Last year’s Ryder Cup could not have gone much worse for Team USA, and new captain Jim Furyk is facing the music.
Furyk, who was one of Keegan Bradley’s Vice Captains at Bethpage Black, has been appointed as the captain for Adare Manor next year. It will be Furyk’s second time as captain after he led the team to a loss in Paris in 2018.
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Bradley’s captaincy was a mess from start to finish. He was a shock appointment, and then played well enough to raise questions about whether he could be playing captain in New York.
After electing not to select himself, Bradley chose the statistical worst pairing two days in a row in Collin Morikawa and Harris English, as Team USA lost on home soil.
But according to Furyk, the PGA of America put Bradley on the back foot from the very beginning of his tenure.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Why Jim Furyk thinks Keegan Bradley was put in a difficult position as Ryder Cup captain
Many believe that Bradley’s appointment was an attempt at building some positive PR after he was shockingly left out of Zach Johnson’s team in 2023. He had no Vice Captaincy experience, and he wasn’t left with much time to prepare for Bethpage.
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Bradley was announced as captain in July, a little over a year before the Ryder Cup. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Donald would be running it back as captain in November the year before. He’d already had the experience of Rome under his belt, so Bradley had a massive amount of catching up to do.
That’s why Furyk believes he was put in an impossible position. Speaking before the PGA Championship at Aronimink, Furyk was asked what Team USA can do better in Ireland next year, and he said, “All right, let’s look at it right now.
“I’m pulled in in April to captain the team. We don’t have a point system in place right now. I heard Luke earlier say he’ll put something in place, like late summer or mid to late summer or early fall.
“But I think the idea that — I mean, Team USA is a professional sports organization. We go from the Presidents Cup to the Ryder Cup each and every year, and what I started noticing is we were maybe losing a little continuity from year to year.
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“So I just think we could be better at this is a 12-month process each and every year. It’s not something the Ryder Cup is over. We decompress. We let it go for six months. And now we hire and we bring in — we brought Keegan in even later than this last year. He had less than 18 months to prepare.
“And that’s a guy who never even served as vice captain. So he played a lot of catch-up, if that makes sense. The idea of more continuity, more continuity for future captains, more continuity for the players year in and year out, and that includes Presidents Cup in my mind as well.
“We’ve been carrying that knowledge along under some great captains, under the Davis Loves and the Freddie Couples and the Steve Strickers, and then myself kind of working with those guys. We’ve been kind of passing that information along, but I just really feel like it could be in a more organized manner.
“I think we could have put Keegan in a much better position last year, and part of my role as a vice captain was to kind of help him along with the experience that I had. But I think that continuity is probably the best word I could use.”
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Jim Furyk’s comments explain why he was selected to be Ryder Cup captain
Furyk’s appointment was a confusing one and disappointing to many Americans. After they were demolished at Bethpage over the first two days, the consensus was that Team USA needed to wipe the slate clean. It was a fork in the road moment.
So when the PGA of America decided to go back to a failed past by appointing Furyk, it demonstrated a lack of awareness, a rigidity and an old boys club mentality which has defined Team USA since 2023.
Instead of going for a fresh face with new ideas, Team USA played it safe. But Furyk’s comments explain exactly why.
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Europe’s captain, Donald, returns for the third straight Ryder Cup for Adare Manor. He’ll bring largely the same Vice Captains and the same backroom staff to the event as he has for the last two.
Donald selected 11 of the 12 players from Rome for Bethpage Black, and that continuity on the road meant the team’s familiarity pulled them through difficult moments, especially on Sunday as the Americans mounted a comeback.
If the PGA of America wiped the slate clean, they’d have faced the largest experience disadvantage in Ryder Cup history between Donald and a rookie captain. At least with Furyk, they have a man who knows the role inside out.
The only question now is, has Furyk learned from his past failings?
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