Keegan Bradley backs Jim Furyk as Ryder Cup captain, players want a 'reset'

DORAL, Fla. – Keegan Bradley said it’s time for the U.S. Ryder Cup team to have “a reset,” and Jim Furyk is the right man for that job.

Bradley, who was the U.S. Ryder Cup captain that lost at home at Bethpage Black in 2025, said he was on the call as a member of the Ryder Cup selection committee and extended the job to Furyk. The PGA of America announced that Furyk, the losing captain in 2018 in Paris, would be the U.S. captain for a second time on Friday.

Team USA captain Keegan Bradley and vice captain Jim Furyk at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

“I don’t know if he ever thought he was going to get this chance,” Bradley said at Trump National Doral on the eve of the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship, “so I think that it’s a pretty great feeling for him to get another shot at this.”

The news that Furyk would be at the helm again wasn’t well received by everyone. Some compared it to a retread manager in sports that already has failed at the job. The guy whose team got whipped 17½ to 10½ in Paris? Yes, indeed. He could become the first U.S. captain to lose twice on the road.

“I think that’s a point you wouldn’t hear from the players; I think the players are excited,” Bradley said, “I think the best thing to do is to have a known commodity, a sort of reset here.”

Furyk, 55, has plenty of Ryder Cup experience, playing nine times, serving as a vice-captain in four, including for Bradley last year, and his one stint as captain. He’s also a wily veteran of the Presidents Cup and was the winning captain in 2024 in Montreal. Bradley was duly impressed the way Furyk stayed the course despite the U.S. getting swept in all five match on the second day of the Presidents Cup to tie things at 5.

"When we lost that day 0-5, it was pretty shocking," Bradley said. "And he was just the same captain he was the day before. I think that's what makes Jim great is there's no ups and downs."

The U.S. recovered for an 18½ -11½  victory.

Other candidates for the captaincy included Stewart Cink and Justin Leonard. Furyk, who has been either a player, captain or assistant on every Cup since 1997, was a safe pick for a team that hasn’t won on foreign soil since 1993.

“Jim has the respect of the guys and he’s been around all of us. … he’s been involved in like 15 in a row,” said Bradley. “He was the captain at the Presidents Cup and he’s been part of the system and I think he brings a lot of experience, learned a lot over the years and, in fact, somebody that we all really look up to.”