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Ryder Cup week got underway on Monday at Bethpage Black in New York with Team USA Captain Keegan Bradley and Team Europe Captain Luke Donald meeting the media for the first time. 

During the press conference, Bradley was asked to reflect on his roots in the Northeast and New England.

“I carry around the northeast and New England with me everywhere I go. That’s my identity. I love that I grew up there. I love that I’m a little bit different than the guys out here, and there’s nothing I’m more proud of than representing that part of the world,” said Bradley. 

Bradley grew up in Vermont and then Massachusetts where played junior golf as part of the U.S. Challenge Cup under Dave Adamonis. 

“I had such a finite time to practice golf. I grew up in Vermont, and we had really severe winters, and then Boston was actually going south. I could hit some shots later in the year. I had to capitalize on this time to hit balls, get ready to play, prepare to someday do this.” said Bradley. 

Bradley is now just days away from leading Team USA into the Ryder Cup on a course that he played his college golf on with St. John’s. 

Despite the success in he has had in his career, Captain Keegan still carries that New England mentality. 

“As I got older and I was able to play year-round, I still had that mentality. I still have that mentality today of I can’t waste a second of this day. I think when you grow up in New England, whether you’re trying to be a golfer or work, you want to get your job done, you want to be the best you can at your job,” said Bradley. 

Captain Keegan vs Captain Luke

Across the way, Bradley will face his friend and European Captain Luke Donald. 

“I’ve known Keegan 12, 13 years now. We sometimes play practice rounds together on the road, we’ve had dinners together, we have mutual friends. Again, Keegan is someone that I’ve rooted for. If he did well in a tournament, won a tournament, I would text him. And likewise, I think we definitely have a good strong friendship, and I think there’s a mutual respect there. We understand both being in the arena. We understand exactly the difficulties of professional golf, and we celebrate our victories together,” said Donald. 

Donald is the European Captain for the second straight Ryder Cup after Europe dusted the U.S. in Italy two years ago. 

“There’s not many people I like more in the golf world than Luke Donald. I came out on Tour in 2011, and he was No. 1 in the world. He was the first real, quote-unquote, top player to treat me with the respect that I couldn’t believe. I get to go out and play with Luke Donald who’s the best player in the world. He played with all of my buddies that I went to St. John’s with; I loved hanging out and having a drink with Luke Donald,” said Bradley. 

Bradley told the assembled media that upon learning that he would captain Team USA, one of the first calls he made was to Donald to let him know. 

“I really feel lucky to have Luke on the opposite side. Because we send each other texts, we joke around, but we know once the competition comes, we want to win. Like Luke said, come Sunday night, I can’t wait to have a drink with Luke Donald and sit down and try to enjoy this even more,” added Bradley. 

Bradley will hope to enjoy that drink with Donald while holding the Ryder Cup himself, while Donald will look to earn Europe a road victory and retain the Cup. 

The Ryder Cup gets underway on Friday morning at 7 a.m. on USA Network.