Keegan Bradley tees-up opportunity for dual Ryder Cup role
In theory, sleeping should be a relatively straightforward process. All you have to do is lie on your back and close your eyes.
It's so easy, even a corpse can do it. And presumably, that's what I'll become if I don't change my bloomin' sleeping position.
Poor old Tommy Fleetwood will probably be having a couple of sleepless nights after his harrowing loss in the Travelers Championship on Sunday.
After 41 top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, it looked like he would finally claim a maiden title in the US but, over a closing stretch laden with pressure, his three-putt on the last opened the door for Keegan Bradley.
Fair play to Bradley. He marched through it and sent the partisan galleries bonkers.
Another door opened for Bradley, of course. His win increased the world No 7's chances of becoming the first playing captain in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
Leadership, like everything in these berserk and binary times of relentless, fist-shaking opinion, is a fraught business.
You're either an inspirational driving force who will save the world or a ham-fisted imbecile that has all the clout of a damp glove puppet.
It would be fair to say, then, that when the Ryder Cup skipper's armband was thrust into Bradley's hands last year, the response was predictably mixed.
The PGA of America and its wonderfully mockable Task Force were banking on Tiger Woods taking the position. And when he didn't, it seemed like they panicked and were dizzying around in their halls of power like Norman Wisdom pretending to be stuck in the revolving door of a hotel foyer.
The first time Bradley heard about the Ryder Cup captaincy was when he got a call to tell him the job was his.
So much for the Task Force's careful, considered approach which was supposed to mimic Team Europe's structured line of succession.
Bradley, somewhat contentiously, was left out of the USA team for the transatlantic tussle in Rome two years ago and his tearful reaction to that snub was caught on camera.
The 39-year-old also has an unopened suitcase sitting in his house which still has all his clobber in it from the 2012 Ryder Cup loss at Medinah. He says he won't open it until he's part of a winning team.
Imagine that? Bradley leads USA to glory at Bethpage Park and the TV cameras swiftly head to his hoose to document a ceremonial bag opening as he gingerly picks out a variety of stinking socks, soiled semmits and reeking shirts.
Given that the former US PGA champion hasn't served any kind of apprenticeship as a vice-captain, we have no idea what kind of captain, indeed playing captain, he will be.
Passionate? Certainly. But passion alone doesn't guarantee points.
If Bradley is as methodical over his foursomes and fourball pairings as he is lining up a putt with the AimPoint technique, his submissions between sessions could take bloody ages.
Ryder Cup skippers, of course, are ultimately judged on something they can't really control; how their players perform.
It's a pretty fickle measure to be analysed by. On one hand, a player can be a star, and the captain is viewed as a motivational colossus who has harnessed the ebb and flow of events with a shrewd tactical nous.
On the other hand, a player can simply not perform and be absolved of any blame as the skipper gets it in the neck. If Bradley is a playing leader and hitting shots too, the judgement will be even more intense.
Back in ye day, the captain's role seemed to be fairly straight forward. 'Boys, let me tell you something,' declared Ben Hogan to his US troops of 1967.
'You don't have to be a rocket scientist to do this job. I'm going to pair straight hitters with straight hitters and crooked hitters with crooked hitters so you won't find yourselves in unfamiliar places.'
The aforementioned Palmer, meanwhile, was just 34 and at the peak of his powers when he was a playing captain in Atlanta in 1963.
He pitched in with four points out of six as the hosts romped to a 23-9 win over an overwhelmed Great Britain. The Ryder Cup was a very different affair back then, of course, and the result of the lop-sided meeting was usually a forgone conclusion.
It's very even-steven these days. And the captaincy is a bit more scientific. Well, so it's portrayed anyway.
When Paul Azinger led the US to glory in 2008, for instance, his use of pod systems and perceived Eisenhower-esque leadership ended up in a book called 'Cracking the Code' in which the Ryder Cup captaincy was elevated to the kind of lauded cryptanalysis you used to get at Bletchley Park.
As the 2025 contest hurtles towards us, Bradley is certainly up for the cup. 'We're gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f****** ass,' he roared in a rallying cry last year. He's not quite Henry Kissinger.
To play or not to play? That is the question that will continue to be asked as the Ryder Cup build-up intensifies.
Now, excuse me, I'm off to work on my sleeping position.
