Rory McIlroy: U.S. a better Ryder Cup team with Keegan Bradley playing
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland – At last year's Genesis Scottish Open when Rory McIlroy was asked about the possibility of a Ryder Cup playing captain, he was skeptical it could be done in the modern era of one of sports biggest events.
On Friday at the Renaissance Club, McIlroy was asked again if it was possible for U.S. captain Keegan Bradley to do both — play and captain — this year at Bethpage Black.
'Hopefully it is impossible,' McIlroy joked. 'Keegan has played great. He's had a great year. He had the win at the Travelers. I'm not in those conversations and from an outside perspective, it's going to be interesting to see what the U.S. team does with that.
'I definitely think the U.S. team is better with Keegan playing than not playing. I definitely think he's one of the best 12 American players right now. It's going to be an interesting couple months to see how that all shakes out.'
Bradley is currently ninth on the U.S. points list with the top 6 automatically qualifying. Automatic qualifying ends on Aug. 17 and Bradley will announce his six captain's picks the next week.
McIlroy was also asked about the philosophical differences between how captains for the U.S. and European teams lead.
'It's a different perspective, absolutely,' he said. 'It really feels like it's a player-led team in America, and obviously we have our input as a player on the European team, but we do have that one figurehead in [captain Luke Donald].
'That's important. I think even going back to Rome, when the Americans got off to a pretty rough start, I think because [then-U.S. captain Zach Johnson] gave the team so much ownership, they had no one to look to. They were looking at each other instead of having a focal point, tell us what to do. That is something that Europe has done very, very well. But also the players have allowed the captain to be a captain as well.'
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