Keegan Bradley Shares Thoughts on ‘Full Swing’ and the Ryder Cup ‘Boys Club’

The Vermont native reacted to watching the tight relationship U.S. team captain Zach Johnson had with several players.

Full Swing Season 2 has been available on Netflix for almost a week, and Keegan Bradley has emerged as the clear fan favorite of the series thus far. It isn’t difficult to figure why. 

In Episode 6, titled “Pick Six,” Bradley opens up his home and family life to the cameras as he chases his goal of making a third U.S. Ryder Cup team. Bradley steadily rises in the points system that helps determine the 2023 American squad, looking to make his first appearance in the event since 2014. 

The Vermont native even wins the Travelers Championship among his beloved New England crowd and becomes increasingly hopeful about a trip to Italy. Moments after winning in Connecticut, Bradley is seen whispering to his wife, Jillian, “Do you want to go to Rome?” But the 37-year-old is well aware that he’s behind in one important category. Bradley is up against a group of young, personable players who share deeply rooted relationships that extend from childhood into the most recent Ryder Cup team rooms. 

Keegan Bradley's saga around the U.S. Ryder Cup team selection is one of the most dramatic storylines in Season 2 of "Full Swing." / Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

“The reality for me is, I don’t have this connection to that group that a lot of guys have, so I know I have to go play well to get on this team,” Bradley says during the episode. 

In “Pick Six” Bradley’s path is contrasted with that of Justin Thomas, whose season is tragically falling apart. But fans get to watch as the two-time PGA champion maintains a close friendship with U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson. The dynamic trio of Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are seen dining with Johnson at the British Open and peppering him with cheeky questions about his six looming “captain’s picks.” The show highlights Thomas’s strong Ryder Cup record, but his current on-course struggles are also on full display. He misses the FedEx Cup playoffs by just one shot. 

We all know how things eventually unfolded: At No. 11 in the Ryder Cup standings, Bradley doesn’t qualify for the six “automatic” team spots and gets brutally snubbed by Johnson in the captain’s picks. Meanwhile, at No. 16, Thomas is awarded one of the coveted spots. The drama was captured in full by the Netflix cameras—even the phone call during which Johnson breaks the news to Bradley. 

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated ahead of the Full Swing release, Bradley opened up about what it felt like to watch Thomas’s behind-the-scenes interactions with Johnson leading up to the captain’s picks. 

Was it surprising to witness the PGA Tour “boys club” in action? According to Bradley, the scenes that have created some significant buzz in the golf world weren’t so shocking to him.  

“It was interesting to see for sure,” Bradley says to SI. “Obviously I sort of do my own thing out there, but I knew I was behind the 8 ball for sure in that category. 

“I said to myself, if you just keep playing well and winning tournaments, that’s the only way I can prove myself. I love those guys—JT and Rickie and Jordan—so much. I hate saying a negative word or thinking even a negative thought about them. 

“But I kept telling myself, listen, this is not going to be easy. You’re not going to be picked if you’re a fringe pick. You have to go prove that they have to pick you. When I didn’t make the team on points, I knew that was a big risk. I knew that if it was down to me or some of those guys, I probably wouldn’t get picked. I knew that going in and I just kept trying to play as hard as I could.” 

When asked about the “boys club” phenomenon among the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Bradley provided some detail on just how close Thomas, Spieth, Fowler and Johnson really are—and why he’s envious of that. 

“The thing is, those guys are close. They’re not just PGA Tour close, they’re close friends,” Bradley says. “If you take golf out of the equation, they’re legit close friends. You have your close friends as a golfer and then you have your close PGA Tour friends, and a lot of the time your close friends aren’t on the Tour. 

“These guys are legit best friends and I’m jealous of that a little bit, because it makes their life on Tour that much more fun.”

The episode might have exposed what the general golf community might have suspected about Johnson’s Ryder Cup captain’s picks, but the portrayal ultimately didn’t upset Bradley. He described the filming and viewing experience as extremely positive, even going as far to say that he would jump at the opportunity to do it again. 

Bradley hopes fans walk away from the season with a more thorough understanding of who he is—both as a player and a family man. 

“I just hope people see how much golf means to me and how much family means to me,” Bradley says. “I never thought I would get to a point in my life where golf was my second [priority]. I was such a maniac and animal with this stuff, but [my family] is so far first, obviously. I want people to see how much they mean to me and how much I need them and rely on them.”