Report: U.S. players to get paid to compete at Ryder Cup
Along with national pride, it appears members of the United States' 2025 Ryder Cup team will have another incentive when teeing off against their European counterparts at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Lots of zeros.
According to a report in The Telegraph of London on Wednesday, U.S. players competing at the event will get roughly $400,000 apiece. The pay structure, according to The Telegraph, would be similar to that of the Presidents Cup in September - a stipend as opposed to a contribution made to the charity of each golfer's choice.
However, there are two primary differences between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, according to The Telegraph.
First, the amount. The Presidents Cup stipend was $250,000.
Second, who is getting paid. While players and captains for both teams were paid at the Presidents Cup in Montreal, the European Ryder Cup golfers will not get paid - instead opting to play for what European captain Luke Donald called "passion" for golf and country.
"It's one week where you play for more than yourself," Donald told The Telegraph. "It's ... not about money or points, it's about coming together as a team and the fans feed off that - it's all passion. I don't think we should ever get paid."
Talks of Americans getting paid for the Ryder Cup have been brewing for decades. In 1999 at Brookline, Mass. (one of the most famous Ryder Cup weekends in the event's history), golfers including Tiger Woods voiced their opinions on players not being paid despite the event raking in several million dollars.
"I would like to see us receive whatever the amount is, whether it's $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 and I think we should be able to keep the money and do whatever we see fit," Woods told The Washington Post in 1999. "I personally would donate all of it to charity. With all the money that's being made, we should have a say in where it goes."
The charitable donations began being made that same year.
Pay-for-play at the Ryder Cup became a hot-button topic during last year's competition near Rome after American Patrick Cantlay did not wear a hat during Saturday's play. Multiple reports stated he did not wear the hat as a protest for players not being paid. Cantlay denied that being the reason, instead saying the hat just did not fit.
Said one anonymous European player to The Telegraph: "(The Americans) can do whatever they want. But we don't want payments in our bank accounts, as it'll be the thin end of the wedge and is not what the Ryder Cup is about.
"Let's face it, a lot of the American players have been angling towards this for years, if not decades.
"If it does go ahead, then it will be interesting to see how the fans react at Bethpage, although they'll probably announce it as just an extension of what already happens."
The 2025 Ryder Cup is scheduled to take place Sept. 23-28.
The Americans hold a 27-14 advantage all time in the event, though the Europeans have won five of the last seven contests, including a 16 1/2-11 1/2 win at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy in 2023.
