DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | Team Europe seems to have gone 1-up already over the United States in the court of public opinion after several top stars said they do not want to get paid to play in the Ryder Cup.
This comes after Team USA reportedly worked out an agreement with the PGA of America under which each member will get paid $400,000 for the week of the Ryder Cup. That would make the 2025 edition at New York’s Bethpage Black the first instance in the tournament’s 98-year history that players will get paid.
At the DP World Tour Championship, the season-ending tournament on the DP World Tour which concluded at the Earth course of Jumeirah Golf Estates on Sunday, several European stars reacted to the development, and they rose as one in saying they did not expect to be compensated.
Over the years, European players have not received any monetary incentive for the Ryder Cup. The Americans, on the other hand, have been given $200,000, which must be donated to a charity of their choice.
Rory McIlroy, the highest-ranked European star in the world at No. 3, said the players were aware of the development and that they had told captain Luke Donald and the DP World Tour they’d show up at Bethpage Black to defend the Ryder Cup as their sole incentive.
“It was a discussion that was happening in Rome,” said McIlroy, who won four out of five points in Europe’s 16½-11½ victory at Marco Simone. “I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup does create a lot of revenue. It’s probably one of the top five biggest sporting events in the world. So, I get the argument that the talent should be or could be getting paid. But I just think that the Ryder Cup is so much more than that, especially to the Europeans and to this tour.
“I personally would pay for the privilege to play the Ryder Cup. I’ve come a long way in this, but the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics, and it’s partly because of the purity … of no money being involved.
“We have all had conversations with Luke about it over the past few weeks because we obviously heard. The common consensus amongst us is that whatever is paid to the team … that $5 million would be better off spent elsewhere on the DP World Tour to support other events or to support the Challenge Tour.
“I don’t want to say none of us want to taint it, but it would give it a different feel, and I think we’ve done a really good job of being this really cohesive group over the past decade, and we wouldn’t want anything to change that.”
“Whatever they are doing is their prerogative. I have no particular feelings towards it, except that I love playing the Ryder Cup. It’s not something I would worry about. Pay me nothing or pay me 10 million to play the Ryder Cup, I’m still going to play it.”
Tommy Fleetwood
McIlroy was also quick to do the math, saying that with the amount of money top players are making these days through golf, they should not even be bothering for the $400,000 paycheck for one week out of 104.
It’s abundantly clear that while the entire European team still looks at playing in the Ryder Cup as a privilege, at least an influential part of the American think tank has other priorities in mind.
“They are obviously a completely different entity to us,” said Tommy Fleetwood, a mainstay of Team Europe. “Whatever they are doing is their prerogative. I have no particular feelings towards it, except that I love playing the Ryder Cup. It’s not something I would worry about. Pay me nothing or pay me 10 million to play the Ryder Cup, I’m still going to play it. I’d probably pay to play. I’ve genuinely never thought of getting paid to play the Ryder Cup. I’ve never really thought it was a thing.”
An interesting part of the different dynamics in play for the two teams is the fact that the Ryder Cup is owned by the DP World Tour, which is a player-run organization, and the PGA of America, where the PGA Tour players do not have a say. It ensures that the Europeans have a greater visibility of, as well as some say on, how the generated revenue is being spent by the DP World Tour. The PGA of America does a lot for the development of junior golf and on teaching professionals, but Team USA players have no say or control on the spending.
And, as is the case in any discussion involving Europe and the Ryder Cup, the name of the late Seve Ballesteros always pops up.
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who played his first Ryder Cup in Italy last year, said: “For me, it’s never been about the money. When we played in Rome, we had a special thing behind our badge, which was Seve, and he didn’t get paid. There’s more to it than money.”
The Ryder Cup ticket prices have been hiked nearly 200 percent, to $750 for match days for 2025 (compared to $277 in Rome), but it’s already sold out.
A player’s manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the PGA of America’s discussion with players about their pay would certainly have played a role in the price increase.
“It’s almost as absurd as someone like [Jamaican sprinter] Usain Bolt saying, ‘I would represent my country in the Olympics only if I get paid because the International Olympic Committee is making so much money.’ We all know that if he wins the gold, he’d make 100 times more than whatever he would be paid,” said the manager.
“We heard about this possibility in Rome last year, and I think one of the reasons the PGA of America hiked the ticket prices was to factor this new payout. It doesn’t feel right that fans should be paying so much more than what they used to.
“Even though things will change during the tournament week, and the fans will still cheer for their American stars, the optics do not look good for the team right now. I think they all will appreciate that Team Europe is playing for passion and not being greedy.”
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Top: Rory McIlroy shows his Ryder Cup passion during Europe's 2023 victory.
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