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Times
9 hours ago
- Times
Pompous Europe take note: no fans are more real than fervent Brazilians
Aside from his natural gifts, there was a reason Seve Ballesteros was such a great Ryder Cup golfer. He had a thing about America. Genuinely disliked the place. Resented that he was tagged the car-park champion, bristled at the lack of respect suggested by the title. Ballesteros could never see the affection, the celebration of the unconventional. And when the wider continent of Europe was invited to join Great Britain and Ireland in 1979, he made it his mission to make America pay. Some have wondered why Brazilian clubs, in particular, thrived early on at the Club World Cup. Was it the heat, a greater love for the competition, the timing that places this in South America's mid-season, after the European campaign has reached its exhausting conclusion? Yes, some of all that, probably; but something else, too. It's very possible that Brazil, indeed the rest of the world, feels about Europe the way Ballesteros did America. That it feels belittled, patronised, treated with contempt. And it thinks Europe has a cheek. Plundering its best players, while disregarding the football cultures creating them. The world has a point. How many times, since the Club World Cup started, have we been told that 'real' fans do not care for it; that 'ordinary' fans will not be watching, as if ours are the only eyeballs that matter. Who is 'real' in this debate, who has the right to speak for 'ordinary'? How presumptuous to consider our affiliations and preferences any more genuine than those of thousands of fans from Rio De Janeiro or Buenos Aires that have descended on this tournament. Our pomposity is staggering. If you're not interested, fair enough. But don't consider your view, your voice, all that counts. In 2005, trying to get Palestinians to vote in an upcoming election, the actor Richard Gere recorded a television message. 'Hi, I'm Richard Gere,' he began, 'and I'm speaking for the entire world'. There are a few back home who appear to believe they do the same. If fans from South America, Africa, and Asia are not real, if their football is so insignificant, try this simple test. Remove every player from those continents from the Premier League champions of the past 20 years. Take Alisson, Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz and Alexis Mac Allister from Liverpool this season; take the entire forward line of Salah, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino, plus Alisson and Fabinho from the 2019-20 side. Then extract Ederson, Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré, Fernandinho, Pablo Zabaleta, Riyad Mahrez and Carlos Tevez from the various teams built at Manchester City. See how Chelsea fare without Michael Essien, Willian, Diego Costa, Didier Drogba, Oscar, John Obi Mikel or Hernán Crespo. Even Manchester United's most recent title-winning team of 2012-23 contained Javier Hernández, Shinji Kagawa, Rafael and Antonio Valencia, from precisely the type of supposed backwaters being diminished here. So if these are grudge matches, that much is understandable. Europe are football's colonialists, taking the good stuff then wondering why the locals are poor, untrusting and unruly. There was no point in having a Club World Cup, it was said, because it would just be dominated by the big European teams; and no one thought it ironic that the reason those European teams are so dominant is that they are stuffed to the gills with the plunder of far continents. That Jorginho plays for Flamengo and Thiago Silva for Fluminese only now Europe have had their use of them. Look at the players propping up Uefa's contingent: Federico Valverde, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo for Real Madrid, Lautaro Martínez for Inter Milan, Enzo Fernández, Moisés Caicedo and Nicolas Jackson for Chelsea. And then, having sequestered the world's product, Europe decries the prospect of there being a competition and haughtily suggests those who wish for one are not real fans. So it is rather delightful that far from the last 16 being almost exclusively European, the remaining teams are spread across four confederations with Uefa involvement amounting to nine clubs from its initial rump of 12. By contrast, every Brazilian entrant made the knockout stage and at least one will be in the last eight. Actually, it would be great if a Brazilian club won this. Unlikely, given that the country's best footballers are all in Europe, but it would be one in the eye for those that run down the thousands who have imbued this competition with life, as if they are in some way inferior to an English fan, sitting on his sofa, sneering. They are real fans here. As real as you, as real as anyone. Never think it means more at Anfield. Never believe devotion is made more special because your team is lousy and in League Two. Anyone who has encountered the fanaticism around River Plate or Boca Juniors knows better than to patronise. In 2000, I stood by the side of the roads around the Maracana as coaches arrived from São Paulo carrying supporters of Corinthians to their Club World Cup final with Vasco da Gama. It was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure. It is six