Sports
Member of 2023 US Ryder Cup team shocked (!) at Keegan Bradley’s appointment
Xander Schauffele says he was surprised to hear Keegan Bradley was appointed as the next Team USA Ryder Cup captain.
Bradley was confirmed as the skipper for the red, white and blue yesterday after Tiger Woods turned down the opportunity.
It is widely assumed Woods, 48, turned down the honour as he wanted to have limited responsibilities given his role in helping the PGA Tour strike a deal with LIV Golf‘s backers.
His decision, to all intents and purposes, appeared to spark a three-man race for the captaincy with Stewart Cink, Fred Couples and Davis Love III waiting in the wings.
Instead, the PGA of America made the shock decision to appoint the 38-year-old six-time PGA Tour winner, who has never had any leadership involvement in the biennial dust-up.
But one thing is clear: Bradley has huge passion for representing his nation and will bring the fire to Bethpage Black next September.
The decision may well prove to be a masterstroke.
And his captain’s picks could be explosive, given he is regarded as an outsider and someone who openly criticised the clique in Zach Johnson’s team.
Schauffele told reporters before the Scottish Open: “Yeah, it’s surprising.
“You typically expect someone that’s a little bit older to get selected as a captain.
“I think a lot of people were banking on Tiger to do it. He obviously has a lot on his plate.
“Keegan expressed his love for the Ryder Cup publicly, which we all saw.”
Schauffele added: “I haven’t talked to him or seen him yet but I’m sure he’s over the moon and is going to do a great job.”
“He is so laidback off the course. If you get him in like a dinner setting, he loves sports and he’ll talk about sports all night long.
“He’s a very passionate individual. On the course he’s intense, that’s just how he competes and how he is.
“As a captain, he’s going to have a mixed bag and he’s not going to be afraid to hold a speech with the guys and get everyone going.”
Schauffele said that having lost Ryder Cups in hostile territory it starts to get in your own head.
“Just like [how] I didn’t win a tournament for two years, you look in the mirror and start going, what’s wrong here?
“That’s a little different, but they are going to point every single direction.
“But at the end of the day us players didn’t play well. I haven’t watched a lot of cups overseas where both teams played well and it was super competitive and teams got beat.
“Myself, I felt like I played awful. I felt like I didn’t show up until the final round and it was already way too late to play good golf at that point.”
Bradley is scheduled to give his first news conference as captain later today.
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