Keegan Bradley obsesses over Ryder Cup but may need to tell Michael Jordan to stay home

Keegan Bradley makes no secret of his all-consuming desire to make Tom Watson’s U.S. Ryder Cup squad and Friday at the Deutsche Bank Championship he let his golf clubs do the talking.

Opening with an error-free 6-under 65 at TPC Boston in what for the New England native amounts to a home game, Bradley pretty much reserved his seat on Watson’s team plane bound for Gleneagles next month. With pal Jason Dufner on the DL with a neck injury and just two other guys ahead of him in points, the 14th-ranked American player has had an up-and-down season.

The 2011 PGA champion has balanced five missed cuts with six top-10 finishes and is not shy about acknowledging that making his second Ryder Cup team is what drives him.

“Yeah, every second,” he said after his opening round in the second of four FedEx Cup playoff games about how often he thinks about his primary goal. “When I’m sleeping, I’m dreaming about it. When I wake up, I’m thinking about it. When I’m on the course, I’m thinking about it. But I’ve just made the decision that it’s going to come up and I’m not going to try to block it out.

“I’m just going to try to embrace it and be aware of those thoughts. The more I try not to think about it the more it comes in,” Bradley said after his six-birdie day. “I’m just embracing it. Today felt good.”

Bradley will learn his fate on Tuesday, when Watson plans to announce the three players who will round out the 12-man unit set on avenging the devastating loss to Europe two years ago at Medinah. The winner of last week’s playoff match, Hunter Mahan, is one of Bradley’s chief rivals for a spot, with others including Webb Simpson, Ryan Moore, Brandt Snedeker, and Brendon Todd.

“I go out and shoot good scores, I think I am in good shape,” Bradley said. “But there are so many great players that aren’t on this team ... I don’t take anything for granted. I don’t think I am a lock, by any means.”

One favor Watson may ask of Bradley, who counts Michael Jordan as one of his friends and mentors, is to ask the six-time NBA champion to stay home -- or at least tone down his trash talk should he jump the pond for this year’s matches.

The Ryder Cup enthusiast, whose Jumpman golf shoes Bradley proudly sports, tried to spur on the Americans in 2012.

It would seem, however, that his finger-pointing, chest-poking, and verbal taunting instead motivated Ian Poulter to play out of his own shoes when he led the Euros to a brutal come-from-behind upset of the home team in 2012.

NBC’s Mark Rolfing will explore the Jordan-Poulter intrigue along with everything Ryder Cup in a three-part series that will premiere Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Bradley, by the way, heads into Saturday’s second round two shots back of 18-hole leader Ryan Palmer.