hours, close to 300 miles, between the cities and those that made the journey appeared stimulated by potions unknown. If the coaches had windows, they streamed with sweaty condensation, the product of a ferocious fanaticism. Most inside were stripped to the waist, screaming, broiling, banging on the glass, hanging out of broken panes, flying the skull and crossbones that is the unofficial flag of Corinthians. I would have enjoyed seeing some of the Club World Cup naysayers telling them they were not real, that their fervour was somehow inferior because they weren't on social media tweeting about sportswashing or there being too much football. It is not about money to those fans. It is not about Gianni Infantino, or who is propping up DAZN. This is about their team trying to become the world champions. And if they can do that, they can stare down Europe, too. Think back to when Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final. There seemed a lot of pent-up anger released that day. A lot of players who cared not only about what they had won, but who they had defeated to get there. Looking back, it was almost as if they had something they wanted to say to us. Increase to 48 teams would hurt game. Over to you, Gianni . . . I was wrong about one key aspect of this Club World Cup. I thought it should have been 16 teams. Continental champions only. Tight, clean. No coefficient placeholders. It would have been shorter, streamlined, perhaps less controversial. But it wouldn't have worked. Too small, too many exclusions. If Fifa had just allowed Champions League winners from around the globe, there would have been no teams from Argentina, none from France, Italy or Portugal. Some of the continental champions from Asia, Africa and the Americas would have had to play-off. It would have been too limited in its appeal. This feels right, at 32. Big enough to be widely welcoming, small enough to maintain an elite standard. Almost inevitably it will expand to 48 team, or more, in the future; but that will create its own problems. Just as there is a risk of Fifa money making a single club — such as Auckland City — unstoppable in its own region, so an expanded tournament would create powerful cabals in even the strongest leagues. There does not seem such great danger to competition in the Premier League from the money earned by Chelsea and Manchester City this time around, because it is unlikely to be the same pair in 2029. England having two Champions League winners between 2021 and 2024 shut out any other Premier League qualifiers. Yet Liverpool would almost certainly have featured had Uefa coefficients come into play. Yet what if, with expansion, the limit of two clubs per country — barring continental champions, which is why Brazil have four here — was lifted? Liverpool, City, Chelsea and Arsenal could become a permanent Champions League/Club World Cup bloc, pulling away from their rivals financially. The next stage of the development has to be handled very carefully, then. Do we trust Infantino, the Fifa president, with that? Do we buffalo. Class of 2021 prove form doesn't matter One of the criticisms of the Club World Cup is that the qualification period is too long and there should be more recency bias. How are the present champions of England, Italy and Spain not present, yet Chelsea, the winners of the 2021 Champions League final and subsequently third, 12th, sixth and fourth in the Premier League, are? Put simply, if the competition is to take place every four years, it is right that the four Champions League winners are here. Yet beyond an argument for straightforward meritocracy, the results have also been interesting. With the exception of Al-Ahly, winners of the African Champions League in 2021 who joined the rest of the continent's teams in going out, every champion team from that distant year qualified for the round of 16. Al-Hilal, champions from 2021, are Asia's only representatives in the knockout stage, Monterrey one of only two from CONCACAF, Palmeiras, the Copa Libertadores winners in 2021, made it through, as did Chelsea. By contrast, of the 16 teams going home, nine qualified via coefficient or play-off, which would appear the most up to date assessment of club form. Of the five European and South American clubs to exit at the group stage — River Plate, Boca Juniors, Atletico Madrid, Porto and RB Salzburg — none of them arrived victorious. Keep Club World Cup in USA? It makes some sense… Having written that the next Club World Cup should be in Brazil, a friend made a very strong argument for keeping it here in the United States. Yes, the heat, the travel, the timings, local apathy, the stadiums selected are too big, all well-aired arguments. But, he said, there is no country with the make-up of America. All human life is here, meaning every team has its following. How many of what seemed thousands turning out for ES Tunis from Tunisia were actually Tunisians living in the US? Did Al-Ahly fans really travel in such numbers from Cairo, or were the majority the Egyptian diaspora already here? Brazil cannot deliver like that, and nor can Fifa charge anywhere near as much for tickets. We all know which argument swings it for Infantino, but it is not just American money that makes sense. World Cup win masks