Keegan Bradley has less than two months left to lock in his 12-man team for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. There are about a dozen players in the running for a captain's selection—including Bradley himself—and now controversial U.S. star Patrick Reed has thrown his hat in the ring.
Over the weekend, Reed won LIV Golf Dallas at Maridoe Golf Club to pick up his first individual victory on the Saudi-backed tour. The 34-year-old emerged victorious thanks to a birdie on the first hole of a four-man playoff against Paul Casey, Louis Oosthuizen, and Jinichiro Kozuma.
Patrick Reed wins his first LIV Golf title! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/kP2pInEBEd
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) June 29, 2025
The win comes at a perfect time for Reed, who needed to make a loud splash to get Bradley's attention. Because he's not competing against the best players on the PGA Tour every week, Reed has fewer chances to prove he's a top-12 American in the world.
Now that he has a LIV Golf win to go along with a top-25 finish at the U.S. Open, a T3 at The Masters, and two top-10 finishes on the DP World Tour this season, Reed has a legitimate argument to be named a captain's pick in August.
Add in the fact that he's 7-3-2 in his Ryder Cup career (including 3-0-0 in singles) and won The Barclays at Bethpage Black in 2016, and Reed is a home-run captain's pick on the surface.
But the surface doesn't show the scandals buried underneath.
Patrick Reed is putting Keegan Bradley in an awkward spot
If Reed's resume over the last two years belonged to any other American, he would likely be on the team. Only, his resume and form aren't the biggest factors in this decision.
The Ryder Cup is just as much about team camaraderie as it is about iron play and putting. If the locker room doesn't get along, those issues will translate to the course. Frankly, no one wants to be partnered with Reed while fighting for the Red, White, and Blue.
Reed has a long history of cheating accusations that date back to his college days at Augusta State University. He was caught illegally improving his lie multiple times while he was playing on the PGA Tour, and that's not even the worst of it.
At the 2018 Ryder Cup, Reed publicly called out U.S. captain Jim Furyk for his pairing decisions. He also singled out former partner Jordan Spieth for not wanting to play with him.
Reed rubs people the wrong way, and that long list includes many of the players he would be teammates with at the 2025 Ryder Cup. That leaves Bradley in an awkward situation with the due date for captain's picks quickly approaching.
Will Bradley put more weight on recent form and past Ryder Cup performances, or will he opt for team chemistry and leave one of the most competitive Americans in golf off the roster?
One LIV Golf victory likely isn't enough for Reed to crack the team, but if he plays well and contends at The Open Championship in July, Captain Keegan might have a tough time picking other names over Captain America.