Keegan Bradley, the USA Ryder Cup captain, birdied the 6th at Royal Portrush on Saturday afternoon and pumped his fist in delight. ‘Boston, baby,’ an American voice in the crowd shouted out. ‘USA, USA,’ another shouted.
Bradley, who is ranked a career-high seventh in the world and is ninth in the US Ryder Cup standings, is still vying to become the first playing captain at a Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer helmed the US team in 1963, and his strong showing on the Dunluce Links course has kept him in the hunt.
His form, though, has given the US team a problem as it wrestles with the complications of having a playing captain in an era when the size of the Ryder Cup and the responsibilities of the team captains dwarf the way things used to be when Palmer doubled up more than 60 years ago.
The possibility of the dual role throws up all sorts of interesting questions. If he does not qualify automatically for the US team, could he make himself one of his own captain’s picks? When he is playing here at The Open, is he prioritising his own game or studying the form of his players and his European opponents.
He got a close look at Nicolai Hojgaard, who has an outside chance of making the European team, because Hojgaard was his playing partner. Hojgaard also outscored him, shooting a 69 compared to Bradley’s 70 — which was not the most propitious omen.
Against that, Bradley’s showing here should be put in the context that he has missed the cut at his previous five appearances at The Open. He shot a three under par 68 on Friday and said it was the best round he had played at the tournament ‘in a very long time’.
Keegan Bradley steadied himself with six straight pars early in his round at Royal Portrush
Bradley showed focus and composure as he kept a clean card through the opening holes
Bradley’s solid start kept him in the mix at the Open but will he pick himself for the Ryder Cup?
After he sunk that birdie on the 6th, Bradley walked down the steep, grassy path to the 7th tee and looked up at the groups of spectators ranged high on the dunes that funnel the fairway towards the green. The binoculars that they held up to their eyes were not trained on him.
They were trained on the group ahead and, specifically, they were trained on Rory McIlroy, who had a chance for eagle. By then, the golf course was in thrall to its local hero as he raced up the leaderboard and Bradley had a front row seat.
It was his fate on Saturday to be in the group behind McIlroy and English player Jordan Smith and to feel the passion and the popularity that Europe’s Ryder Cup leader can generate with the brilliance of his game and the power of his personality.
McIlroy, of course, will not have the same fanatical support he has enjoyed here in his homeland over the last few days when Europe take on Bradley’s USA team at Bethpage Black, near New York, in the last weekend of September in front of a hostile, partisan, US crowd.
But Bradley spent the afternoon listening to the roars that rolled over the course as McIlroy shot a brilliant 66, the highlight of a which was a mammoth 56ft putt for eagle on the par-5 12th, which helped to push him towards the top of the leaderboard.
Bradley’s consolation in all this was that Scottie Scheffler, the jewel in the crown of the US team, was still sitting serenely at the head of the pack, apparently impervious to any pressure that McIlroy or Matt Fitzpatrick tried to exert on him.
Bradley, 39, finished the day on -4 and if he maintains his form on Sunday, he will gain ground on both Ben Griffin and Collin Morikawa, who are immediately ahead of him in the US Ryder Cup rankings.
It would continue an impressive run of form for the Vermont native, who had runner-up finishes last season at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Charles Schwab Challenge before he won the BMW Championship.
Bradley finished round three one under par and is now four under for the week at Portrush
Consistency was the name of the game as he ground his way around with minimal mistakes
After completing his third round, Bradley shook hands with Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard (right)
He made a strong start to this year with five top-20 finishes in his first seven starts, tied for eighth at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and then came from three back with four holes to play to claim a one-shot victory at the Travelers Championship last month at TPC River Highlands.
After The Open, the build-up to the Ryder Cup will begin in earnest and now that it is only two months away, the obsession with whether Bradley will play and, if he does, whether he will retain the captaincy, is growing and growing.
‘Being inside the ropes is almost like a sanctuary,’ he said recently. ‘One of the things of being a captain is when I get inside the ropes, I can really focus on just playing. Normally when I leave the tournament, I’m still hyper-focused on what I did that day, what’s coming up or what swing thought I’m working on.
‘Now I leave just focused on the Ryder Cup. Worrying about my own game has been taken over and I think that helps. I do know that nothing about picking the team is going to be easy.
‘If I get to that position where I finish outside the top six but I feel like I’m going to help the team, then I’ll consider playing. But I get asked that question 10 times a day and I still don’t really have an answer.’
Some things are becoming clearer, mostly that Scheffler and McIlroy will be titanic leaders for the US and Europe at Bethpage Black. But Bradley’s role is still mired in doubt.
The US team may be searching for some clarity about whether Bradley will play as well as captain, or just captain, or just play, but there is only confusion. A top 10 finish on Sunday remains very much within his reach. The rest, his performances keep saying, can wait.
