Keegan Bradley’s long-time caddie Scott Vail feared he was being fired when receiving a morning text from his boss following the end of the Travelers Championship earlier this year.

Instead, it proved to be good news, as Bradley was actually informing his right-hand man that he was the new captain of the United States Ryder Cup team, hence the early message. Vail eventually found out the news after his boss dropped him a call.

Moments earlier he had received the dreaded text of ‘call me’, with the looper instantly thinking the worst in what was an out-of-sorts message from the PGA Tour star.

“The Monday morning [after the Travelers Championship], I got up at 7am and I had a text already from him saying, ‘You know we text back and forth a lot, but we’ve been on the road for like four weeks’,” he told Golf’s Sub Par Podcast. “It was weird to have it, you know, straight away the next morning.

“The text said, ‘Call me, I need to speak to you’. And I’m like, ‘Oh, what did I do? What did I do last week that’s getting me fired today?!” Luckily for both Vail and Bradley, the call proved to be a special one, as the 38-year-old was able to share with his colleague that he would be leading his country on the Ryder Cup stage.

“I pick up the phone immediately,” the caddie added. “I call him. I’m like, ‘Hey, is everything alright?’ And he’s like, ‘You’re not gonna believe this’. And he tells me that they want him as the Ryder Cup captain. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh’. Like, I was shocked at first, and then I was like, emotional.

Keegan Bradley of the U.S. Team and his caddie Scott Vail

Scott Vail works alongside Keegan Bradley ( 

Image:

Getty Images)

“I was almost crying because I know how much it means to him, how much not being on the team last year meant to him. It was just like this whirlwind of emotions and I’m sitting there kind of like, I’m pretty sure I was crying a little bit.” While Bradley has been appointed as the man in charge, he could well still feature as a player.

Having won the BMW Championship earlier this summer, Bradley currently finds himself ranked the 14th best golfer in the world, leaving him in with a real chance of qualifying as a player for Team USA next fall. Speaking at a press conference earlier this week, it appears Bradley is still undecided on whether he will be able to both play and captain the team.

“I made a promise to myself that I’m not going to worry about this until the time comes if I do,” he said in New York. “It’s really difficult to make the American team every year; you have to go out and really perform. Like I said, right now, my focus is on being a captain, but I’m still a full-time player.

“I’m still playing in all the majors and all the big events next year. So I have a real shot at doing this. For now, I’m focusing on my guys and getting them ready to go.”