Ryder Cup hopeful admits he ‘Thinks about it every second’
This Ryder Cup hopeful admits he has a hard time not ‘thinking about it every second’.
With the PGA Tour’s season finale well and truly underway, understandably, thoughts of this year’s upcoming Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy, are at the forefront of every player’s and golf fan’s mind.
On the United States side, half of the team who will make the journey to Rome next month were revealed as six players qualified for Zach Johnson’s U.S. Team automatically following the conclusion of last weekend’s BMW Championship, thus completing a qualification campaign that began in early January of 2022.
Those who did not earn one of the six automatic spots on the roster are hopeful both their previous Ryder Cup resumes and performance over the course of the last two years will warrant their inclusion in the team.
Amongst the hopefuls looking to claim one of the six remaining places on the team is Keegan Bradley, and after the completion of his second round at this year’s Tour Championship, he admitted just how much he thinks about earning his Ryder Cup place.
“Yeah, I think about it every second.” He said. “I would like to sit here and lie to you guys and say I’m not thinking about it, but like periodically throughout the round it will pop into my head. But it’s impossible for me not to think about. So I’m sort of trying to embrace it.”
Keegan Bradley finished 11th in the United States qualification points rankings and he will be hopeful that he has done enough this season to earn one of Johnson’s six captain’s picks.
Keegan Bradley will hope to make the Ryder Cup for a 3rd time.
Looking for what would be his third appearance on an American Ryder Cup team, Keegan has put together an impressive resume over the course of the 2022/23 PGA Tour season.
Last October, Bradley ended a four-year wait for a win when he won at the ZOZO Championship early in the season. He would go on to follow that up with a victory at one of this year’s ‘elevated’ PGA Tour events, the Travelers Championship, in June.
That win against some of the best players in the world was extra special for Keegan Bradley, a New England native who used to come to the tournament as a child.
Two wins over the course of the season were enough to pave the way to East Lake and this week’s Tour Championship for Bradley, who is hoping to add one more piece of evidence to an already glowing resume over the weekend in Atlanta.
“Well, like I said yesterday, I mean, it’s a two-year long qualifying process with the tournament
a month away,” Bradley responded when asked about giving more for Captain Zach Johnson to think about with a great week at the season finale. “I mean, it certainly can’t hurt. I know that.”
So far, so good, on that front for Keegan. The 2011 PGA Champion is right in the mix at the halfway point following rounds of 63 and 67 over the first two days.
At 13-under and just three shots behind co-leaders Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa (-16), Bradley has improved his position on the leaderboard by ten strokes after starting at 3-under on Thursday as part of the Tour Championship’s staggered scoring start format.
After making appearances at the 2012 and 2014 Ryder Cups, the 37-year-old will hope he is afforded the opportunity to break out that Ryder Cup bag once again when Johnson announces his final picks for the U.S. Team early next week.
“It’s in my garage. I thought for a while I’ll never open it again.” He said about the bag. “So hopefully I get a chance to play on this team.”
Next. Scheffler, Morikawa, and Hovland Survive The Heat. dark
Regardless of whether or not he gets the nod from Zach Johnson, Bradley said he will be watching the U.S. at this Ryder Cup and cheering them on, something he admitted has been difficult for him to do in the past.
"“If I don’t, I’m going to be rooting hard.” He said. “There’s been, in years past it’s been really hard for me to watch the Ryder Cup because I just haven’t been in the conversation to be on the team. But this year if I don’t make the team it will be different. I’ll watch and I’ll be pulling for the guys just as if I was playing.”"
Hopefully, he does get that chance and can dust off the ole’ bag once again.