Brandel Chamblee has issued Rory McIlroy and Co. a stern warning ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup. The golf pundit suggested that the US team might have already clinched victory after skipper Keegan Bradley chose not to pick himself for the event.

Bradley, who sat 11th in the Ryder Cup points list, announced his six captain’s picks on Wednesday to complete the American dozen. Many had anticipated he would make history as the first playing-captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963 by taking a slot for himself.

Instead, he stepped aside, signalling that leadership takes precedence over personal ambition. Chamblee praised the call as potentially decisive, especially with the US desperate to win back the trophy on home turf following Europe’s emphatic triumph in Rome two years ago.

“I think he may well have won the Ryder Cup in making that decision,” Chamblee told Golf Channel after the announcement.

“When you start to look at a captaincy or at a team, it’s never any one thing that makes a great player or a great captain, but it’s an assembly of a lot of little things like a mosaic.

“And in the same way you got the sense when Luke Donald, in opening ceremonies in 2023 got up and spoke Italian for two or three minutes, you thought, this Ryder Cup is over,” he continued. “Because if he spent and thought about it in that kind of detail how to open the ceremony, what was the rest of the week going to be like and how thorough had he thought about things?

“So Keegan Bradley just thinking about the decision to pick himself, that’s what a leader does, make a personal sacrifice for the collective good of a team. It’s the kind of thing a leader would do that would get his team to sort of run through a wall for him.

“Imagine the rest of that week; he’s going to look at them and be like, ‘I stepped aside to focus on every little detail to help you guys,’ and how empowering that must be for his team.”

Bradley’s final line-up includes automatic qualifiers Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English, and Bryson DeChambeau, together with his captain’s choices: Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay, Ben Griffin, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Cameron Young.

While Chamblee felt five of the selections were straightforward, the real intrigue was whether the 39-year-old captain would take the final position himself. Instead, he chose Burns, later confessing it “broke my heart” not to compete.

“I grew up wanting to fight alongside these guys,” Bradley admitted in Frisco, Texas. “It broke my heart not to play. It really did.

“You work forever to make these teams, but ultimately I was chosen to do a job. I was chosen to be the captain of this team. My ultimate goal to start this thing was to be the best captain that I could be.

“This is how I felt like I could do this. If we got to this point and I felt like the team was better with me on it, I was going to do that. I was going to do whatever I thought was best for this team.

I know 100 percent for certain that this is the right choice, and these six guys, again, played so incredibly coming down the stretch here and made my decision a lot easier.”

Chamblee rejected the idea that the captain’s influence is overstated, saying the position requires far more than striking shots. “There is just so many moving pieces,” he explained.

“Group dynamics is an interesting philosophy. And that’s what he’s called upon to navigate that week – and it’s more difficult than playing.”

With the Americans still bruised from a 16.5-11.5 defeat in 2023, the spotlight is firmly on them. The cauldron of Bethpage Black, with its notoriously partisan galleries, is expected to give the US significant backing.

Chamblee believes Bradley’s unselfish approach may strengthen team spirit, avoiding any “cross purposes” between competing and captaining. With world No. 1 Scheffler and major winners Schauffele and Morikawa in the squad, the US certainly have firepower.

Europe, though, remain formidable. Luke Donald returns as captain and will reveal his captain’s picks on Monday. At present, his side is fronted by Rory McIlroy, along with Bob MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard and Tyrrell Hatton.

With less than a month until the tournament gets underway, attention now turns to New York to see if Bradley’s sacrifice can inspire American glory. Europe, though, will be doing everything in their power to ensure that doesn’t happen.