:U.S. Ryder Cup players will be paid to play in the biennial match play competition for the first time starting with next year’s edition at Bethpage Black in New York.
The PGA of America said in a statement on Monday that U.S. team members will each get $500,000, with $300,000 of that going to charity and the remaining $200,000 serving as a stipend.
The pay is an increase from the $200,000 that was designated only for charity and had been in place since 1999.
The PGA of America said no golfers asked to be compensated, and credited past and present players and captains for making the Ryder Cup one of the top sporting events in the world.
Players on the European Ryder Cup Team do not get paid for participating in the event.
The topic of whether competitors should be paid to play in the Ryder Cup became a hot topic at the 2023 edition in Rome when reports suggested American Patrick Cantlay declined to wear a Team USA hat as a sign of protest.
Cantlay denied that was the reason and instead said the team-issued hat simply did not fit.
CHARITY
Tiger Woods, a 15-times major champion who has been on eight U.S. Ryder Cup teams, said two weeks ago that he was in favour of players getting paid to play in the biennial event if it was put entirely towards charity.
“I hope they would get $5 million each and donate it all to charity, different charities. I think it’s great. What’s wrong with that?” Woods said at the Hero World Challenge event he hosts in the Bahamas.
Woods was among the top players who once questioned where Ryder Cup proceeds ultimately ended up, which led to the PGA of America to give money to U.S. players starting in 1999 that they had to allocate to charities.
World number one Scottie Scheffler weighed in on the matter at the Hero World Challenge and said paying Ryder Cup players would not take anything away from the competition.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think all of us on the American side are more than willing to play in the Ryder Cup for free,” said Scheffler.
“We’ve been playing in the Ryder Cup for free for a long time. And if they want to pay us to play in the tournament, that’s great.”
Scheffler’s comments echoed those of Rory McIlroy, a stalwart of the European Ryder Cup team, who was asked about the issue when reports surfaced in November that the PGA of America was contemplating compensation for U.S. players.
“I personally would pay for the privilege to play on the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy told the BBC.
“The two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics, and it’s partly because of that – the purity of no money being involved.”
The Ryder Cup is scheduled for Sept. 26-28 when the Americans will try to reclaim the trophy from Europe.
