A month ago, Keegan Bradley appeared poised to serve as vice-captain for Team USA at this year's Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal. The logic behind it was that Bradley would gain valuable experience before taking the reins of the Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black next fall.
But then Bradley went from last to first at the BMW Championship, won the second FedEx Cup playoff event as the last player to do so, and rose to fourth in the FedEx Cup standings, giving him a better chance than any other player to overtake Scottie Scheffler and win the Tour Championship.
Unfortunately, Bradley didn't bring his best performance from Colorado to Atlanta, but according to USA vice-captain Stewart Cink, the decision to add him to the team was made when he putted out at Castle Pines.
“The big change was Keegan Bradley's win. He basically qualified automatically,” Cink said ahead of Thursday's Ascension Charity Classic.
“I think we'll joke a little bit that Keegan is the first guy to be relieved of his vice-captaincy in a long time.”
Bradley's win in Colorado forced captain Jim Furyk to make a decision.
He has one of six captaincy awards for him, and Bradley has proven that he is still one of the best players in the game, despite being 38 years old. He is currently ranked 13th in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), Data GolfOver the past 18 months, Bradley has won more tournaments on the PGA Tour than Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa combined. Kyle Porter of CBS Sports.
“I think we all have to be honest and admit, he almost didn't make it to BMW, right? He came in 50th, last place, and then he sprinted all the way to the end to win it. That definitely caught a lot of people's attention,” Furyk said of Bradley.
“For me, I think that was a pretty important moment, having that much pressure on him and knowing that if he didn't win he wasn't going to make the team and him being able to go out there and get it done.”
Furyk said he plans to add another assistant captain with Bradley joining the team.
Max Homa, Brian Harman, Sam Burns, Tony Finau and Russell Henley have been selected by Furyk for the Presidents Cup, while Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Wyndham Clark and Sahith Teegala have already qualified.
“I'm really confident with our picks. One of the main reasons is that the players we were focused on were lined up from one to 12 and Jim didn't have to go too far outside the box to pick someone, which is always a scary thing for a captain,” Cink added.
“The top 12 ranked exactly as we expected.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
