Why is Brandt Snedeker the next American captain? We asked him

CHICAGO — This time a year ago, Brandt Snedeker couldn’t have been on the shortlist. You know, that vague ranking of pros with significant resumes who could one day captain an American team in the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. 

He was struggling with his game, he had zero experience as an assistant captain — a prerequisite these days — and he was right in that 43-year-old purgatory age range, where your best days are behind you but your senior tour days are still off in the distance.

And then Keegan Bradley happened. 

Bradley was granted the 2025 Ryder Cup captaincy in early July 2024, a shocking development that kick-started another decision. To learn the ropes, Bradley would have to be an assistant captain at the ’24 Prez Cup in Montreal. Then Keegan Bradley happened again, winning the BMW Championship and playing his way onto that team. Suddenly, the Americans needed another assistant to take his place. 

Enter Snedeker. 

Sneds dutifully performed everything captain Jim Furyk asked of him in Montreal — tasks and communication that is often relegated exclusively to the background. During his exit interview, following a dominant American victory, Sneds made his captaincy dreams clear to the PGA Tour’s leadership team, which is good and fine, but it doesn’t preclude his resume from the typical captain’s assessment.

Often captains are players with a bunch of team appearances, double-digit victories, a major championship or perhaps a stint as World No. 1. Snedeker came close … but ultimately doesn’t have any of that. He did, however, have Furyk in his corner, who called him a few weeks ago to break the news.

Buddy, you’re gonna be the Presidents Cup captain. 

Based on his reaction, those weeks have been a whirlwind. In the immediate minutes after it was officially announced in Chicago Tuesday morning — from a rooftop bar overlooking Millennium Park and during a jolly press conference featuring members of the host course and plenty of local media — I asked Snedeker a less-jolly question:

The competition among your peers to be an American captain is pretty deep. I’m curious if you can self-assess, why did you get the job? Why were you selected for his position? 

A largely celebratory press conference may not have been the right setting, but he took the question in good spirit once the room quieted its laughter. 

“There was a lot of bribes involved, you know?” he said, cueing more laughter. “You know, I have no idea. That’s a great question. I don’t know how the process went.”

Snedeker highlighted his experience serving under Furyk in Montreal, but he clearly isn’t sure why he was selected. The true answer is multi-faceted and at this point may not matter, but it’s not difficult to reason. 

The American captaincy in this era was set to run through Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, but for very different and incredibly drastic reasons, neither are in a place where they can take on the role. Furyk has captained both team events already and likely doesn’t desire to do so again. Among his vice captains in Montreal was Kevin Kisner, who is at the outset of a busy broadcasting career, and Justin Leonard, who hails from a generation no longer connected to the Tour on a weekly basis. Steve Stricker has captained both American teams and Fred Couples has been happily relegated to a (strictly) vice captain role, leaving Stewart Cink and Snedeker as your leading candidates. The former will get the job at some point, but the latter has it now. So a better question for this moment is: Will he be good at it?

It is, of course, far too soon to tell. But a big part of the captaincy is doing exactly what he did this week — show up in Chicago and fly the flag. Come back in September and learn the golf course intimately. Use these opportunities to rally support from locals (who may rather visit Soldier Field during the Sunday singles matches) and get used to hearing questions you won’t really have a great answer to.

Things like, What kind of advantage does Geoff Ogilvy’s International team have since his course design firm renovated the golf course?

Or, Would you select Keegan Bradley to your team if you were captain this fall?

Or, What specific things have Jim Furyk or other captains done that you want to incorporate as a captain?

That last one was among the first queries I pitched his way when we stepped out onto the sunny terrace overlooking Lake Michigan. And throughout our 10-minute convo, Snedeker offered more general ideas than anything. He wants to bring in a team chef to the Medinah Country Club so the team can have dinners on property before heading to their hotel. Anything that eliminates stress during a highly stressful week, Snedeker says, he will try to do. He hopes to play a bunch of PGA Tour events next year and build trust with anyone who might make his team. In that sense, he’s checking the boxes just fine.

But it really wasn’t until our last back and forth that he showed how he really feels about captains, vice captains and the role veteran players can have on the action without swinging a club. Snedeker mentioned that one of his best experiences as a player came at the 2016 Ryder Cup, where Notah Begay, a longtime broadcaster, served as a catch-all team assistant that week. He wasn’t an official vice captain but was a handler of sorts for actual vice captain Tiger Woods. When he wasn’t shuttling around Woods or Darius Rucker or Paulina Gretzky, Begay was tasked with being close to Snedeker, who went 3-0 that week. 

“It’s just more about having somebody with you going through the fire, right?” Snedeker said. “Talking with you. Keeping you calm. Letting you know he’s there with you. Just being a buddy, really, more than anything else.”

We’ve all heard players say that line before. So I asked, Why do you need that?

“Because you feel like you’re alone that week, you know?” he replied. 

“A lot of times you feel alone out there. Even though you’ve got a partner, everybody’s going through something different, right? Some guys might be playing great. Some guys may be struggling. Some guys maybe coming off the best year of their career. Some guys, might be trying to find it late in the year. So, meeting players where they are and having somebody there to understand what they’re going through, kind of lean on them, that’s what great vice captains do.”

Pry enough into Sneds’ mindset and he seems to have that part figured out. The best professors know what it felt like to be taught. The best managers know what it’s like to be managed. It might be sappy and it might be simple, but it also might be the most important thing.