The Ryder Cup, for all of its emotional glory, is really about two things: Winning and money.
In those ways, the Ryder Cup isn’t much different than other golf events or pretty much any other professional sporting event, merging competition with cash.
That’s why, if the report from British newspaper The Telegraph that players on the American Ryder Cup team next year at Bethpage Black will be paid up to $400,000 each is true, it isn’t surprising.
It’s just disappointing.
Professional golf finds itself in a crisis of sorts because of money – the abundance of it – and if the privilege of playing for one’s country now comes with a paycheck attached, it diminishes the notion that some things are about more than money.
That is apparently still the case on the European side, which reportedly will not pay its players in 2025.
“I love the tournament, and I just want to be involved. I don’t care whether I get paid or not,” Shane Lowry told the Irish Independent last week.
Maybe it’s being hopelessly romantic, holding on to one more piece of the past, but part of the Ryder Cup’s allure has been the players’ willingness to play for their countries without personal compensation, accepting instead $200,000 per man to go to charities of their choosing.
There is no argument there.
If the PGA of America endorses this change in the coming months – the organization has offered an official “no comment” on the matter, which is different from a denial – it will validate the growing sense of inevitability that change was coming and exacerbate the disconnect with many fans turned off by the seemingly constant chatter about money for an already privileged group.
Should the players get paid going forward, they would be wise to designate their Ryder Cup money to the charities and foundations that matter most to them and make a show of it. That would moderate some of the criticism sure to come when this happens.
This potential change comes in the wake of the PGA of America’s controversial ticket pricing for the 2025 event, with daily tickets having a face value of $750. Despite the social-media outrage over the prices, tickets for the event sold out in a matter of hours when they went on sale last week.
Pay for play in the Ryder Cup is an issue that has been bubbling just below the surface, at least from the American side, since Mark O’Meara and David Duval publicly broached the subject in 1999, leading to the creation of charitable contributions paid for by the PGA of America for each player.
The subject resurfaced at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome with reports several players wanted to be paid, leading to the firestorm of controversy surrounding American Patrick Cantlay’s decision not to wear a hat during the competition, perceived by many to be a silent protest, though Cantlay and others denied it.
Fairly or not, Cantlay will likely be painted as the instigator of this change should it come to pass.
This potential change comes in the wake of the PGA of America’s controversial ticket pricing for the 2025 event, with daily tickets having a face value of $750. Despite the social-media outrage over the prices, tickets for the event sold out in a matter of hours when they went on sale last week. The resell market is alive and well, if you’re interested.
Whether it’s the PGA of America or the DP World Tour, the Ryder Cup is vital to their financial success, underpinning much of their operations in the four years between hosting the event. They are right to capitalize on the Ryder Cup, which is the most magnetic event in golf.
Now, it seems, the players are going to get to share in the windfall.
A big part of what has made the Ryder Cup special is how players put aside playing for themselves to play for a team. How many times through the years have we heard golfers or other athletes say they would do what they get to do for free? Here’s a case where they could do it – they have done it – but they apparently won’t anymore, at least the Americans won’t.
It’s fair to assume this has been driven by the players, who see what’s happening and want their piece of it. If the reported $400,000 per player were as simple as the PGA of America doubling the charitable donations from the 12 players, it would look and feel very different than a straight payment.
No one needs television ratings to understand fans are increasingly turned off by what money has done to the professional game. LIV Golf divided the sport, and the PGA Tour was forced to respond by restructuring its model, asking more from sponsors so it can give more to its players.
It doesn’t make golf different from other sports, but it has always been more about the moments than the money. Now that there is so much money in the game – Scottie Scheffler earned $62 million on the tour this year, and Xander Schauffele pocketed more than $29 million – the sport feels different.
Since it was announced years ago, the idea of a Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in front of a largely New York crowd has been a fever dream of possibilities both good and bad.
Just imagine the sound and the fury if a richly compensated American team were to lose on Long Island next fall.