The U.S. Ryder Cup Team Will Be Paid In 2025 And You’re Supposed To Believe Players Didn’t Ask For This

For the first time in the Ryder Cup’s 97-year history, players on the U.S. team will be paid for their efforts beginning in 2025 when the biennial event makes its way to Bethpage Black in New York. 

The announcement comes after the conversation about whether competitors should be compensated reached a tipping point during the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, yet event organizers have made it a point to try and convince the golf world that American players had nothing to do with forcing this change.

The PGA of America, the governing body of the Ryder Cup on the U.S. side, announced on Monday that the long-established $200,000 allocation given to players to donate to a charity of their choice will increase to $500,000 in 2025. Players will now be required to give $300,000 to a charity, while the remaining $200,000 will be viewed as a “stipend” which a player can do with it however they see fit.

While most players will likely donate the full $500,000 to charity, the fact that the American players are given the option to hold onto the money themselves is a major development in the Ryder Cup.

The 2025 Ryder Cup will be held at Bethpage Black, and U.S. team members will be paid for their efforts. (Photo by Gary Kellner/PGA of America via Getty Images)

It Was When, Not If, Ryder Cup Players Would Be Paid

This was going to become a reality sooner rather than later given the landscape of American sports in today’s day and age. Change happens in sports, including golf, and change almost always revolves around money; the split in the professional game with LIV and the PGA Tour is an easy yet perfect example. Therefore, the news of players being paid should come as no surprise at all, and from a broad perspective is barely worth mentioning.

What is worthy of a mention is the PGA of America making it a point to include the note that “no players asked to be compensated” and that the board of directors simply “voted to increase the allocation.”

READ: Tiger Woods Makes Questionable Claim About Why American Ryder Cup Players Should Be Paid Millions

Let’s play along and believe that it is true that not one single player requested the U.S. team to be paid, including those statements still do more harm than good. They open up future American Ryder Cup teams for even more scrutiny while also painting a picture that the PGA of America believes golf fans aren’t just gullible, but not even paying attention.

PGA of America Adds Fuel To The Ryder Cup Money Drama

The players not being paid conversation dominated headlines during the 2023 Ryder Cup after rumors claimed that American Patrick Cantlay not wearing a Team USA hat during the competition was him protesting players not being paid. 

Then, after the Americans were embarrassed by the Europeans, Stefan Schauffele, the father of Xander Schauffele, Cantlay’s playing partner and close friend, was quoted urging the PGA of America to “have the players share in that profit instead of being so damned in-transparent about it.”

Rumors about American players wanting to be paid at the Ryder Cup dominated the 2023 event in Italy. (Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

Various players and staff members shut down the rumors involving the idea that U.S. players wanted to be paid, yet after three straight days of those rumors dominating the event, the damage had been done and many subscribed to the idea that when there is smoke there must be fire.

This is why the PGA of America directly stating that players have not asked to be paid makes matters far worse for the Americans than better. Presenting the statement as fact will make most believe it is fiction.

People – especially sports fans – will believe what they want to believe. The drama and never-ending rumor mill are key pieces to what makes sports so beloved around the world, but for the ones in charge of the sport to add their very own fuel to an already very large fire is questionable, at best.

Perhaps the PGA of America made it a point to include the note about American players not requesting to be paid because it saw it as a sign of support – which the organization is certainly obligated to do – but it’s too little, far too late, given the drama that unraveled in Italy.