these places, it’s a tough place to play and Luke and the guys know that.”
Bradley accepted the captaincy just three months ago; the offer came later than usual for a potential captain because Tiger Woods couldn’t decide if he wanted the job. Since Bradley’s appointment, what he has done on the course has attracted far more attention than anything he has done off it. In August, he won a playoff gameBMW Championship, which helped him earn a captaincy from Jim Furyk for this year’s USA Presidents Cup team. In that competition, at Royal Montreal last month, Bradley went 2-1-0 in the USA’s resounding win over the Internationals. Bradley’s job was to score points, but he also made sure to glean whatever leadership tactics he could from his captain.
“In the second session, we went 0-5, which was very shocking,” Bradley recalled on Monday. “(Furyk) just stuck with the plan. He didn’t panic. It didn’t change the pairings. He kept everything to a very high standard. I think there was a time in the tournament where he might have panicked a bit and decided to change the plan. It was very clear that he was going to stick to the script and go with what they had understood before the start of the week, and I think a lot of players responded well to that.”
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Bradley said he also saw a new side to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at the Presidents Cup. Week after week on tour, Bradley said he’s been reluctant to enter Scheffler’s orbit (“He’s such a hard guy to talk to at his tournaments because he’s always winning. So you’re like, ‘I don’t want him bother him”), but in Montreal, Bradley said he witnessed Scheffler emerge as a leader and mentor to younger players.
A year might sound like a long time for Bradley to ease into his new role and check all the necessary boxes. It is not. When you’re at the epicenter of a global sporting event, one decision is quickly followed by another. Setting up the team room. Foods. Uniforms. Gala places. Carriage drivers. Not to mention determining who will make up your team. Assembling a lineup is a months-long process that involves studying players (and their stats), talking to them, messaging them, etc.
Bradley said that with his heavy game schedule this fall, he has yet to fully roll up his sleeves to the captain’s duties, but with the clock ticking, that process has now begun in earnest. Bradley is not alone in his quest. The head of his stable of advisers and aides is John Woodlongtime Tour caddy turned analyst at NBC, who in May was named team manager of the American side. When the PGA of America announced Wood’s first-of-its-kind role, the association said he was tasked with providing “valuable guidance in a variety of team management areas, including player selection, recruiting, motivational strategies, logistical coordination and fostering a positive team environment.”
On Monday, Wood, who has played in seven Ryder Cups, elaborated on his responsibilities, telling GOLF.com that “the general idea is to maybe eliminate some of the decisions that come up to Keegan. If there are eight things you have to choose from, I think I’ve been in enough rooms and team situations to take six of them right off the table.”
This might mean deciding where to place the ping pong table in the team room, which energy bars should be available at the turn, or which belts should adorn the players’ waists. “The simple things,” as Wood put it.
“The US has always seemed to start over every two years,” he said. “Everything is decided every two years when there is so much that should be the same.” Wood’s role, the part, is to help improve these decisions and processes. He said he is also creating a how-to booklet for Ryder Cup beginners filled with the basic dos and don’ts of the event. “Just so that when new people come in, they know exactly what to do,” he said.
Mostly, though, Wood’s job is to free his captain.
“The best thing about Keegan is that he’s so decisive and so clear in his vision for this team that when I get a decision from the PGA of America about apparel, about a bag, I know what he wants in this team and it’s easy. for me to say that’s what Keegan will want,” Wood said.
Bradley has said he will not use one of his captain’s picks on himself, but if his form holds there is a chance he could be fully fit for his team. What then? Bradley will suit up and leave at least some of his duties to captain Wood and his vice-captains, who so far include Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker. It would be an unusual scenario, but one that Bradley’s trustees will be preparing for.
“Any vice-captain I choose will know that’s a possibility,” Bradley said. “But again, we’re so far away from that that I’m focused on being captain right now.”
