Bradley defiant: “We’re “gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f***ing ass”
Shane Lowry needs no motivation for the Ryder Cup but hearing US skipper Keegan Bradley say on Netflix that the US is “gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f***ing ass” can only inspire him in this week’s Cognizant Classic.
While Lowry said last week that Europe would not be trying to match the antagonism they’ll face from the famously rowdy New York crowds later this year, Bradley is clearly fired up to prove he was the right man for the job.
As the US celebrated its Presidents Cup win last year, series three of the Netflix show “Full Swing” captured the New Englander’s determination to prove his doubters wrong.
“I’m gonna get criticised as the captain next year,” he told the locker room. “They're gonna underestimate me. They're going to doubt me.
“I've been doubted my whole f***ing life. That's when I do my best work.”
Then he added: “We are gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f***ing ass.”
Lowry has made another major win, and away Ryder Cup victory, his two big goals this year.
And the world number 18 has a chance this week to give Europe its fifth PGA TOUR win of the season as the betting favourite for the Cognizant Classic at PGA National, not far from his US home.
None of the world’s top ten are playing and with just 16 of the world's top 50 in action, 17th ranked Russell Henley and world number 19 Sepp Straka, two former winners, will be the men to beat.
Straka, who was a Ryder Cup partner for Lowry in Rome in 2023, snatched the title from under Lowry’s nose in 2022.
But the Clara man loves the venue and followed that runner-up finish with a tie for fifth in 2023 and a tie for fourth behind Austin Eckroat last year.
He’s now one of the game’s major personalities and features prominently in Full Swing, which also sheds light on Rory McIlroy’s US Open loss to Bryson DeChambeau last year.
The Netflix cameras capture McIlroy’s club selection chat with caddie Harry Diamond before he hit driver on the 72nd hole at Pinehurst and pulled it into the scrub.
“Three wood’s just not getting there,” McIlroy tells Diamond. “I’m sort of seeing the driver.”
Diamond responded: “Okay. Why not? Just put it in play.”
McIlroy found the native area on the left instead and made his second bogey in three holes before disconsolately watching from the scorer’s area as Bryson DeChambeau made par at the last to beat him by a shot.
The Holywood star will reappear at next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill but nine of the world’s top ten women tee it up in the HSBC Women’s World Golf Championship in Singapore this week.
While world number one Nelly Korda is skipping the LPGA’s Asian Swing, Leona Maguire will be seeking her third LPGA win at Sentosa’s Tanjong Course.
There are no Irish in action at the DP World Tour’s 114th Investec South African Open Championship in Durban, where three places in The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush are up for grabs.
Meanwhile, Ronan Mullarney tied for 37th in the Alps Tour’s Red Sea Little Venice Open in Egypt yesterday.
The former Alps Tour number one closed with a five-over 77 at Sokhna in Suez to finish 14 strokes behind Spain’s Alvaro Hernandez Cabezuela on three-over.
