Bradley eyes playing captain role at Ryder Cup after winning Travelers Championship

Keegan Bradley could become the first Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963 after jumping to seventh in world rankings following his PGA Tour Travelers Championship victory.

The 39-year-old American’s fightback triumph Sunday over England’s Tommy Fleetwood brought an eighth career PGA crown, his fourth in as many years, and sparked already brisk talk about Bradley playing on his US squad against Europe in September at Bethpage Black.

“Yeah, I mean, listen, this changes the story a little bit,” said Bradley, previously reluctant to consider a playing captaincy.

“I never would have thought about playing if I hadn’t won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not, but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team and we’ll see.”

Bradley leaped 14 spots in the world rankings and into ninth in the US team points qualifying. While still shy of the six automatic qualifying spots, Bradley is in a position that would typically be worthy of a captain’s pick.

“It’s still June, so we still got a long ways to go,” Bradley said. “This definitely changes things a little bit and we’ll all get together and figure out the best way to do this.”

The six automatic qualifiers will be set after the BMW Championship on August 17 while the six captain’s picks will be chosen after the Tour Championship in Atlanta on August 21-24.

“I will play if I feel like it will help the team,” said.

Bradley has fielded questions about playing in the Cup all year.

“I never really planned on playing,” he said. “I really wanted to just be the captain. I really felt strongly about that. I want to serve the guys. They asked me to do a job. I want to do it to the best of my abilities.

“With the amazing vice captains that I have, and I have a better perspective of playing in the Presidents Cup and being around a lot of the guys, I feel a lot more comfortable if I went that route.”

If he plays, Bradley would load more responsibilities on his assistant captains -- Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker.

“I’m really proud of the guys that are vice captains,” Bradley said. “You got Jim Furyk, one of the greatest players to play and also an incredibly great captain at the Presidents Cup.”

Furyk guided the Americans to a 10th consecutive victory over the Internationals in last year’s Presidents Cup at Montreal.

Lee wins Women’s PGA Championship for third major title: Australian Minjee Lee fired a gritty two-over-par 74 to win the Women’s PGA Championship on Sunday, capturing her third major title by three strokes on another demanding day in Frisco, Texas.

The 29-year-old from Perth added the title to her 2021 Evian Championship and the US Women’s Open title she won in 2022, finishing with a four-under-par total of 284.

American Auston Kim and Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen tied for second on on one-under 287.

“A lot of patience out there today,” said Lee, who started the day with a four-shot lead after a brilliant, bogey-free round on Saturday but had three bogeys in her first six holes.

“I just felt like some shots were going my way and some shots weren’t,” Lee said.

Lee made her first birdie of the day at the par-five ninth, where she missed the green but chipped to two feet.

She gave a stroke back at the 10th, but after rolling in a tense nine-foot putt for par at 13 she drilled a nine-footer for birdie at the 14th to boost her lead back to three strokes.

Agence France-Presse