Golf caddie received terrifying 7am Ryder Cup phone call and feared being sacked

Keegan Bradley struck fear into his caddie Scott Vail after texting him at 7am and demanding a phone call. Bradley had just been informed that he would be in 2025 and wanted to break the news to his right-hand man as soon as possible.

In the space of 10 months, Bradley has gone from missing out on being the captain's pick for the 2023 US Ryder Cup team to leading the same team for the 2025 edition of the tournament.

The 38-year-old also landed his seventh PGA Tour title at the BMW Championship in August and took on the role of assistant captain at the Presidents Cup a month later.

Vail joined Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on GOLF's Subpar podcast to discuss the sport and his working relationship with Bradley.

And the caddie explained: "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'.

"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?'

"So I pick up the phone immediately. 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. 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."

Canadian national Vail, who previously caddied for Brandt Snedeker for 12 years, added: "I know how hard he works and I care for him as a boss, as a friend.

"And yeah, he let me know, and I was like, 'Well, are you gonna do it? You gotta do it, right? Captain America. Bethpage, you went to school there'.

"I had to keep my mouth shut for, I think 10 to 14 days. He's like, 'Don't tell anybody'. I didn't tell a soul. And that was hard to do. But yeah, it's gonna be amazing."