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- Ryder Cup: Amid Keegan Bradley's conundrum, Rory McIlroy doesn't think it's possible to be a playing captain anymore</p>
<p>Ryan YoungAugust 13, 2025 at 4:48 PM</p>
<p>At least for Rory McIlroy, being a playing captain at the Ryder Cup just isn't possible.</p>
<p>McIlroy, who is back at the BMW Championship this week after skipping the FedExCup opener in Memphis, said he was actually approached about being a playing captain for the European team in a future Ryder Cup.</p>
<p>Though he didn't get into specifics about when — the 2027 Ryder Cup is going to be held at Adare Manor in Ireland, relatively close to his hometown in Northern Ireland — he made it clear he isn't interested.</p>
<p>"The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon coming up has come up, and I've shot it down straight away," McIlroy said Wednesday from Caves Valley in Maryland.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>"Because I don't think you can do it," he replied.</p>
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<p>To McIlroy's point, playing captains at the Ryder Cup are incredibly rare. Arnold Palmer was the last one back in 1963, and he led the United States team to a dominant 23-9 win over the Europeans.</p>
<p>But, even if it's a few years down the road, McIlroy would be an ideal candidate for Europe. He's currently ranked No. 2 in the world and fresh off his win at the Masters earlier this year, which made him just the sixth golfer in history to complete the career grand slam. He's already secured his spot on the European Team for the Ryder Cup next month at Bethpage Black, too, which will be his eighth appearance at the event dating back to 2010.</p>
<p>Still, with everything that comes with being a team captain, McIlroy thinks it'd be too big of a distraction.</p>
<p>"I just think the commitments that a captain has the week of [the Ryder Cup]," he said. "You think about the extra media the captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains … preparing your speech for the opening ceremony — just there's a lot of things that people don't see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.</p>
<p>"If you'd have said it 20 years ago, I'd say yea, it was probably possible to do so. But how big of a spectacle and everything that's on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I just think it would be a very difficult position to be in."</p>
<p>So, what about Keegan Bradley?</p>
<p>The only reason McIlroy is being asked this now is because of Keegan Bradley, who is set to captain the U.S. team this fall in New York.</p>
<p>Though he's too far out of it to earn an automatic bid — that qualification period for the Americans ends on Sunday — Bradley has undoubtedly played his way into the conversation to receive a captain's pick if someone else were leading the team. He's currently at No. 10 in the standings after a relatively dominant season on Tour in which he's had five top 10 finishes and won the Travelers Championship.</p>
<p>He's entering this week at the BMW Championship at No. 12 in the Official World Golf Rankings, too, just a few weeks removed from his career-high ranking of No. 7 that he earned after his win in Connecticut.</p>
<p>"I definitely think he's one of the best 12 American players right now," McIlroy said of Bradley. "That's why everyone is so interested and it's such a compelling case. … I'm just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out."</p>
<p>Though Bradley didn't say what his plans were regarding his captain's picks on Wednesday, and he has some time before he has to make them, he did acknowledge the concerns that McIlroy had for actually being a playing captain.</p>
<p>And, as it's an incredibly unique situation, Bradley doesn't really have anyone to call for advice to help him through it either.</p>
<p>"I certainly have a lot of concerns, as well as everybody else, but I have the most incredible vice captains, including Jim Furyk, who's been on these teams and been captain a bunch of times. Quite frankly, I've been leaning on them more than any other captain ever anyways, even if I'm not playing," Bradley said.</p>
<p>"We're ready for this if it happens. I'm not sure it's going to. I can truly sit here right now and say I don't know what's going to happen. I have to look at myself just like any other player trying to make the team. I'm 10th in points right now, and that's not sixth."</p>
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