failures of Argentina's domestic game Of the top five all-time winners of the Copa Libertadores, four are from Argentina. River Plate and Estudiantes have four titles each, Boca Juniors six and Independiente seven. The only club in that company not from Argentina is Peñarol, of Uruguay, with five. No Brazilian club has been South American champions more than three times. Yet the past six years have brought a clean sweep of Brazilian winners, and four all-Brazilian finals, too. Since 2019, six different clubs from Brazil have reached the final, and only two from Argentina. A spread of seven different Argentinian finalists would require a countback to 1992. Winning a World Cup papers over some pretty big cracks. So does having Lionel Messi. Leaving Qatar in 2022, it was possible to think not much was wrong with Argentinian football. And in many ways, not much is. Even at 38, Messi's allure remains, as has been proven here. Argentinian talent is central to many of the best clubs in Europe, including Premier League champions, Liverpool. Yet its club football is weak, compared to Brazil. While a quartet of Brazilian clubs sailed into the round of 16 at the Club World Cup, both of Argentina's went home, Boca Juniors embarrassed having failed to beat Auckland City, while River Plate missed out to Monterrey of Mexico. Argentina no longer makes the sponsorship deals the Brazilians attract, no longer competes consistently for the biggest club prize. The money here will be a welcome bonus, but it is still swamped by what Brazil's quartet will reap. So Brazil will continue attracting the best of South America that does not go to Europe, Argentina will continue feeding off past glories, and one very present one. Both, however, hide a troubling reality for Argentina's clubs. Werner's reminder of Kaufman's inspired, unruly genius My colleague Matt Lawton's excellent interview with the Liverpool chairman Tom Werner found him telling stories of the comedian Andy Kaufman, who played Latka Gravas in Taxi. Werner, whose credits as a producer also include Roseanne and Third Rock From The Sun, had contracted Kaufman to perform Latka in the style of his character Foreign Man. But Kaufman, having accepted the role, hated Taxi, hated conventional sitcom and hated what the show did with his talent, too. He hated it so much, in fact, that he would stop his shows if anyone starting calling for Latka. He would warn that, if it happened again, he would educate by reading The Great Gatsby aloud for the remainder of the performance. Inevitably, someone in the crowd would test his patience. At which point Kaufman would stop and open the book. He often read the entire first chapter, before asking the audience if they wanted him to continue or to play a record. Kaufman had a lot of very funny routines involving the playing of records. The audience would cry out for the record. At which point, Kaufman would walk over and very slowly and methodically put on a recording — of him reading The Great Gatsby from exactly the point at which he had just stopped. For inspired, unruly genius, Mario Balotelli had nothing on that man. You've changed, Andy According to the Wimbledon chairwoman Debbie Jevans, Sir Andy Murray will help with the design of the statue to be built in his honour at the All England Club. If true, that is the least Andy Murray thing the man has ever done in his life. Unfairly treated, but Ruud should have put Leicester's needs before his own reputation Ruud Van Nistelrooy was not treated well by Leicester City, left hanging until long after the season ended. Some of his players seemed a poor lot, too, and much of the uncertainty around Leicester was a combination of dismal management and the continued vindictiveness of modern football administrators, folk who will not be satisfied until they have pushed a struggling club over a cliff. However, from the start, Van Nistelrooy did not look a good fit. Leicester were hardly thriving under Steve Cooper but he was working with significant limitations and had kept them out of the bottom three. They needed hands-on management, instead Van Nistelrooy watched his first game, away to Brentford, from the stands. Ostensibly, this was to learn more about the team. Yet Van Nistelrooy had taken four games in charge of Manchester United, and two were against Leicester. He probably knew more about them than any manager bar Cooper. It smacked of shielding his reputation. Brentford, at the time, had the best form of any home team in the country, including Liverpool — and duly beat Leicester 4-1. It meant, however, that Van Nistelrooy's first game was at home to West Ham United who were in equally pitiful form. He won that match, and then one other, before Leicester were relegated. So, yes, Van Nistelrooy was poorly served by Leicester; but it cuts both ways. Shattered players? Don't be so sure The prevalent wisdom is that the two English clubs at the Club World Cup will be shattered come the middle of the domestic campaign, having moved from here to pre-season training with barely a break. Do not be so sure. Both seem to be using this as pre-season, and will probably give the players extended time off when the tournament concludes. New signings will have bedded in, too. Not saying it works. But not saying it won't.
