Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
Team USA Captain Keegan Bradley at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage State Park Golf Course in Bethpage, New York.
The 2025 Ryder Cup was nothing short of a disaster for Team USA and Captain Keegan Bradley. Not only did the Americans lose to Team Europe at Bethpage, becoming the first home team to lose since 2012, but they weren’t even as close as the final score indicated.
The Americans rolled to an 8.5-3.5 victory in Sunday’s singles competition, which made the score look far closer than it did for most of the week. But up until that point, Team Europe dominated.
Bradley came under significant scrutiny for his management of the American side, and now it turns out things were even worse than we first thought.
Keegan Bradley Lost Temper On Highly Respected Rules Official
On a recent episode of the “Musings on Golf” podcast, PGA professional Chandler Withington recalled an incident where Bradley blew up on longtime rules official Jeff Kiddie during the opening match of Sunday’s session.
At the time, the U.S. trailed 11.5-4.5, and it felt like a foregone conclusion that the Ryder Cup was over.
During the opening singles match between Cameron Young and Justin Rose, Rose hit a drive on the 14th hole that required an official ruling. The ruling took longer than expected, and Bradley exploded.
“Now all of a sudden, we’ve got this traffic jam with the first match,” Withington said. “Both captains right up to it, and Jeff’s sweating, and he’s doing his thing.”
Kiddie reportedly explained to Bradley that the delay was inevitable based on the situation. But that wasn’t good enough.
Withington said that Bradley confronted Kiddie in an angry exchange, using profanity to question the official’s actions. Bradley then continued to berate Kiddie on the 15th hole, and on the 15th green, Withington claims that he Bradley said “You see what you f—ing did back there? Jesus, we’re going to win this f—ing thing. You’re all f—ing it up over here.”
Mind you, Kiddie was the recipient of the 2023 PGA of America Golf Professional of the Year award and is highly regarded around the game.
“[Keegan] probably doesn’t even know who Jeff is, right?” Withington said. “But you’ve got to undress one of our own three times because of your ineptitude for the first two days.”
To make matters even worse, Bradley’s outburst reportedly made Kiddie so upset that he vowed not to return to the Ryder Cup in the future.
“So Jeff Kiddie’s like, ‘Man, between the things that I heard said to the players on Saturday and this, I never want to be involved with the Ryder Cup ever again,'” Withington said.
Somehow, Keegan Bradley’s nightmare Ryder Cup captaincy only continues to get worse well after the fact.