Justin Rose believes Keegan Bradley "sacrificed himself" for US Ryder Cup team

Justin Rose believes Team USA captain Keegan Bradley "sacrificed himself" to focus on being the ultimate Ryder Cup leader in New York later this month.

Bradley, winner of the Travelers Championship in June, faced intense scrutiny ahead of naming his six captain's picks for Bethpage, with many expecting the world No 11 to select himself and go into the Ryder Cup as player-captain.

But the 39-year-old made the "heart-breaking" decision to leave himself out of the team and concentrate fully on his duties as captain, although it is widely believed that the US side would be stronger with Bradley on it.

"I grew up wanting to playing Ryder Cups so it's broke my heart not to play," he said after naming his picks last month. "You work forever to make these teams, but I was chosen to be captain and my ultimate goal is to be the best captain I can be.

"If the team was better with me on it, then I would have done it, but I 100% know this is the right choice. These guys played great down the stretch and it made my decision so much easier."

Rose is currently one place below Bradley in the world rankings, and he thinks Bradley would have been under huge pressure to perform if he had picked himself to play at Bethpage Black.

But the English veteran insists that Bradley made the right decision for both himself and the US team.

"Obviously he's a great player, and he's playing unbelievable golf," said Rose ahead of this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, where he will play with Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood and defending champion Billy Horschel for the first two rounds.

"I just felt the interesting dynamic was, to win the Ryder Cup, you need to win 14 and a half points. I felt like if he picked himself, he needed to put points on the board. 

"But obviously he's backing himself to be a good leader because he's inspiring his team to get 14 and a half points. That was the only way I looked at it was, 'okay, can I put three points on the board?' That's the best way to win the Ryder Cup.

"So it's good to see that he's backing himself to be the inspirational leader that can inspire his team to do that. Yeah, he obviously left it late, and I think he put himself in that predicament by playing such good golf. 

"He was clearly considering it because he left it late. But it would have been fair play either way in my mind. Because obviously you do have to back yourself. If you do pick yourself, there's a lot of scrutiny, on him too.

"I guess he was willing to sacrifice himself to be the ultimate kind of inspirer."