Keegan Bradley's cardinal sin as U.S. Ryder Cup captain came before Americans arrived at Bethpage Black

A Ryder Cup captain is tasked with making myriad decisions, but when hosting the event, one of the most crucial is setting up the golf course in a way to benefit his team. That was never more important than at Bethpage Black, infamously known as one of golf's most difficult tests. (There's a literal warning sign out for players before they arrive on the first tee, ensuring they know the Black Course is only for "highly skilled golfers.")

Most of the Black Course's test comes from tee-to-green where narrow fairways and extremely penal rough are the hallmarks of the layout that fans have come to know, largely from Bethpage State Park hosting U.S. Opens. 

The setup for the 2025 Ryder Cup was shocking for those who expected that kind of test for the biennial event, as United States captain Keegan Bradley opted to widen fairways and cut the rough down. That turned Bethpage into a putting contest, and for the first two days, the Europeans dominated on the greens en route to a 15 to 13 win, the first on the road for either side since 2012.

"We tried to set the course up to help our team. Obviously, it wasn't the right decision," Bradley said Sunday evening while stewing in the 2-point loss. "I think anytime you're the leader of a team or the captain or the coach, or whatever, we talked about this last night, you're going to get the accolades, and you need to take the blame for when things don't go well.

"I definitely made a mistake on the course setup. I should have listened a little bit more to my intuition. For whatever reason, that wasn't the right way to set the course up. The greens were as soft as I've ever seen greens without it raining. Especially here, it can get pretty firm, and they never firmed up."

Bradley took deserved heat for some personnel decisions in the team event, but the course setup was the cardinal sin of the week from the U.S. captain. The idea was to open the course up for longer hitter like Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Young, but that strategy was flawed for multiple reasons. 

• Long rough is even more penal for short hitters because they'll be using longer clubs that are harder to get out of thick rough.
• Europe's two top stars, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, are two of their longest hitters. They were free to bomb away all week.

Even if the setup proved successful for DeChambeau and Young, it simultaneously played into the hands of Europe's top players. It's no coincidence that McIlroy and Rah thrived in the first four sessions on a course that was perfectly constructed for them to attack.

The factor Bradley could not predict was how soft the greens would be after heavy rain fell Thursday following aggressive watering in the lead up to the Ryder Cup that ensured the course was in shape for the event.

The short rough only amplified how easy the course played. There were times where it was actually better to be off the fairway because one didn't need worry about spinning the ball too much. 

Being in the rough should never be an advantage at a course like Bethpage Black, yet the lack of penalty off the tee weakened the home crowd advantage. The whole point of having a raucous atmosphere is to make the opposing team uncomfortable with nerves coming into play more frequently on the tee where the fans are closest and loudest. 

The fans were unquestionably rowdy, but the Europeans didn't need to worry about nervy swings costing them a hole because there were hardly any holes on the golf course where a missed fairway put one at a severe disadvantage. 

This was already an experienced, veteran Ryder Cup squad with 11 returning players from Rome, but some had yet to play a road Ryder Cup and others had yet to find much success on U.S. soil. Matt Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Åberg and Shane Lowry all fall into that bucket as golfers who provided big lifts for Europe in support of their stars.

Perhaps their performance level would have been the same no matter the course setup, but it certainly didn't hurt that Bethpage Black welcomed them with open arms, providing little in the way of discomfort.

Every Ryder Cup captain has his picks and pairings scrutinized; Bradley certainly has a few of those he wants back, too -- most notably sending the Collin Morikawa and Harris English pairing out twice and having Russell Henley play off odd holes Friday with Scottie Scheffler. 

But the most significant miscue Bradley made in his turn as Ryder Cup captain came before the teams ever stepped foot on the grounds in Long Island, New York. Neutering the difficulty of a notoriously tough course when your players are going to be the more comfortable and have the fan support was an own goal. 

Bradley recognized that immediately, but early acknowledgement does not prevent nightmares about lawnmowers, sprinklers and rain.