ATLANTA \u2014 Justin Thomas summed up Keegan Bradley\u2019s plight with an impressive economy of words this week at the Tour Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe captain is damned if he does, damned if he doesn\u2019t,\u201d Thomas shrugged.<\/p>\n
Bradley will become the first Ryder Cup captain in the modern era to face the ultimate dilemma on Wednesday when he makes his captain\u2019s picks for this year\u2019s matches. At 11th on the final U.S. points list, Bradley is not just a potential pick but a lock in many minds.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I would [pick Bradley],\u201d Thomas added.<\/p>\n
However Bradley\u2019s picks land, his predicament is truly unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at the [leaderboard] all day but I\u2019m not looking for me, I\u2019m looking for where my guys are. It\u2019s just really odd. It\u2019s really strange to look at the board and have no feeling of where I stand on the board but where I\u2019m seeing my guys, that\u2019s opposite of what we do every week,\u201d Bradley said Friday at East Lake where he made a move up that leaderboard with a second-round 64. \u201cI\u2019m going to be really happy when this week is over. I\u2019ve had it with this. I\u2019m ready to get our team together and figure out what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentiment is understandable but the reality is Bradley will face an agonizing decision to pick himself as a playing captain or go with someone else and focus solely on leading the U.S. team at Bethpage next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very aware that no matter what decision I make I\u2019m going to be defined by this decision. If we win it doesn\u2019t matter what decision I make, I\u2019m aware of that,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cEvery captain has to make really tough decisions, [but] this is really unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradley said he is having ongoing conversations with his vice captains on potential picks and that he is relying on them to do what is right for the team, regardless of who is picked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we look at me as a player, we talk about me like I\u2019m not in the room. We look at the stats, we look at the record, I\u2019m player X. If there are negatives about me, I want to hear those things, I\u2019d be more upset if they didn\u2019t point those out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although Bradley is focused on this week\u2019s scoreboard at East Lake, he also suggested that many of those tough choices have already been made and that a player\u2019s performance at East Lake wouldn\u2019t necessarily change what has already been decided.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a pretty good idea,\u201d Bradley said when asked if he already knew his picks. \u201cWe\u2019re going to wait and see how this week plays out, this is a huge event. But like I said, the points are a two-year process, it would be silly to let it come down to one event or one round.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradley said he plans to travel home to South Florida Sunday following the final round at the Tour Championship before flying to Frisco, Texas, to prepare for Wednesday\u2019s announcement of his six captain\u2019s picks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Justin Thomas summed up Keegan Bradley\u2019s plight with an impressive economy of words this week at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-169251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115078358898510863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}