Xander Schauffele admitted it was initially "surprising" that Keegan Bradley was appointed Team USA's next Ryder Cup captain but believes the 38-year-old's youth may actually serve as a huge positive for the home team at Bethpage Black.
Bradley was revealed as Zach Johnson's successor on Monday after it was reported that Tiger Woods turned down the role due to the number of captain's obligations in the build-up.
The Woodstock, Vermont-born golfer is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour and landed the biggest prize of his career at the 2011 PGA Championship but has not been involved in a Ryder Cup since losing as a player in 2014.
Despite controversially missing out on a call from Johnson ahead of Marco Simone, Bradley remains competitive still - having won twice last season - and almost added to his list of achievements at the recent Charles Schwab Challenge when ending in a tie for second behind runaway champion, Davis Riley.
During his pre-Scottish Open press conference on Tuesday, Schauffele suggested that rather than it being a drawback, Bradley's current status as a PGA Tour regular could aid him in helping the Americans fulfil their potential in September 2025.
Keegan Bradley has been named the captain of the U.S. Team for the 2025 @RyderCup 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZYtG0siwgJJuly 8, 2024
Schauffele said: "Yeah, it's surprising. You typically expect someone that's a little bit older to get selected as a captain. I think a lot of people were banking on Tiger to do it. He obviously has a lot on his plate.
"Keegan expressed his love for the Ryder Cup publicly, which we all saw, and I'm sure -- I haven't talked to him or seen him yet, but I'm sure he's over the moon and is going to do a great job."
Schauffele continued: "I think having someone that's a little bit younger, I'm going to look at it, I'm a glass-half-full guy. And I think him playing and knowing sort of the trends on tour, you start to see a lot more recovery centers here. You start to see a lot of things of that nature of how we practise and stuff.
"I feel like Keegan would understand sort of when we need to get up, when we need to practise, and when you need to do this and hopefully dodge anything you don't have to do and maybe that will help us."
Given Bradley was so close to making the US squad at Marco Simone, there remains a realistic chance that the 38-year-old could put himself in a similar position again next time. Yet, there has not been a Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
Schauffele stated that Bradley could reset that particular historical record, though, and says it will be intriguing to see if Team USA's skipper can make it happen given all of the obligations he will have to contend with at the same time.
Asked if the trend of playing captains could return with Bradley, Schauffele said: "The younger captains that I've selected are just more likely to be playing. I think when you select guys in their 50s and their 40s, it's less likely they will be playing.
"Yeah, if Keegan is in a really good spot coming in, I mean, Tiger was a playing captain in The Presidents Cup. He was telling us about how much stuff he has to do besides playing.
"So knowing Keegan and how good of a job he's going to want to do, he's going to love doing the press and talking about the tournament and the Cup and proud to be an American, all those things. It's going to be really interesting and fun to see."
Schauffele has never been involved in the same team as Bradley but clearly knows him well from their time together out on tour.
The Californian is confident the man just eight years his senior can be an excellent captain, explaining more about what he is like as a person.
Schauffele said: "He is so laid back off the course. If you get him in like a dinner setting or something, he loves sports. He'll talk about sports all night long if you like. He's very passionate individual.
"On the course, he's intense. That's just how he competes and how he is. I'm sure as a captain he's going to have sort of a mixed bag. He won't be afraid and will get everyone going. I don't know if he's coached or captained any other teams in his life, whether it's his kids' teams or something like that, but when someone is really passionate about something, they usually do really well."
