A putt Ryder Cup has changed his life. Now he is the captain of the American team.

Keegan Bradley remembers putt with emotion that has changed his life forever.

Bradley was present at the 1999 Ryder Cup at the Country Club of Brookline, Massachusetts, when he saw Justin Leonard sink a 45 -foot stew on the 17th hole – win the tournament effectively.

This club swing motivated Bradley, then 13 years old, to continue his even harder dream.

“I was obsessed with golf, but it pushed me in crazy mode,” Bradley told NBC News on Monday. “I just couldn’t believe how incredible the tournament was.”

Now, 26 years later, Bradley is not only the classified golfer of the 13th in the world, he will also be the captain of the American team for the 45th iteration of the Ryder Cup.

The tournament – which includes two teams of 12 golfers from the United States and Europe against a match match format – will take place from September 26 to 28 at the Bethpage State Park in New York. Six Americans have already qualified automatically for the team, while six others will be selected at the discretion of Bradley (including, perhaps itself).

Bradley, 39, was appointed captain of the team in July 2024. He will be the youngest captain of a team from Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

This year was also the last a golfer served as a captain and a player – a double role that several of the contemporaries of Bradley said that he should serve next month.

“In any profession, respect for your peers is what you cherish the most,” said Bradley. “To hear the boys say, this is probably one of the highlights of my career. But my work when they asked me to be a captain is the best team on the Bethpage course.

“I don’t care if I play, if I don’t play, as long as we win. Whatever the decision I make with regard to what I think is best for the team. ”

Bradley would not reveal his choices on Monday, although he said he had a “good idea” of the direction he wanted to go.

The one Bradley selects will be responsible for stopping what could be challenged was an era of European domination. Europe has won eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups dating from 2002.

Bradley, however, considers things differently.

“To be perfectly honest with you, we have exchanged the house and outside the Ryder Cups since 2008 except 2012,” he said. “We are even right there. The guys from this team certainly have no idea what happened in the early 2000s. I think it’s a kind of false idea.”

Bradley himself will seek his first victory for Ryder Cup. He was a member of the 2012 and 2014 teams, who both lost. However, Bradley returns with emotion these competitions, in particular out of the course, where he was able to share bus journeys and a wardrobe with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

For the moment, Bradley is trying to take advantage of the captain’s process. He said he appreciated the support of the fans he had received in the past year, while admitting that his tasks become more stressful when approaching the Cup. (Among these tasks, it was to reveal the new Ralph Lauren uniforms of the team during the program “Today” on Monday.)

Bradley relied on his vice-capital as he sails in the head of September, mentioning in particular Jim Furyk as one of his most reliable advisers.

A huge fan of Boston sports, Bradley has drawn a parallel with the Red Sox when they discuss how his team can succeed in Bethpage.

“You have formed a good team, a close team, a team that plays hard, and you can win.”