European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald and his US rival Keegan Bradley sat down for a press conference on Monday ahead of the tournament at Bethpage Black in New York
Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald are set to put their long-standing friendship on hold as they go head-to-head in this week’s Ryder Cup. The American captain, Bradley, and his European counterpart have shared more than 14 years of camaraderie on the golf course.
However, this weekend will see them face off at Bethpage Black in New York, with Bradley aiming to reclaim the title from Europe in his debut stint as captain. Donald previously led his team to victory in Rome two years ago against Zach Johnson’s USA side.
On Monday, the duo sat down for a press conference, kick-starting the build-up to the tournament, during which Bradley acknowledged his deep-rooted friendship with his adversary. “For me, there’s not many people I like more in the golf world than Luke Donald,” Bradley confessed.
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“I came on tour in 2011 and he was number one in the world. He was the first real top player to treat me with the respect that I couldn’t believe.
“I got to go out and play with Luke Donald who’s the best player in the world.”, reports the Express. He played with all of my buddies. I loved hanging out and having a drink with Luke Donald.
“I wanted to be the first one to tell Luke that I’m the Ryder Cup captain here, out of respect to him, because we’ve talked a lot about the Ryder Cup throughout our lives. But we want to go out there and win.
“We want to put our teams in the best position to go out there and do well. I really feel lucky to have Luke on the opposite side.
“Because we send each other texts, we joke around, but we know once the competition comes, we want to win.”
Donald added that once the tournament finishes on Sunday, whoever comes out on top, he would have a drink with Bradley. “I’ve known Keegan [for] 12, 13 years now,” he said.
“We sometimes play practice rounds together, we have mutual friends. Again, Keegan is someone that I’ve rooted for.
“If he did well in a tournament, won a tournament, I would text him. And likewise, I think we definitely have a good strong friendship and I think there’s a mutual respect there.
“We understand both being in the arena. We understand exactly the difficulties of professional golf and we celebrate our victories together, I think.
“It’s nice to have a captain – your captain opposite you – someone that you know and respect a lot. I think we’re also very, very competitive and that’s not going to change this week.
“I think we’ll have a drink on Sunday night no matter what the result, but this week is about trying to get our teams to win and we want to win.”
