Keegan Bradley disputes U.S. Ryder Cup pay-for-play narrative

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — United States Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley pushed back against the notion that the competition means more to Europe now that the U.S. team is set to be compensated for the event by the PGA of America, while the Europeans will not receive a personal financial reward.

“I don’t really get that,” Bradley said during Monday’s news conference. “I think the goal here was that the charity dollars hadn’t been raised in 25, 26 years, and that’s what we started out doing.”

Bradley said the PGA of America approached him with the idea of compensating players and asked him to help come up with the best approach. Last November, the PGA of America voted to give the 12 players and Bradley $300,000 to donate to a charity of their choice and a $200,000 stipend.

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Bradley said he will donate all of his compensation to charity.

“[PGA of America] wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into the present day. The charity dollars hadn’t changed since 1999,” Bradley said. “And they asked me to sort of shepherd their way into making it into 2025.”

In December, U.S. team member Xander Schauffele told the Associated Press that, despite the new structure, the plan was for players not to get a single dime.

“I just see it as a whole lot of money going to charity and we’re going to take a lot of crap,” Schauffele told the AP.

When Bradley was asked Monday whether the rest of the team was also donating their entire payment to charity, he did not want to elaborate.

“I think, for everyone, it’s a personal decision,” Bradley said. “A lot of guys aren’t comfortable sharing what they’re going to do with their money, but we’re going to donate. I don’t donate to charities to publicize what we’re doing. These guys on our team are incredible people, and they do a lot of incredible things with charity dollars and with their foundations.”

Ahead of this week, Donald was asked by British media if the atmosphere at Bethpage could turn sour given the context of American players being paid.

“We all know how high the ticket prices are, and it’s going to be an expensive trip out for a family of four,” Donald said. “If the U.S. players are getting paid a stipend, or whatever it is, and they aren’t performing, the New Yorkers could make them know about it.”

Donald, who also captained the Europeans to their 2023 win in Rome, said that when he was informed about potential U.S. player compensation last year, he wanted to get ahead of it and reached out to European players to ask for their thoughts.

“Everyone was like, ‘We haven’t even considered playing for money for that event,'” Donald said. “We have a great purpose and that’s really enough for us. … A couple of hundred thousand dollars to these guys isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.

“Those weeks of the Ryder Cup, they are the best weeks. There’s so much more to them. We certainly don’t need any motivation or monetary rewards to get us up.”

When pressed on the matter and the different approaches between teams, Bradley reiterated Monday that he believes his players will “do the right thing.”

“I’m not concerned about what Europe does or what they think. I’m concerned about what my team is doing,” Bradley said. “We copied a lot of what the Presidents Cup does. We did the best we could. You can say [it means more to Europe], but I think that the players are really good people and are going to do a lot of good things.”

The event begins Friday. The Europeans are vying to be the first team to win the Ryder Cup on away soil since they did it in 2012 at Medinah Country Club.

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