NASSAU, The Bahamas – Keegan Bradley is incredibly proud of his 2025 season as a player. It’s maybe the best year of his career, given the circumstances, he said Tuesday at the Hero World Challenge.

Yet when asked to assign a letter grade to his season, he was blunt and dour.

“I mean, it's an F,” said Bradley, who couldn’t separate his inside-the-ropes success with what happened outside the ropes as the captain of the losing U.S. Ryder Cup team. “You've got to go and win that and this grade's different. It's really tough to grade. I was talking to my coach, he said, ‘Remember, you won this year?’ I was like, ‘No, I don't remember that at all.’”

Bradley was appointed to lead the U.S. Team for this very reason. He cares deeply about the Ryder Cup and wears that passion on his sleeve, more so than any modern U.S. player. He hoped to use that obsession as a guide for the whole U.S. squad. He spent more than a decade trying to get back to the Ryder Cup after being part of a losing effort in 2014, spurned multiple times as one of the most deserving players to be left off. He got to return as captain in 2026 at Bethpage Black, a course he played countless times in college, saying it felt like a dream.

The months since the loss have felt like the exact opposite.

“The darkest time of my life probably,” he said. “I mean, I don't know how else to describe it. Certainly, definitely of my career.”

Bradley placed the blame for the loss on himself when asked Tuesday, refusing to push any fault onto the Bethpage Black grounds crew, which Justin Thomas said “fought them” on ideal green speeds. Thomas’s comments came from a No Laying Up interview published earlier this week. Bradley put the responsibility on himself instead.

“I wish that we could blame somebody, but we can't,” Bradley said. “Blame me, I blame myself for that loss. It would be nice to blame that, but we can't.”

Bradley said he’s begun to feel more like himself over the last couple of weeks as he ramped up his body and mind to return to competition. Bradley won "The Skins Game," contested in Florida on Black Friday, and then hopped on a plane to The Bahamas for this week’s Hero World Challenge.

“It's been tough for all of us; not just me, the players as well. I feel like every time I see a player on the team here I want to just go give him a hug and sit down and chat,” Bradley said. “... I'm in a unique position where I could make another team, which has never been done. I would love to do that.”

Bradley said he would also “love to” captain again. He described the loss as a “gaping hole” in his career that he will never be able to fill. It’s not like a tournament where he can work hard and get another chance at it. He needs to be chosen as the Ryder Cup captain, and that might never come around again.

“I would love to avenge that loss, but that's not up to me,” he said. “That's not up to -- I don't think that's fair for me to come out here and say that. But I would love to do it again at some point. I don't know if that will ever happen, probably won't. I think if you ask any losing captain if they would like to do it again, they would all want another shot.”