By ED TRAVIS
Parttime tour player Tiger Woods said he had too many other commitments so he couldn’t be captain for the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team, the PGA of America selected Keegan Bradley. Bradley is 38 years old, winner of the 2011 PGA Championship, and still winning on the PGA Tour most recently the 2023 Travelers Championship and 2022 ZOZO Championship. He is ranked number 19 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).
From Bradley’s standpoint, Woods refusal was a blessing since it is unlikely he would have received the offer in any other year. Left hanging was Stewart Cink the winner of the 2009 British Open over an aging Tom Watson.
Over a year away in September the 2025 Ryder Cup will be played on the Bethpage State Park Black layout which is an hour east of New York City on Long Island and I can testify it is a cruel and brutally difficult test. It has been the venue for three majors: 2002 U.S. Open won by Woods, the 2009 U.S. Open (Lucas Glover) and the 2019 PGA Championship (Bruce Koepka).
The question still to be resolved though is of immense importance. Will LIV players who were banned from the PGA Tour when they signed with the LIV/Saudi PIF circuit be named to the team? The Ryder Cup is run by the PGA of America not the PGA Tour and they have said nothing publicly about the possibility, but the basis of selection revolves around Official World Golf Ranking for both the automatic spots and captain’s picks.
U.S. Open winner and LIV player Bryson DeChambeau has said he would very much like to be part of the U.S. squad. However, since LIV withdrew their application for their players to earn OWGR points the only way he or any other LIV player can earn points is from their finishes in the major championships. DeChambeau based on his U.S. Open win, second place in the PGA Championship and T6 at the Masters is presently world number 9.
Bradley will be under pressure to get this right and has said he wants the 12 best players on the team regardless of where they are playing whether the PGA Tour or LIV.
Scheffler Takes Time Off
World number one Scottie Scheffler has had an eventful 2024 so far. Sandwiching in six PGA Tour wins including the Masters with becoming a first-time father and the fiasco of being arrested before the second round of the PGA Championship with the charges being dropped, he was exhausted from it all. Disappointed from his T41 finish at the U.S. Open he won the Travelers the week following but opted for a break before the British Open and did not play last weekend’s Scottish Open.
The three times he has played in the British all were after playing in the Scottish and the schedule change was to better prepare for golf’s oldest major where his best finish was a T8 in 2021.
Short Putts
Robert MacIntyre beat Adam Scott to win the Scottish Open over the weekend. He’s the first Scot to win his country’s Open since Colin Montgomery in 1999.
The International Olympic Committee couldn’t wait to see the outcome of Netherland golfer and DP World Tour player Joost Luiten’s court case against the Netherlands Olympic Committee to be allowed to play in the Olympics. They filled the spot he had earned citing they had no part in the court case. Everybody understands the IOC, at least this time was not taking the side of the athlete. Well, there’s always 2028 and as Luiten said the Dutch Olympic Committee has “absolutely no clue about golf.”
In case you missed the announcement Riviera Country Club will be the venue for the men’s and women’s golf in the 2028 Olympics. This year the Le Golf National near Paris is the host course.
