Keegan Bradley is set to name his six picks for the Ryder Cup and is reportedly set to select himself as a playing captain – a decision that Rory McIlroy can’t get behind

Rory McIlroy isn’t a fan of the Ryder Cup captain getting involved on the course(Image: 2024 TGL)

Rory McIlroy’s cautionary advice about the impracticality of a playing captain at the Ryder Cup seems to be falling on deaf ears.

Keegan Bradley, Team USA’s captain, is reportedly planning to select himself for this year’s event. Bradley is scheduled to meet with the press on Wednesday where he will announce his six captain’s picks for the Ryder Cup.

Multiple sources have indicated that he plans to include himself as a playing captain. Currently ranked 11th in the Ryder Cup rankings and fresh off a PGA Tour win, Bradley finds himself in a tricky situation.

The lead-up to the match has been chaotic, with Bradley now facing the difficult decision of whether to choose himself. If the reports are accurate, it appears he did not take McIlroy’s warning to heart.

Last week, McIlroy, a Ryder Cup veteran, cautioned against the idea of being a playing captain, reports the Irish Mirror. He shared with the press that he had been approached about the possibility of serving as a playing captain, likely at Adare Manor, Ireland, in 2027.

“I’ve been asked to do that and I’ve turned it down,” he said last week. “The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon has come up and I’ve shot it down straight away because I don’t think you can do it.

Bradley was a surprise pick to captain the U.S. Ryder Cup team(Image: Getty)

“If you’d have said it 20 years ago I’d say it was probably possible to do, but how big of a spectacle it is 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.

“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.

“The captain’s only going to be able to play one session on Friday, one session on Saturday. Would you rather not have a player that has the flexibility to go twice if he’s playing well?”

Europe captain Luke Donald will adopt the same watchman role that saw him lead Team Europe to success in Rome two years ago after being re-elected as captain for 2025. McIlroy’s former manager, Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler, has also slated Team USA for their decision to make Bradley their Ryder Cup captain this year.

McIlroy has won the Ryder Cup on five occasions(Image: Getty)

He believes there has been a major error on the hosts’ behalf if Bradley ends up playing for the team himself. “It all seemed a bit hasty when they picked Keegan Bradley,” Chandler told Betway.

“They didn’t think Tiger Woods was going to say no, so they suddenly picked a guy that is way too young to be Ryder Cup captain. He’s probably 10 years too young and certainly didn’t consider him playing, and he obviously in his head never ever thought he wouldn’t play.

“So he’s accepted the job, but actually in his head he thinks, ‘I’ll make up for the last time, I’ll get in,’ so they’ve got a terrible problem.” McIlroy is now set for his eighth Ryder Cup with the event scheduled for September 26-28 at Bethpage Black in New York.