Rugby
Cricket
League
Football
Racing
Combat Sports
Basketball
Golf
Motorsport
Other Sports
US players will be paid for competing at 2025 Ryder Cup
AP • December 17th, 2024 9:23 am
Photo: AP
Fifteen years after American players first asked the question they will be paid for playing at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage next year.
However, their European opponents at the biennial trans-Atlantic event will continue to compete for just the pride and glory. Europe are the defending champions and have won ten of the last 14 events.
The PGA of America announced each of the 12 players on Keegan Bradley's side will receive US$500,000 ($A790,000), with US$300,000 dollars ($A470,000) donated to a charity or charities chosen by each player.
The remaining US$200,000 has been termed a "stipend". The players also receive expenses and gifts.
The PGA of America approved the package despite saying "no players asked to be compensated".
"The players and captains, past and present, are responsible for the Ryder Cup becoming the most special competition in golf and one of the most in-demand events on the international sports scene," the organisation said in a statement.
Since 1999, when the subject was raised at Brookline, players have been able to donate US$200,000 to charity but not been paid.
US captain Keegan Bradley said in a text he would be giving his entire allocation to charity.
Photo: AP
When reports of the new compensation package first emerged last month, Rory McIlroy was one of several European players who said they did not need a financial incentive to play in the Ryder Cup.
"I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup," McIlroy told reporters.
"I have come a long way in this, especially with the Olympics, but the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and Olympics, partly because of the purity of no money being involved."
An unsubstantiated report at the last Ryder Cup suggested Patrick Cantlay refused to wear a hat out of protest he wasn't getting paid, which led to some 40,000 fans waving their hats at him right up until he made a 45-foot putt on the last hole to win a fourballs match.
"Not a shred of truth in the article that just one journalist wrote," Cantlay said at the Ryder Cup.
There are differences in Ryder Cup finances depending on where it is held. The European tour has a share in Ryder Cup Europe, and the tour would struggle to survive without profits from the matches when they are played in Europe.
The PGA of America operates the event in America. It pays 20 per cent of the broadcast revenue to the PGA Tour — effectively serving as a release fee for using tour players — and that money goes into the tour's general operating budget.
