How Keegan Bradley’s caddie came upon about Ryder Cup captaincy

It’s been a whirlwind yr for Keegan Bradley. Final August, Bradley missed out on being a captain’s choose for the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup group in devastating style. Ten months later, Bradley was named captain of the U.S. group for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black — a surprising shock. Just a few weeks after that, Jim Furyk named Bradley an assistant captain for the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in Canada. Just a few weeks after that, Bradley gained the BMW Championship, his seventh profession PGA Tour title, then joined the Presidents Cup group as a captain’s choose. Bradley went on to put up a 2-1-0 file within the People’ victory over the Internationals, 18.5-11.5.

Whew. That’s lots of motion, and there was one man by Bradley’s aspect via all of it: his caddie, Scott Vail.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Vail instructed hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz quite a few anecdotes about his life and profession on Tour, however his story about what it was like to seek out out his boss was simply tapped to be the following U.S. Ryder Cup captain was particularly compelling.

“The Monday morning [after the Travelers Championship], I obtained up at 7 a.m. and I had a textual content already from him saying — you realize, we textual content backwards and forwards loads, however we’ve been on the highway for like 4 weeks,” Vail started. “It was bizarre to have it, you realize, right away the following morning. The textual content stated, ‘Name me, I want to talk to you.’ And I’m like, oh, what did I do? What did I do final week that’s getting me fired right now?

“So I choose up the cellphone instantly. Name him. I’m like, hey, is all the things alright? And he’s like, you’re not gonna imagine this. And he tells me that they need him because the Ryder Cup captain.

“And I used to be like, oh my gosh. Like, I used to be shocked at first, after which I used to be like, emotional. I used to be virtually crying as a result of I understand how a lot it means to him, how a lot not being on the group final yr meant to him. It was identical to this whirlwind of feelings and I’m sitting there form of like, I’m fairly certain I used to be crying just a little bit.”

Vail has had a front-row seat to Bradley’s anguish and conquer the previous yr, and he stated he was thrilled for Bradley to have the chance to captain the group.

“I understand how exhausting he works and I take care of him as a boss, as a buddy,” he stated. “And yeah, he let me know, and I used to be like, effectively, are you gonna do it? You gotta do it, proper? Captain America! Bethpage, you went to high school there.”

The toughest half, Vail stated, was protecting the key till a proper announcement was made.

“I needed to preserve my mouth shut for, I believe 10 to 14 days,” Vail stated. “He’s like, don’t inform anyone. And I’m like, I didn’t inform a soul. And that was exhausting to do. However yeah, it’s gonna be superb.”

For extra from Vail, together with what it was like when Bradley didn’t get excellent news concerning the Ryder Cup in 2023, take a look at the total episode beneath.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will be able to out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily chargeable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, comparable to GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.