How the U.S. is using this week in Napa to prepare for the Ryder Cup - ESPN

NAPA, Calif. — Keegan Bradley stood in the middle of the eighth fairway at the Silverado Resort North Course wearing head-to-toe United States Ryder Cup gear and sporting a wide smile on his face as he waited to see the best player in the world do what he does best.

«This has a better shot of going in the hole than in that back right bunker,» Bradley joked as Scottie Scheffler struck his wedge shot. The ball, of course, finished pin high.

As Bradley rode around in a cart and bounced back and forth between two foursomes that included seven Ryder Cup team members and one assistant captain during a nine-hole practice round Tuesday at the Procore Championship, the pressure of hitting his own golf shots, preparing for a tournament and sweating out putts was nowhere to be found.

With the PGA Tour season now over and the team set in stone, all eyes are now on Bethpage, which means all eyes are on Bradley and the 12 players he is hoping to captain to victory. This week, that also meant that a typically quiet PGA Tour fall event in Napa Valley became a Ryder Cup rendezvous.

«I think the players knew it was important,» Bradley said. «This Ryder Cup means everything to them. We talk a lot behind the scenes of how much this means to us, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to be prepared.»

Unlike 2023, when most of the American team did not play at this or any other golf event leading up to the 16.5-11.5 Ryder Cup loss in Rome, 10 of 12 team members are in the field this week and playing with each other during the first and second rounds of the tournament.

LIV's Bryson DeChambeau is not in the field, but he made the trip to Napa for the main event: a dinner Tuesday night at a team house where Bradley and the vice captains