Why money is already a tricky topic at this Ryder Cup

There are plenty of differences between the American and European teams at this Ryder Cup, but none quite as stark as their bank accounts.

In short, the Americans — as individuals — benefit financially from their involvement from the Cup. The European side does not. At least not directly. The context is, of course, much more nuanced.

For the last 12 Ryder Cups, dating back to 1999, American golfers and captains have received $200,000 donations to a charity of their choosing. It began in a slightly contentious way, with captain Ben Crenshaw “scolding” American players a month before the event at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah. But Crenshaw was up against a formidable opponent: top players Tiger Woods and David Duval weren’t keen about how corporate the Cup had become.

“It’s not greed,” Woods said back then. “It’s the fact we want to help out. We want to donate money to our charities in our local areas. There’s so much money being generated at the Ryder Cup, it’s become a corporate event.”

That year was the first year of $200,000 charitable payments, which have often ended up benefitting players’ foundations. That amount has never changed in the years since … until now.

This year’s American side will not only receive $300,000 donations to a charity of their choice, they will also receive a $200,000 stipend to do with whatever they please. Reports of this change broke in November and were finalized by the PGA in December.

“Well, the PGA of America came to me, they wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into the present day,” U.S. captain Keegan Bradley clarified Monday at Bethpage Black. “The charity dollars hadn’t changed since 1999 and they asked me to sort of shepherd their way into making it into 2025.”

In an age of player empowerment and immense TV rights valuations, this type of arrangement would not cause much of a concern, if it didn’t so drastically rival the situation of their opponents.

European players do not receive payment of any kind, and when asked by captain Luke Donald about a potential change to that tradition, the team apparently decided that any such revenues should continue to directly benefit the DP World Tour, which is where many of them played their first professional events.

“This came up and I wanted to get ahead of it,” European captain Luke Donald told Sky Sports Monday. “I talked to the 12 guys in Rome when it looked like the U.S. were going to do something different with payments and, you know, every one of them was just like, ‘We don’t want to — this isn’t a week to get paid.’”

This all follows a contentious 2023 Cup when compensation became a hot topic once again. Various reports during (and following) the week called Patrick Cantlay’s hat-less uniform a silent protest of sorts against the compensation arrangement. While Cantlay denied the idea, Xander Schauffele’s father, Stefan, did go on the record with reporters calling for greater transparency of how Ryder Cup profits are used. The event is a massive money maker for both sides of ownership — the PGA of America and the DPWT — particularly for the hosting side. Financial documents have shown how massively important a home Ryder Cup is to the sustainability of the DPWT, which is no doubt part of what makes the decision an obvious one for Team Europe.

But waging out in the court of public opinion last fall was the immediate response from European players like Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, who both said they’d gladly pay to play the Ryder Cup because of how much the event means to them. Keegan Bradley later pledged all $500,000 of what he receives will go to charity. Tiger Woods, speaking at his event in the Bahamas a few weeks later, took them as literally as possible.

“If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that’s their decision to do that, that’s their team,” Woods said. “I know when it’s on European soil that it subsidizes most of their Tour, so it is a big event for the European Tour and if they want to pay to play in it, so be it.”

While that result is very unlikely, it’s clear is this topic isn’t going away anytime soon, and might divide these teams forever.

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