Justin Thomas makes unsurprising Ryder Cup admission
PGA Tour star Justin Thomas has revealed that he was involved in selecting Keegan Bradley as the 2025 Team USA Ryder Cup captain.
PGA Tour star Justin Thomas has admitted Keegan Bradley deserved to be on the 2023 Ryder Cup side more than he did.
Thomas made the claim in a recent appearance on the No Laying Up podcast.
The two-time major champion addressed a number of topics in his discussion with host Chris Solomon.
Chief of which was the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy where Thomas and the red, white and blue were handily defeated at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.
"I think it's not a secret, it's not anything hidden why I probably ended up getting a pick and he didn't," Thomas told the pod, referring to the accusations that the US Ryder Cup team is just a boys' club.
Thomas said he watched the Netflix episode which laid bare Bradley's devastation at missing out on a captain's pick, despite winning twice on the PGA Tour earlier in the season.
"It was tough [to watch], but I mean, it's also like, it’s the reality. Like Keegan, if you put our years against each other, he deserved to be on that team more than I did."
Thomas did have one minor complaint about that episode, though.
"It made it seem like it was the only captain's pick," he said.
The aforementioned Johnson also decided to pick two players (Rickie Fowler and Sam Burns) who were below Bradley in the Ryder Cup standings.
Thomas said: "I feel like that last spot, if you will, easily three or four names could have been thrown around. But it's TV.
"And yeah, I jokingly was like yeah, watching this, I don't really feel like I should have made the team and [I'm] rooting for Keegan to get this pick."
Thomas described his own performance throughout the contest as inadequate.
He went 1-2-1 at the 2023 edition of the Cup and sat the opening session where they were swept 4-0.
"I mean, I feel like I let the team down," he said. "I felt like I played terrible. I was gutted to not win more points. I was gutted to not be playing that first morning."
"I was on all the conversations"
Bradley was announced as the 2025 Ryder Cup captain on 9 July.
The decision came as a shock to the majority of the golf world.
Rory McIlroy said he was in disbelief.
It was widely expected that Fred Couples or Stewart Cink would take over the reins after Tiger Woods turned down the role.
Turns out that Thomas knew Bradley's name was in the hat.
"I was on all the conversations and knew," Thomas said.
"And it was a tough, tough secret to keep, because Keegan and I practice and play a lot down here [in Florida] and I've become a lot closer with him over the past couple of years.
"I just respect his work ethic a lot and he really gets after it.
"So we'll play practice rounds from time to time and we just like, coincidentally happened to play back-to-back weeks of practice rounds after I had known what was going to be happening and that was tough.
"But yeah, there’s a lot of conversation, there's a lot of looking at it, hitting it from every single angle to make sure that this is what everybody on board felt like was the right thing and the best option."
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