Keegan Bradley admits his big mistake as Ryder Cup captain

Keegan Bradley took part of the blame on Sunday after the United States came up short during the Ryder Cup 2025 at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Farmingdale, N.Y.

As hosts of this year’s Ryder Cup, the U.S. had the advantage of setting up the golf course in a manner that would benefit their team. That responsibility fell to Bradley, who served as captain for the American side.

With its usually narrow fairways and an unforgiving rough, Bethpage Black is notorious for being troublesome from tee to green. However, Bradley made the strategic call to widen the fairways — a decision he ultimately regretted after the U.S. lost 15-13.

“I think I would have set the course up a little different,” he said in an interview on NBC after the defeat. “But they played better than us. They deserved to win. They’re a great team.”

Bradley harped on his course setup regrets as he spoke to reporters after the Ryder Cup.

“We tried to set the course up to help our team,” Bradley said. “Obviously it wasn’t the right decision. I think anytime you’re the leader of a team or the captain or the coach, or whatever, we talked about this last night, you’re going to get the accolades and you need to take the blame for when things don’t go well. I definitely made a mistake on the course setup. I should have listened a little bit more to my intuition. For whatever reason, that wasn’t the right way to set the course up.”

The widened fairways put less pressure on Team Europe to make a perfect swing on the tee, where rowdy U.S. fans were closest to the golfers. Bradley’s course setup also played perfectly into the hands of long hitters Team Europe’s Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, who dominated the first two days of the Cup.

The United States’ loss on Sunday marked the first time in over a decade that the hosting team has lost the Ryder Cup. The U.S. entered Sunday trailing by seven points and mounted a huge comeback to make things interesting down the stretch. The Americans were also impacted by a little-known rule that came into play during Sunday’s action.