By Ryder Cup Digital On September 29, 2025 0:01 UTC
Keegan Bradley said he was proud of the United States’ valiant final-day fightback but accepted he was to blame for their Ryder Cup defeat.
The hosts were outplayed over the first two days at Bethpage Black, falling to a record 11½-4½ deficit against Team Europe.
With victory for Luke Donald’s team appearing set to be a procession, the United States threatened to stage a miraculous comeback in Sunday’s singles.
But despite winning eight and a half points from 12 singles matches, they fell just short as Europe claimed a 15-13 victory to win on the road for just the fifth time.
“The Europeans won one match today. You think about the odds of something like that happening, just on a coin flip would be incredible,” he said.
“When you go out in sports and you’re battling your butt off to win, it just shows you just how proud these guys are and how much they want this and how much this means to them.
“To go out there today and do what they did is close to a miracle.”
He continued: “This is no one’s fault but mine.
“When you are the leader of the team and you’re the coach, the captain, whatever you want to call it, and you lose, you have to take the blame.
“This is no one else’s fault. This is no one else’s, the PGA of America or whatever it is. Sometimes in sports, you go up against an opponent that sometimes beats you; they play better. And they played better than us. We gave it a great fight, that’s for sure.”
Appointed as the surprise captain for the United States last year, Bradley – the youngest Ryder Cup skipper since Tony Jacklin in 1983 – has been the subject of criticism.
The set-up of the course, particularly the short rough and soft greens, has appeared to suit Europe more than his own side.
“We tried to set the course up to help our team,” Bradley added. “Obviously it wasn’t the right decision.
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 27: A general viewas Rory McIlroy of Team Europe plays his shot from the first tee during the Saturday morning foursomes matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course on September 27, 2025 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images)
“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 set-up. 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.
“We thought this was the best way to set the golf course up to win. You look at past Ryder Cups, and that’s kind of how it goes.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to make a decision on what to do, and you know, if I could go back, I probably would have changed that.
“But the Europeans played just incredible golf. Doesn’t matter how you set the course up when you play that well.”