CROMWELL, Conn. – The story was so perfect that it wrote itself.

Keegan Bradley strolled to the 18th green at TPC River Highlands in Sunday’s final round of the Travelers Championship as the crowd’s roar approached a crescendo. He heard “U-S-A!” chants before even lining up for his approach shot into the final hole, which he stuffed to inside 6 feet, and on the way to strike the putt (looking at the hole, an approach partially inspired by Michael Jordan) that would ultimately secure his second Travelers Championship victory.

Bradley’s first Travelers win, two years ago, fulfilled a childhood dream of winning his home-region event, New England’s longtime TOUR stop, which he attended so many times as a kid and inspired him to pursue this career that is often aggravating but is sometimes, on occasion, so wonderfully validating.

His second win, delivered with that closing birdie after Tommy Fleetwood three-putted for bogey from the front fringe, rubber-stamped a narrative that has continually ascended in merit in recent months. First, it was speculative. Now it’s deadly serious. Should Bradley play on his own Ryder Cup team?

It’s a valid question, and he knows it. Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of when Bradley received a phone call from PGA of America leadership (also including 2023 U.S. Team Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson), where he was offered the job of 2025 U.S. Team captain. His thoughts were so swirly in that moment that he didn’t even think about the possibility of playing on his own team (when the PGA of America explained their vision of Bradley as the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963, Bradley didn’t understand for a second: What, exactly, were they talking about?)

They were foreshadowing the scenario that has since unfolded. Bradley won the 2024 BMW Championship, the second leg of the three-event FedExCup Playoffs, and he has authored a steady 2025 PGA TOUR campaign that left him No. 30 on the FedExCup standings into the Travelers, and No. 17 in U.S. Team Ryder Cup points.

After his dramatic victory at TPC River Highlands, Bradley stands No. 8 on the FedExCup and moves inside the top 10 in Ryder Cup points (there will be six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s selections). He has ascended to No. 7 on the Official World Golf Ranking. Since he was announced as captain in summer 2024, Bradley hasn’t wanted to seriously consider the possibility of making his own team, maintaining that he would only play if he qualified on points. He might not get there, but if he’s now one of the 12 best players on the American side, would selecting himself actually be in the U.S. Team’s best interests? He has a duty, as captain, to consider that question.

“He just plays with so much passion,” said Russell Henley, who shared second place at the Travelers after playing alongside Bradley and Fleetwood in Sunday’s final grouping. “He wants it, he wants to compete, he wants to win. He just, it just means so much to him … He's playing great. He's been playing great.”

Sounds like an ideal captain – and an ideal teammate.

“This changes the story a little bit,” Bradley admitted Sunday evening. “I never would have thought about playing if I hadn't won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don't know if I'm going to do it or not, but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what's best for the team and we'll see. We’ve still got … it's still June, so we’ve still got a long ways to go. This definitely changes things a little bit, and we'll all get together and figure out the best way to do this.”

In late summer 2023, Johnson called Bradley with the news that he hadn’t been selected for that fall’s Ryder Cup team. Bradley was at home in South Florida with his wife Jillian and two young sons, Logan and Cooper, and the moment was captured for the world to see by Netflix’s “Full Swing” cameras. It was one of the season’s most heartbreaking moments – Bradley has never been part of a winning U.S. Team at the Ryder Cup (part of the losing side in both 2012 and 2014), and he has famously kept his suitcase from the 2014 Ryder Cup unopened. Playing his way onto the U.S. Team was fundamental to his 2023 season goals, and being left off the team devastated him.

As Bradley celebrated his Travelers victory with his wife and two sons, the contrast from that moment was wildly clear. Not only will he be leading this fall’s U.S. Team as captain, but there’s a legitimate realm where he competes for his own team. Bradley didn’t even let his mind wander to that possibility, really, until he was sitting in the Travelers media center with a trophy on Sunday night in his home region. That trophy was quite real, as is the possibility that he follows in Arnold Palmer’s footsteps as a playing captain.

There’s no need to make any determinations now. Bradley earned the right to celebrate his Travelers title – a celebration that began in emphatic fashion as he pumped his fists and ran toward the appreciative New England patrons after draining his winning birdie on a sweltering Sunday afternoon where the heat index exceeded 100 degrees at points. Bradley joked afterward that he was even restraining himself then; an unbridled Bradley would offer that type of release on the second hole of a tournament round, he said. Bradley’s sons received their own replica Travelers trophies, and the champion beamed from ear to ear in a winner’s ceremony emceed by ESPN’s Chris Berman. The scene seemed out of a movie, as Jillian Bradley noted afterward.

Earlier in the week, Bradley speculated that the captaincy’s duties have been an unexpected positive for his golf game: He’s no longer letting his own game consume him, and it’s easier to free his mind from the bad. It made sense, but he was without a victory this year to completely prove it. That was in Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference at TPC River Highlands. Four days later, he was back in the media center with a trophy.

Sentiment validated – and with some valid questions to consider in the next two months.

“I never really planned on playing. I really wanted to just be the captain,” Bradley said. “I really felt strongly about that. I want to serve the guys. They asked me to do a job. I want to do it to the best of my abilities. Now, with the amazing vice captains that I have, and I have a better perspective of playing in the Presidents Cup and being around a lot of the guys, I feel a lot more comfortable if I went that route.”

After the Travelers, it seems that route might be the right one.