The Ryder Cup is upon us at Bethpage Black – but one issue has dominated the build-up to the event in New York.
Luke Donald’s side won the tournament last time out in Rome in 2023 and are now looking to become only the fifth European team to win a Ryder Cup on away soil.
But they face a stiff challenge up against Team USA, who are blessed with World No1 Scottie Scheffler, as well as the big-hitting LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau.
The build-up to Friday’s first tee shot can prove to be a protracted affair, and this has especially been the case for the hosts, who spent the early part of the week fielding hordes of questions over their decision to pay their athletes for the first time in the tournament’s history.
European captain Donald cranked the intensity up a notch further on Wednesday, using his opening ceremony speech to aim a dig at the Americans for their decision to end the tournament’s 98-year tradition.
So what is the deal with Ryder Cup pay, and should the golfers get paid for taking part? Let’s take a look.
Are Team USA getting paid at the Ryder Cup?
Yes, for the first time in the tournament’s history, American golfers – and captain Keegan Bradley – will receive a $200,000 stipend for competing in the event.
Since 1999, the PGA of America, which runs the event on the US side, has given its players a cash sum. That figure now stands at $300,000, but all of it goes straight to a charity of the player’s choosing.
This additional $200k does not have to go to charity, although many players in the build-up to the event have said they will give the full $500,000 away.
Explaining the decision in the week, Bradley said: ‘I was tasked with a job the PGA of America asked me to do, and this was what we decided. We wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into today’s age, and we felt like this was the best way to do it.
‘We did the best we could, and I think a lot of good is going to come from this money and I think it’s great.’
And what about Team Europe?
Perhaps unsurprisingly given Donald’s comments, Europe’s players and captain have continued to seek no payment for competing in the Ryder Cup.
‘[The Ryder Cup] is not about prize money or ranking points,’ he said on Wednesday. ‘It’s about pride, it’s about representing your flag, your shirt and the legacy you leave behind.
‘We are fuelled by something money can’t buy – purpose, brotherhood and a responsibility to honour those who came before us, while inspiring those whose time is yet to come.’
The DP World Tour, which runs the European side of the event, instead takes all the money. This is then mainly used to help fund the tour, which is far less affluent and star-studded than the PGA Tour, where all of the world’s best players ply their trade.
Should player pay be a big issue?
Given the size and exponential growth of the event in recent decades, many, including Tiger Woods as far back as 1999, have argued that players should be compensated for their starring role.
This week of golfing action is reportedly set to be worth around $200 million to the state of New York alone – so why shouldn’t the actual golfers get to share in that success?
‘I think the PGA of America is making a lot of money from the Ryder Cup and on that end, it’s just to give us an opportunity to either pay our respective teams, because the teams behind us don’t get the recognition that we do but they deserve a lot of it that we get,’ American player Collin Morikawa noted earlier in the week.
But others have railed against the proposal. $200,000, after all, is chump change to players like Scheffler, who has already made over $26m this year in PGA Tour prize money alone.
There has clearly been an air of unease from the American players who have had to deal with questions over the issue in their press conferences.
And with virtually all of them suggesting they will give the stipend to charity, it begs the question why they went through all the hassle to introduce it. Could the PGA of America not just have donated $500,000 straight to charity rather than giving some to the player?
What is clear is that Europe don’t appear keen to follow suit anytime soon, with Donald telling Sky Sports: ‘This [payment] came up and I wanted to get ahead of it and talk to the 12 guys in Rome when it looked like the US were going to do something different with payments.
‘Every one of them was just like ‘we don’t want to get paid – this isn’t a week to get paid’. We have such a strong purpose in this team and what we play for.’
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