This week, Ryder Cup captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald convened in New York City to celebrate one year until the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. There they were quizzed on their plans for the upcoming showdown, answering tough questions about their teams, including whether Bradley plans to become the first player-captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963 and what roles, if any, living LIV legends like Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia will play.
But those weren’t the biggest stumpers of the night. That honour went to mentalist and magician Oz Pearlman, AKA Oz the Mentalist, who blew Bradley and Donald’s minds with an incredible illusion once the sun went down and the bright city lights came up. Prepare to have your minds scrambled like an egg.
No way 🤯@OzTheMentalist blows the minds of our Ryder Cup Captains. pic.twitter.com/vG9Gfdovkj
— Ryder Cup (@rydercup) October 9, 2024
The illusion begins as Pearlman tells the U.S. captain to cup his empty hands and imagine he’s holding a golf ball, vividly describing the weight and feel of said ball. He then turns to Bradley’s Euro counterpart and tells Donald to imagine playing a single golf course on earth. This is where the real “magic” begins. Turning his attention back to Bradley, Pearlman places his hands briefly over Bradley’s and then tells him to open them. Inside is a shiny new golf ball. Pearlman then turns back to Donald for the “is this your card?” reveal, showing him a ball now bearing the logo of the very course he was thinking of, Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Jaws dropped. Bradley turned beet red and Donald was left dumbfounded. “I don’t know what to say,” he said, shrugging in disbelief. One or two people looked genuinely spooked. Even if you deduce that Pearlman likely slipped the ball into Bradley’s hands in this moment …
… it’s much harder to reconcile how he stamped it with the Pebble Beach logo. Most likely he spoke with Donald or Donald’s wife earlier in the evening and asked what his favourite course in the world was, stamping or acquiring a ball in anticipation. It stands to reason that when asked to imagine a single golf course on earth, Donald would imagine his favourite. Or perhaps there was a plant who was in on the illusion with Pearlman, slipping him the right ball at the right time. Perhaps it was even Donald himself.
We may never know the answer—a magician never reveals their tricks, after all—but it’s safe to say both captains will be hoping to conjure some magic of their own at Bethpage Black next September.
