Ryder Cup drama reaches Scotland

Welcome to GOLF.com’s “Seen & Heard” video series, in which we give you an inside look at golf’s biggest events through the eyes and ears of our onsite crew. On deck this week: the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. Let’s go!

Genesis Scottish Open week started out with a real bang with the bombshell news on Monday that Keegan Bradley would lead the U.S. Ryder Cup team as captain for the 2025 matches.

That announcement was making waves more than 3,000 miles away at The Renaissance Club, site of this week’s event where our Sean Zak was eager to get players’ takes on the selection. Zak called it a “shocking” announcement.

The first player to give his thoughts was PGA champ Xander Schauffele.

“On the course, he’s intense,” Schauffele said. 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.”

Given that Bradley is still very much in form, as the 19th-ranked player in the world and having been snubbed from the U.S. team for Rome a year ago, Zak wondered if Schauffele and other players were thinking about the potential for Bradley to be a playing captain.

Schauffele couldn’t recall when that had last happened.

“Yesterday, when I found out, I thought this is going to be so much fun. This is going to be chaotic,” Zak said. “And now I woke up today thinking this could be bad. It could be the craziest Ryder Cup of all time.”

On the course, we joined James Colgan who, straight off a flight, played The Renaissance Club in the Tuesday pro-am with PGA Tour pro Matt Wallace and DP World Tour member Todd Clements.

His caddie? GOLF multimedia wiz Darren Riehl. (Although Colgan, Riehl and their team finished dead last in the pro-am.)

It was a baptism by fire to links golf for Colgan, but Zak and Riehl got their rounds in at a different style of UK layout: The Bruntsfield Short Hole Course, where the greens fees were free!

Clad in hoodies and shorts, our team enjoyed the pitch and putt course before heading to a nearby tavern for Riehl to enjoy his first ever Tennents Lager, a Scottish delicacy.

Before calling it a day, Zak headed back to North Berwick and walked up the 18th hole of the namesake club’s West Links, one of his favorite places on earth, he said.

To catch up on all the GOLF team’s activities in Scotland, check out the full playlist below — and stay tuned for more Seen & Heard throughout the week.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.