Rory McIlroy calls Keegan Bradley an "interesting" pick for US Ryder Cup Captain

The USA have named their Ryder Cup captain for 2025 and it's not TIger Woods or Phil Mickelson but...Keegan Bradley? Hear Rory's comments on the selection as Cameron explains the shocking pick.

Episode Transcript

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And we're back to the Craigway Show. Have a message for Craig, share
it by using the talkback feature onthe iHeartRadio app. We continue here on
sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Maybe I Will Survive as the theme
of Rory McElroy coming off the collapseat the US Open and his underway in

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the Scottish Open with the Open Championshipat Royal Troon next week. And he
really did his first real heavy dutypress conference since that collapse this week because
he didn't stick around for the pressare afterwards and to congratulate Bryson to Shamba

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and winning the US Open, andthen he didn't play at the Travelers and
so now he's popping up at theScottish Open and getting ready for the Open
Championship, and he's been he's beenpretty uh, he's been pretty outspoken on
a couple of things this week.He talked about his collapse and having to

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pull it back together, and thenhe he had sixty five yesterday in the
first round of the Scottish Open.So then he was asked about what do
you think about Keegan Bradley being thenew captain in TUSA, and he said

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it's an interesting appointment. The youngestcaptain since Arnold Palmer, I think was
a playing captain as a thirty four. But he knows Beth Page very well.
He went to university in the area. He's obviously very passionate about the
Ryder Cup. So uh so hethere are a lot of people that interpreted

(01:55):
his terms, his words of interestingpick to be something that he wasn't really
impressed with that kind of thing andbeing stunned. He said, Europe was
in disbelief that it happened, buthe wasn't. He just said, interesting
pick on that I about your thoughtson that it was an interesting pick,

(02:17):
And honestly, I was surprised whenI first saw the news that Keaton Bradley
was named the Ryder Cup captain.Now, of course, let's go back
real quick twenty fourteen, after theUS established the Task Force following Tom Watson's
just awful awful Ryder Cup captaincy witha pod system, they created this Task

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Force which would help kind of createa different culture for the US men's golf
team, and also established a captainwith the fist captains and those firest captains
being groomed to be the next RiderCup captain and so on and so forth.
So and Bradley was never a visedcaptain, never was. And Steve
Schucker was the Ryder Cup captain intwenty one when the US absolutely just a

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mall the Euros at Whistling Straight.And so the plan before Live was Tiger
Woods was going to be the captainin twenty twenty three and Rome and then
Phil Mickelson at Bethpage in twenty twentyfive, where he's played well at now.
Of course Live changed everything. Alot happened with Tiger Woods's life,
including the car accidents, in thesurgeries, everything got messed up. Sack

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Johnson named the Ryder Cup captain intwenty three was not a good captain.
Of course Phil goes to Live,He's not going to be named the rider
Cup captain. So they were kindof banking on Tiger Woods. But Tiger
Woods has such a big role onthe PGA Tour Player Policy Board that's trying
to get this negotiation done with theSaudi Public Investment Fund. And according to

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Tiger, when he's working on something, he wants to be one hundred percent
in and he did not feel likehe could do both be part of the
player board, which includes Jordan Speedsby the way, and also be the
Ryder Cup captain. And so whathappened was he was drinking along the US
side and stringing them along and streamingthem along. It was supposed to be
announced at the PGA wherever they playedit at this past year that fall,

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Hall of never never did announce it, and it kind of just seemed like
it wasn't going to happen. Sothe Ryder Cup, the righty cup board
had to kind of scramble, andthat included Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and
a few others who decided on Kickand Bradley. And honestly, at first
I was shocked. I didn't.I was kind of, man, what
are we doing here? But themore I brought on it, the more
I realized, you know what,Obviously the task force was not working.

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The Sack Johnson pick was not working. If they went with Davis the Third
or Stuart Sinc or whoever, JimFuorick, I think the same thing would
have happened to Beth Page had happenedin Rome. So kicking Bradley's gonna switch
things up. It's a younger golfer. He connect with these guys. He's
there's not that big age gap asthere was with the last the vice captains
and the players, So hopefully,hopefully this will work out. And Kick

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and Bradley said, I don't carewhat golf tournament, what golf league you're
in, I'm going to pick thebest twelve players, which is what the
US needs because right now Bryson's shambois probably the second best American golfer and
I'm not sure Sack Johnson or evenTiger Woods would pick Bryson. A very
good point. All Right, We'llbe back to wrap up the day and
the week on sports Radio AM thirteenunder the Zone