CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Keegan Bradley is still getting used to his new title as captain of the U.S. team for the next Ryder Cup.
He still feels like a player who should be competing to win his way onto the roster, and thinking about playing in the matches against Europe in September 2025 at Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island.
He certainly looked the part Saturday in the BMW Championship, all while hearing the occasional “U-S-A! U-S-A!” cheer as he made his way across windswept Castle Pines Golf Club for a wild third round of 2-under-par 70 that gave him a one-shot lead, at 12-under 204 through 54 holes, over Australia’s Adam Scott (74).
“To be named Ryder Cup captain and still be a full-time player is strange, said Bradley, at 38 the youngest U.S. captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. “I don’t know anyone who knows how to handle this situation, so I’m doing the best I can. The only thing I can keep doing is playing my best golf, and maybe play my way onto some of these teams.”
A victory at the BMW Championship, the second of three events in the FedEx Cup postseason, would make him the first captain to win on the PGA Tour since Davis Love III, who was 51 when he won the 2015 Wyndham Championship. It also would move Bradley to No. 11 in the Official World Golf Ranking.