The small wood-paneled room honors Arnold Palmer, who served as the playing captain for the victorious U.S. Team in the 1963 Ryder Cup at East Lake. The room was redesigned in 2021 with the help of Palmer’s family, a shrine to his successful captaincy. Among the memorabilia in the room is his bag from that Ryder Cup.

This week, “The Captain’s Room” was where all 30 players registered for this week’s TOUR Championship. One player was especially interested in the room and its relics: Keegan Bradley.

Bradley knows his resume does not compare to that of one of the all-time greats, but in the past few months, they’ve become inextricably linked. Palmer was the last playing captain for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Now Bradley must decide if he wants to be the next one.

“I wish he was alive and I could call him,” Bradley said of Palmer. “If I had one thing I wish I could call Arnold and talk to him because I think he’d have some great advice for me.”

Bradley, 39, was still among the game’s top players when he was named captain last year. His play has remained at that level since his appointment, and now he is making the most of his last opportunity to impress himself, his assistants, his players and the watching world.

Bradley will enter the TOUR Championship in fourth place at 13-under 197 (70-64-63), three shots behind co-leaders Patrick Cantlay and Tommy Fleetwood. His time, and his mind, have been consumed with his Ryder Cup duties, but Bradley has found a way to contend in the season finale. Even before Saturday’s round, he said he was thinking about a message he wanted to deliver to his team during Ryder Cup week.

“I was so tired Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” Bradley said Saturday. “I was really just truthfully trying to get through this week. This is a bit surprising, but just I really played spectacularly today. I’m really proud of this round.”

He made a site visit to Bethpage Black on Monday, had a team dinner Tuesday and then a breakfast for this tournament Wednesday. Only two players shot higher scores than his first-round 70, but his Friday 64 was just two off the day’s low round. And no one bested Saturday’s 63.

He started the third round by striping a 3-iron to 8 feet. He missed the putt, but it set the tone for the day. He birdied the next two holes, then sank a 60-yard pitch to eagle the par-5 sixth. He closed the day with three consecutive birdies.

“This might be my best round of the year, which I’m really proud of,” he said. “I haven’t really particularly played this course great over the years, kind of middle of the road.

“When you hit the fairways out here, you can really get it, and I did that today.”

A win would give him the FedExCup title, but it may not be necessary to lock up his place on the team. Another high finish could be enough.

Bradley won a Signature Event earlier this year, the Travelers Championship, with a final-hole birdie that allowed him to sprint past Fleetwood. Among his five top-10s this season, three have come in Signature Events and one was at a major (T8, PGA Championship). He is 13th in the Official World Golf Ranking and entered this week at No. 16 in the FedExCup.

The decision is not an easy one, even as Bradley has become increasingly popular with his peers. He scored the clinching point at last year’s Presidents Cup and has spent the past year galvanizing a U.S. side that is reeling after the blowout in Rome.

Bradley even has sentimentality on his side, as his omission from the 2023 Ryder Cup was viewed by many as a brutal snub. The scene of him receiving the fateful call about not being picked was one of the most emotional moments in Full Swing’s history.

But being left off the team also allows him to sympathize with the cadre of deserving players for this year’s roster. He will decide his six captain’s picks next week, and he has called it the “hardest decision of my life.”

“He’s got a lot of tough decisions,” Harris English, one of the team’s six automatic qualifiers, said earlier this week. “I really don’t wish that upon anybody.”

Veterans like Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Sam Burns need a pick to play this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Then there’s the upstarts like Ben Griffin and Maverick McNealy who would be deserving rookies and sit inside the top 12 of the U.S. points standings. New York’s own Cameron Young has thrown his name into the mix with a late surge, winning the Wyndham Championship and finishing fifth and 11th in the previous two weeks. He will start Sunday in sixth place.

“It’s been a wild year,” Bradley said. “I’m just trying to tackle what’s in front of me.”

On Sunday, that will be an opportunity for the FedExCup.