GolfNewsRI

If you have watched any coverage of the Ryder Cup this week, you have certainly seen Challenge Cup alum Keegan Bradley roaming the property. 

Decked out in Team USA gear, earpiece in-tact, and an entourage of people around him, Bradley is the Captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team – one of most prestigious honors in professional golf. 

“My first thought is I’d like to see him playing. I feel like he gives us our best chance to win,” U.S. Challenge Cup’s Dave Adamonis told GolfNewsRI earlier this week.

He added, “Anytime our players are doing anything. I mean, this is the pinnacle really of golf, right, to be named the Ryder Cup Captain. Usually, I feel like it’s for a guy who’s past his prime that ends up being the captain. I couldn’t be any more excited for Keegan and his family.”

The chances of Bradley being a playing captain seemed very realistic earlier this summer when he won the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. 

While Bradley did not automatically qualify for the team, the Vermont native could have made himself a captain’s pick, but ultimately decided against it. 

“I mean, listen, golf has a huge mental component to playing. With the responsibilities of being the captain, he didn’t really see how he could do both. There’s a lot that goes into it, you know, from his perspective. We live in a day and age where there’s so much detail that’s involved in everything. I think he just felt like he couldn’t do both effectively,” said Adamonis. 

Since turning pro and making the PGA Tour, Bradley has won eight times, including the 2011 PGA Championship, and has made multiple U.S. Ryder and President’s Cup teams. 

And it started with Challenge Cup. 

“We couldn’t be any more proud of everything that he’s done. I feel like we’re just a small part of the journey. You know when a player reaches his ability level, there’s a lot of people that are involved in that, but ultimately it’s the player themselves that are responsible for where they are. But we’re pretty pumped,” said Adamonis. 

Keegan Bradley the Challenge Cupper 

As GolfNewsRI wrote about earlier this week, Bradley grew up in Woodstock, Vermont the son of a PGA Professional and nephew of LPGA Tour legend Pat Bradley. 

He then moved from Vermont to Massachusetts prior to his senior year of high school. 

“You know, he came to us a little bit late in the game. I wanna say he moved from Vermont to Massachusetts in like his junior year. He hadn’t played a ton of stuff with us. Jon Curran was our best player and he and Keegan became fast friends and still are best buddies today. You could see Keegan wasn’t as good as Jon, but there was a lot of evidence that he was going to be extremely good,” reflected Adamonis. 

As a senior at Hopkinson High School, Bradley won the 2004 Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Assoc. Division II Individual State Championship.

However, he was still not getting much of a look from college coaches. 

“He didn’t really get recruited, I think URI offered him a small scholarship and honestly he ended up at St. John’s based on my dad’s relationship with Frank Darby,” said Adamonis. 

Darby served as the Head Coach of the St. John’s Red Storm.

“Darby called me when we were playing our last tournament of the year and Keegan had shot 68 in it. He asked me if I had any players that he should be interested in, and I recommended Keegan. They met up a week later and low and behold that’s how the story goes,” said Adamonis. 

The St. John’s Years

Bradley was offered a spot on the St. John’s roster and produced results right away, winning a tournament and finishing top ten in nearly every other tournament during his freshman season. 

Adamonis notes that Bradley could have left St. John’s after his freshman season and join Curran at Vanderbilt, but chose not to.

“I thought it was really cool that he stayed at St. John’s. Frank was the only person that offered him a full scholarship. So I thought it was pretty cool that he decided to stay there,” said Adamonis. 

Darby spent 20 seasons as the Head Coach at St. John’s, leading them to six NCAA Regional appearances and cranking out 27 All-Big East selections over his career.

He is currently the Head Coach of the Manhattan Jaspers Men’s Golf Team. 

For Bradley, staying at St. John’s also gave him the opportunity to sneak on and play Bethpage Black. 

“My teammates and I used to play Bethpage Black when it was closed on Mondays. We’d park by the maintenance shed and play the inner loop, holes 3 through 14. One day during my senior year, my teammate George Lotus and I decided we were going to go over the road to play 15, 16, 17 and 18, the holes we really wanted to play but hadn’t been allowed to for four years. We were young, passionate and convinced we were invisible. Turns out we weren’t,” said Bradley during the Ryder Cup Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday. 

Bradley turned pro in 2008 and earned PGA Tour status prior to the 2011 season. 

He would go on to win the 2011 PGA Championship, becoming one of six players to win in his major debut. 

Bradley was also named 2011 Rookie of the Year, and made his Ryder Cup debut in 2012 at Medinah.

He and Curran teamed up to win the 2016 CVS Charity Classic at Rhode Island Country Club.  

Now 14 years later, with a slew of his St. John’s teammates in attendance, Bradley is the U.S. Ryder Cup Captain at Bethpage Black.

How can you not be romantic about golf?

Big Stretch for Challenge Cup Alums

While much of the focus will be on Keegan Bradley and Team USA this weekend, there is other important golf being played amongst Challenge Cup nation alums. 

Former URI star Chris Francoeur is in the final tournament of the Fortinet Cup on PGA Tour Americas, where he currently ranks 14th on the points list. 

If he can get into the top ten this weekend, Francoeur will earn a Korn Ferry Tour card for 2026. 

The Korn Ferry Tour is off this week, but last week, Challenge Cup alum John VanderLaan won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and has moved into position to earn himself a PGA Tour Card. 

“He was our player of the Year in 2014. There’s two more events left, nothing’s official at this point, but he looks like he’s in pretty good shape right now to potentially join Chatfield with a Tour card. Same goes with Patrick (Welch),” said Adamonis. 

The Korn Ferry Tour has two tournaments remaining in their season. 

Not to mention other alums who are starting or have started their journey through Q-School in an effort to keep the dream alive. 

Needless to say, for Dave Adamonis and Challenge Cup nation, heads will be on a swivel this weekend.