Bradley makes Ryder Cup picks, declines being playing captain

Keegan Bradley made his six captain's picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup team Wednesday, ending months of speculation by opting against choosing himself to be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

Here's the entire squad that will represent the United States at Bethpage Black. The first six players automatically qualified via the ranking points system.

* - denotes captain's pick

Bradley has been a Ryder Cup player twice, most recently in 2014. The Americans lost both times he was on the team.

He admitted the decision to not play was made a while ago.

"I'm 100% certain this is the right choice," Bradley said, according to ESPN. "I want to be the best captain I can be."

Bradley narrowly missed out on being a captain's pick for the 2023 team, which was famously documented in Netflix's "Full Swing" series. Bradley's heartbreak over missing out was a prominent storyline leading up to the Americans' lopsided defeat to the Europeans in Italy.

The 39-year-old is ranked 11th in the world and had one victory along with six top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR in 2025. Bradley finished the campaign 11th on the American Ryder Cup points list.

Bradley selected two first-timers to his roster: Griffin earned two wins and 10 top 10s this season, while Young, a local product, is fresh off his first PGA TOUR victory.

Thomas, Morikawa, and Cantlay bring plenty of experience to the team. Cantlay is 15-6-1 in team events for his career.

The Ryder Cup runs Sept. 26-28. Europe won the most recent rendition but hasn't been victorious on American soil since 2012.

European captain Luke Donald will make his picks Sept. 1.