Keegan Bradley remains hopeful of returning to Team USA’s next Ryder Cup team as a player, after ‘starting to feel better’ about the legacy of captaining a home defeat to Team Europe.
The former major champion became the first captain - from either team - since 2012 to suffer a home defeat in the biennial contest last September, as Luke Donald led Team Europe to a historic 15-13 victory and successful title defence at Bethpage Black.
but remained open to a future captaincy role, only for at Adare Manor.
Bradley has featured on two losing Ryder Cup teams as a player and narrowly missed out on a captain's pick for the 2023 contest in Rome, then elected against naming himself as a captain's pick in New York, although would relish the chance to feature again for Team USA.
"I've been thinking a lot about that [playing]," Bradley said ahead of the PGA Championship, live on Your Site. "It's going to be really hard, I know that. I'll be 41 when that happens. But what a cool story it would be. How fun would that be?
"The Ryder Cup has just been so brutal to me over the years in every way. In every single way it's been brutal and I have a tough time focusing in on something like that, because of how tough it's been.
"I told myself after Rome [2023 Ryder Cup] I was never going to get that emotionally invested. I was going to play my game and try to get on the team, but I'd really like to make that team in Ireland.
"I'd really love to play for Jim Furyk, who is an idol of mine, but also become a great friend and mentor. Getting to know the guys; the guys on the team last year changed my life. Changed who I am as a person, and I would love to play on a Ryder Cup with them."
Bradley has finished no higher than 12th in his 12 worldwide starts since the Ryder Cup, seeing him drop outside the world's top 30, although has noticed positive change in his mindset off the course.
"I'm starting to feel better," Bradley insisted. "I really am. The last couple months, I've started to feel more like myself. Sometimes I'm a little too honest with how I'm feeling and it gets me in some weird spots.
"It was tough after the Ryder Cup and is it still is. I'll be driving down the road and things will pop into my head and I'll think about things I had done or wish I had done different.
"Getting back out here and getting in the routine, I'm playing some better golf. I'm starting to feel a little bit more like myself out there and I'm feeling a little bit more separated from Bethpage.
"As time goes on and I'm able to play another major, play some bigger tournaments, hopefully put myself in contention, those things will sort of kind of get back into the distance."
This week's venue is the course where Bradley ended a six-year winless drought on the PGA Tour by snatching a play-off victory over Justin Rose at the 2018 BWM Championship, while the tournament marks the 15th anniversary of his previous PGA Championship win.
"When we played here last time, it was so wet," Bradley explained. "It's not going to play like that. It actually made some of the shots in difficult because of how soft the greens were. Totally different.
"Added a few tees. They made a lot of the finishing holes a lot harder. 18 was already difficult and they added 30, 40 yards there; same with 17 and 15. Seems like they have made a lot of the harder holes even harder, but it's just an amazing venue for a PGA Championship."
On the event, Bradley added: "I think what separates the PGA [Championship] to other majors is they have no agenda at this tournament. Kerry Haigh [championship officer] does an unbelievable job setting up major championship golf courses.
"You go to the US Open, you know their agenda is they are going to make this ridiculously hard to the point of being unfair. At The Open it's the weather, and The Masters is The Masters - it's just going to be tough and stressful.
"[At the] PGA Championship, three under could win. Could be 15-under. They just want to host a great tournament, and I think they do an incredible job of that."
Who will win the PGA Championship? Watch throughout the week live on Your Site. Live coverage from the opening round begins on Thursday from 12.30pm on Your Site Golf. or .
