Team USA Ryder Cup vice-captain: We are divided on captain's picks

Team USA captain Keegan Bradley has a tough enough task in choosing his six picks for the Ryder Cup next week, but that responsibility is made even more difficult due to differing opinions among his backroom staff.

Brandt Snedeker has revealed that Bradley and his five vice-captains - Snedeker, Jim Furyk, Webb Simpson, Kevin Kisner and Gary Woodland - all have their own ideas on who should be added to the team for next month's showdown at Bethpage.

The biggest dilemma facing Bradley is whether or not to pick himself and compete as a player-captain, but the prospect of taking on a dual role has been scoffed at by a number of players and Ryder Cup legends.

The likes of Rory McIlroy, Sir Nick Faldo and Sam Torrance have all warned Bradley that making himself the first player-captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963 would be a poor decision that could adversely affect his team.

But vice-captain Snedeker is confident that Bradley will put the team first and backed him to make the right calls, although there will be much deliberation before his six captain's picks are announced on Wednesday, 27 August.

Speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Snedeker said: "I think Keegan has been great with all his vice-captains. 

"Everyone has got a different opinion. We all have some somebody we believe can bring a different value to the team or whatever it may be, then we all kind of sit down and hash it out.

"At the end of the day, this is Keegan's team. He has put two years of his life into this. 

"I can't say how impressed I've been about how much work, energy, effort he's put into it and how open he's been with us as vice-captains about including us in the process."

Major champions Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa are hot favourites to be handed picks having narrowly missed out on automatic qualification, while Bradley finished 11th in the standings after a solid season which included victory at the Travelers Championship in June.

Bradley has hinted that he could pick himself for the team and remain as captain, and Snedeker is fully aware of how difficult the decision-making process will be over the next week.

"Anytime you're delving into waters that haven't been done since Arnold Palmer did it, you go in with your eyes wide open," he said. 

"You can't just think everything's going to be okay and it's not going to be a big deal.

"That being said, you still want your 12 best players out there. A lot of guys have been openly honest about it. 

"Keegan has been open and honest with us about how he's thinking about it and what he's going through.

"It has been tough on Keegan. I give him a ton of credit because the way he's been able to compartmentalise this last year, not many guys could have done. 

"I know I couldn't have done it the way he's done it and played the kind of golf he did."

Bradley's team already has two rookies in Russell Henley and JJ Spaun, while Ben Griffin, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak, Chris Gotterup and Cameron Young are also in contention for captain's picks.

But with the captain likely to favour adding experience to his line-up, he would be considering the likes of Brian Harman, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark, who all played in the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome.

"I don't feel like we can make a bad decision, but they all bring a little bit something different," Snedeker added. 

"So trying to identify what they bring and kind of how they can help our team is something we need to do.

"I think you're not doing your job if you're not leaning on everything. On course fit, on statistics, on team fit, on how they've been playing and their history."