Keegan Bradley’s Sacrifice Could Pay Dividends For U.S. Ryder Cup Team

Here’s a quick Keegan Bradley story which shouldn’t serve as some definitive representation, but might help explain his biggest decision so far as Ryder Cup captain: A few years ago, he was eating clean — nothing but the healthiest foods. At one point, while home during a non-tournament week, he unwittingly picked up one of his son’s Goldfish crackers and started to munch on it. Halfway through, he remembered it wasn’t on the meal plan and ran to the sink to spit it out, rather than swallow and suffer his own personal consequences for breaking habit.

Let’s just say the man is detail-oriented and absolutely sweats the small stuff.

On the surface, there would appear to be very little correlation between spitting out a snack and choosing whether to play on your own Ryder Cup team, but there’s a subtle connection here about sacrificing for the greater good which speaks volumes in both cases.

Every Ryder Cup captain preaches team over individual, which is often a difficult concept for the most ruthless competitors in a me-first pursuit such as professional golf.

It might be a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum — do the teams which buy into this conceit best eventually win more frequently or do the teams which win invariably get defined as those who bought in? — but there now exists an unequivocal hypothesis that Bradley’s selflessness should permeate his roster of 12 players.

If the man who was so famously — and publicly — shattered by his exclusion from the squad two years ago believes it was in the team’s best interest this time to have him solely in the captain’s role, those players should intrinsically understand the theory of team above individual, which should immediately help consolidate them.

This remains especially true when considering the irony that if Bradley wasn’t the captain, he undoubtedly would’ve been chosen by anyone else, having finished 11th in the final standings — a ranking which would’ve been higher if the eligibility was extended through the PGA Tour’s season finale.

None of which means his decision was right or wrong; none of which suggests the U.S. team will win or lose.

The betting markets will always tell us whether an edge has been uncovered in either direction, but in the case of next month’s festivities at Bethpage Black, there’s been no recent movement.

These were the lines at BetMGM prior to Wednesday’s announcement of Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns as captain’s selections:

• USA -125
• Europe +138
• Tie +1100

And these were the prices in the aftermath of these decisions being made public:

• USA -125
• Europe +138
• Tie +1100

All of which should tell us two things about these picks. The first is that if the markets weren’t impacted, then there were very few surprises who might’ve shifted the odds — save for Bradley, of course, though it’s hard to argue that his inclusion would’ve moved these lines. The second is that for all the consternation over whom Bradley would add to the roster, the oddsmakers and public alike believe this Ryder Cup is likely to be won or lost based on those who automatically qualified and will likely account for more matches than those who were just named to the team.

What we still don’t know, obviously, is how these players will fare under the three-day spotlight.

As bettors, we collectively understand that course fit is a massive narrative in trying to determine which players will play the best. Bradley’s picks might “deserve” it the most, but are they the players who will best help the team win. I’d argue that these aren’t necessarily one and the same.

“We looked mostly at who had the lowest score at the end of the tournaments. The data and analytics aren’t going to matter on the first tee when there are 40,000 fans screaming at you,” the captain explained before adding, “We want players who are going to go out and win points.”

Just as an NFL team can’t name five QBs to its 53-man roster even if they’re all more highly-rated than every linebacker, a Ryder Cup team should seek players who fit specific roles, whether it’s a foursomes partner for J.J. Spaun or a four-ball partner for Harris English or an excitable personality to balance out those who aren’t outwardly enthusiastic.

Again, it remains to be seen whether Bradley accomplished this goal, just as it remains to be seen whether he accomplishes every goal.

The truth of it all is, if the U.S. team wins at Bethpage next month, then his decision to only be captain will be hailed as brilliant and his six wildcard selections will be considered ingenious and he’ll be lauded as a mid-career captain who got the most out of his peers — and if the team doesn’t win, well, all of those things will be ripe for criticism, just as they always are for a losing Ryder Cup side.