Daily Record
10 hours ago
- Daily Record
Sergio Garcia has secret Ryder Cup weapon for team Europe as he eyes dream double
The Spanish star is still fighting to be at Royal Portrush and Bethpage Fired-up Sergio Garcia reckons his valuable Ryder Cup experience could make him a big asset to Europe as he eyes a dream Bethpage and Open double. The 45-year-old is currently playing the LIV event in Dallas aiming to book his ticket to next month's cracker at Royal Portrush. If Garcia ends the Texas event on Sunday evening in the top five of the individual LIV standings and top of those stars not already qualified for the 153rd Championship, he'll be heading to Northern Ireland. Currently fourth, those above him at the start of play, Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, have secured their spots in the Open field and Garcia can join them if he stays in his current position. Garcia hopes an outing at The Open will see him complete a special set of summer tournaments during a huge five weeks where he will also tee-up back on the DP World Tour at next week's BMW International Open in Germany and at LIV Andalucia on his beloved Valderrama and in the UK. He's excited for the challenges and, speaking to Marca, he said: 'I'd say every moment is important, but without a doubt, these five consecutive tournaments I probably have now are important because of their position in the season and because there's a Major in between. 'Starting now in Dallas, then the BMW International Open, Valderrama, which I'm really looking forward to because I'm defending the individual and team titles. If I play well here in Dallas, I'll qualify for the British Open and wouldn't have to play qualifiers. 'Finally [LIV] UK. It's obviously an important part of the year and I have to try to do my best. 'I've always loved and been motivated to play in Spain. Every time I play in my country is very special, and fortunately, I've had a lot of success in my career when I've played tournaments at home. 'It's beautiful, it motivates me a lot to play in front of my fans, but Valderrama is even more special because it's my favourite course and I've always been very good at it. 'If everything goes well and nothing unusual happens physically, I'd definitely like to be at the Spanish Open. 'I'll try to play in some other tournaments at the end of summer or late fall.' Garcia firmly believes he still has the chance within this key current timeframe to convince captain Luke Donald he is worthy of a place in the side for the clash against United States. Europe's record points scorer feels he can be an asset and played alongside the skipper when the continent was last successful on away soil at Medinah in 2012. He said: 'There are still almost three months to go until the Ryder Cup, although a little less time until the team selection and I think I'm in a position where I would have chosen it at the beginning of the year. 'If they had told me I was going to be in this position and with a chance of being on the Ryder Cup team, obviously I would have taken it without a doubt. 'Now what I have to do is keep showing my strengths, keep showing my golf, especially what I showed in the first third of the year. 'The good thing is that I know I'm on Luke's ballot and I just have to keep showing that I can do good things and that I can help the team. The Ryder Cup is my favourite golf tournament in the world. 'It would be incredible to be able to compete in another Ryder Cup, especially knowing that in New York, at Bethpage, it's going to be tough and maybe a little experience always comes in handy.'
Scottish Sun
13 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Brooks Koepka suffers meltdown and smashes tee marker into fans before withdrawing from LIV Dallas claiming ‘illness'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BROOKS KOEPKA smashed a tee marker towards fans in a shocking meltdown. The five-time major winner lost his temper at the LIV Golf Dallas event yesterday. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Brooks Koepka was left raging after a poor tee shot Credit: Fox 4 The five-time major champion smashed his driver on the ground Credit: Fox 4 He then sent a tee marker flying towards fans Credit: Fox 4 Koepka later withdrew through illness Credit: Alamy Koepka got off to a nightmare start at the Maridoe Golf Club with triple bogeys on the fifth and seventh holes. He was seven over par by the time he got to the ninth and his frustrations then boiled over. A wild tee shot veered to the left and Koepka angrily smashed his club into the ground. He then turned to a tee marker and smacked it off the course. READ MORE IN SPORT I'VE GOT LEW Hamilton gives F1 rival lift on his private jet after he was booked on EasyJet It went flying close to where fans were standing - but fortunately nobody was hurt. Many are demanding action is taken, with one saying: "He should be fined and suspended." Another added: "Unacceptable behaviour. Anyone doing this needs stiff penalties." A third wrote: "These pros need to stop with the club throws, ground pounds and course destruction." BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK Koepka's struggles continued and he eventually pulled out on the 14th hole due to an illness. Luis Carrera has replaced him in the Smash GC team. Ryder Cup legend in furious argument over golf etiquette with respected TV reporter at US Senior Open Koepka could decide to return to the action this weekend, though he is out the individual event and would only be representing the team. The 35-year-old American is in woeful form after failing to make the cut at the Masters and PGA Championship this year. He has not finished in the top ten in the last nine majors.
