Ryder Cup 2025: Why Keegan Bradley deserves second chance as lessons learned from Bethpage Black crowd trouble in New York
Sky Sports Golf's Rich Beem gives his verdict on the 2025 Ryder Cup including what it means for captains Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, plus what can be done to prevent crowd trouble; watch the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship from this Thursday, live on Sky Sports
Tuesday 30 September 2025 06:10, UK
Everybody couldn't believe what we were seeing on Sunday. It was the kind of momentum that Europe got in the first two days, all of a sudden it snowballed back to the US side.
For the US to win eight-and-a-half points in the singles, with a half point that was really kind of undecided, what a day for golf.
The US had the precipice of being embarrassed on home soil in record fashion and they didn't want that. The Europeans, some of them looked tired, but everybody was tired.
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We finally outplayed the Europeans on Sunday and made it interesting, but all the credit goes to the Europeans on Friday and Saturday, how good of a team they truly are. It was great to watch as an American.
You guys are the worst thing that's ever happened to me when it comes to the Ryder Cup, because now I'm spoiled because I love it.
I'm living and dying by everything that goes on each time they play. It's amazing. It's a team effort. I don't know how America can ever really get into that vibe.
And the funny thing is, we have the best college programme in the world and these guys play for their teams. Yet once they turn professional, it seems like that goes out the window a little bit.
I could be so off the mark because I've never been in a team room, I don't get a chance to get up close and personal and talk to these guys about it. I just know what I see and that's exactly what I see.
Europe is way closer than the United States team.
Lowry's brilliant celebrations and DeChambeau still the US star
It's hard to believe Shane Lowry was struggling back in 2017 and all of a sudden he wins in Abu Dhabi and has been on this upward trend since then.
I love the fact that, again, when he makes a putt, he talks about 'winning The Open is one thing, but winning the Ryder Cup is a completely different thing'.
I'm not too sure you're going to have an American ever say that, with the exception of possibly Keegan Bradley, the captain of the US side, because he knows how much that means to him.
Bryson (DeChambeau) has taken a lot of stick this week, but he was the standout American. I don't know how many truly horrific shots that he hit, or a putt that he should have made.
It's not like he shied away, or backed down. I give massive props to Bryson because he got hammered in the media before this thing even started, even on Monday, before the players made their presence here.
Bryson is great for golf, and he's great for American golf. I would take him to Ireland in two years without hesitation. I'd already say, 'you're on the team'.
Bradley should keep captaincy for 2027
The statistician that works for the US side, I think that they need to kind of take a deep, hard look into how they analyse things because what Edoardo Molinari is doing is otherworldly, and what he does is he puts belief into the [European] players, and he says, 'listen, we're already 1up, because we know this match is a bygone conclusion that this is going to be ours'.
When you have that feeling and that belief, you're going to succeed 24/7. I truly know that as a golfer. The US side has to take a look, though, because they've got to figure out a way to not have the blunders on the first couple of days.
We can talk about the key putts, when they're made, but again, the camaraderie is right there, and I remember a few years ago, when it was Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay, they went away from that winning side on the first day.
Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, good pals, yet, never once did they play together. So bizarre.
If I was the PGA of America, I would give the captaincy to Keegan (Bradley) [for 2027] right now and say 'everything you learned this week, you have to take it with you'.
Keegan could have been one of the 12 players. When you were out there trying to play and play at a high level still, and you're the captain, there are things that are going to be missed.
A lot of these guys look at numbers and see 'why is this pairing so strong'.
But out of 132 scenarios, Harris English and Collin Morikawa was the 132nd strongest team. Why do it twice? That was mind-boggling.
Donald should be captain for as long as he wants
Luke Donald's very cerebral, he's obviously a smart man. When someone asks him a question, he may not know the answer to it, but he goes 'let me think about it' and doesn't just blurt out an answer.
He was put to hard work on the final day but he put a lot of questions to bed on the first two days.
Everything he learned from Rome, he brought it to Bethpage and built on that to be a captain for the ages.
The family is the only reason why he may not want to continue. I would put him in captaincy for as long as he wants it.
The Ryder Cup is obviously about the players, but it's also so commercialised as well. You have to put a lot of time, effort, and money into building a team the way that you want to build and the way you want to see things happen.
It doesn't happen overnight. It is something that has to be cared for. Every little small detail that you see on a daily basis anywhere in the world, write it down because you think, listen, 'that might give us a tenth of a percentage point more and we'll take every single percentage point'."
Crowd trouble could have been prevented
The PGA of America knew what they would get themselves into by coming to this venue. Why did they not have more plain-clothes security walking among the fans out there, trying to do your best to calm some of them down?
You can't control all of it no matter what because some people are idiots. Why didn't they recognise that? They did at Hazeltine in 2016 and they got people gone as soon as someone said something.
As a whole, it's not what I want to see at any golf tournament. You would never see it at Augusta or any major championship. You have to respect the game and your fellow human beings.
You can be clever about what you say. Every time an opponent makes the shots, say nothing, don't clap.
There's a gentleman by the name of Chipper Jones, who used to be first baseman for the Atlanta Braves.
And he came out with a tweet and says, listen, I played in New York probably 12 to 14 times every single year in New York against the Yankees. Not once in 20 years that I bring my family to a ballgame here.
He goes, listen, if they're going to be out there, they're going to hear stuff that they don't want to hear to their husbands.
How will we remember the 2025 Ryder Cup?
I'm not going to forget these matches for a long time. Sky Sports has spoiled me, devastated me and demoralised me in so many different ways because of the Ryder Cup itself.
I love what I do. I love the people we work with. I love wearing the red, white and blue, but the Europeans are a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
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