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PGA decision to pay US Ryder Cup players a fatal blow for the competition’s old ethos

Golf has given up something up that is valuable, the notion of volunteerism, offering personal time for a higher ideal

Patrick Cantlay, obscured, salutes his US team-mates after a fourball victory at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy. He reputedly refused to wear a hat as a protest against not being paid for his presence at the tournament. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/PGA of America via Getty Images
Patrick Cantlay, obscured, salutes his US team-mates after a fourball victory at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy. He reputedly refused to wear a hat as a protest against not being paid for his presence at the tournament. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/PGA of America via Getty Images
Johnny Watterson's picture
Johnny Watterson
Fri Dec 20 2024 - 06:00

Hang your heads in shame, PGA of America. Repent for knocking down one of the oldest shibboleths of the Ryder Cup – millionaire golfers playing for nothing at all.

The competition was once a gleaming, modern edifice with an old amateur ethos coursing through it and now this, golf being what golf is, and the last vestige of old decency ripped away with a single electronic transfer.

For those whose heads are not stuck in a bunker, the PGA of America announced for the first time that for pride and country, next year each of the 12 players on Keegan Bradley’s USA side will be paid $500,000 (€477,000), with $300,000 (€286,000) donated to a nominated charity or charities.

The remaining $200,000 dollars (€191,000,) goes to the players, and has been termed a “stipend”. Cambridge Dictionary: ‘Stipend, an amount of money that is paid regularly to someone, especially for work or training that is usually unpaid’.

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But should we be surprised? Professional golfers taking money for a job? (Mind you, the European team aren’t being paid.)?

The spirt of the sport, since they ripped off the amateur plaster over 100 years ago, has been to make as much money as it can. The players give many reasons why that must be the culture and cashing up now is simply them reinforcing that imperative.

Why? Because the swing may fail tomorrow. The back may creak. The putter may take on a mind of its own and the pension plan cannot grow on leading the rankings on missed greens and fairways.

Prize funds are the drivers of the sport, and golf has a storied history of playing for money going back to 1916, when the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) was formed. By then several prestigious tournaments offering cash to the champion had been established including the national championship, the US Open.

Appearance money is now baked into the professional cake.

In that context, the outbreak of pearl clutching at the announcement, endearing as it is, does seem mildly hysterical.

A few headlines: UK Mirror – “. . . fans hit out at shameful decision.” Golfshake.com – “Paying Ryder Cup Golfers Appearance Money is a Disgrace.” Dame Laura Davies on Sky: “It’s a DISGRACE that USA Ryder Cup players will be paid”. Paul McGinley on Sky: “US Ryder Cup players getting paid is wrong . . . on a lot of levels.”

Golf grades players on the amount they earn on tour with the PGA Tour money list telling us everything. Scottie Scheffler is at number one with $29,228,357 from 21 events with an average score of 67.1 and eight wins. Performing then for the Ryder Cup stipend would be a significant step down. Of course, it’s the principle.

Back in 1999, Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara brought up the issue of players taking a cut of the tens of millions in profit the Ryder Cup makes. Charitable donations of $200,000 began being made that same year, but it has taken the PGA of America a quarter of a century to add the stipend.It is likely these are just the baby steps though, stipend beginnings.

The seal is broken and it feels more like an inevitable conclusion than a surprise. But golf has given up something up that is valuable, the notion of volunteerism, offering personal time for the benefit and enjoyment of others.

Team Europe Captain Luke Donald lifts the trophy with his team after the 2023 Ryder Cup victory at Marco Simone GC in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Team Europe Captain Luke Donald lifts the trophy with his team after the 2023 Ryder Cup victory at Marco Simone GC in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Naomi Baker/Getty Images

That is, or was, a core ethos of the Ryder Cup, that players competed for each other, for the crest on their shirts, for those left behind in the locker room who were not selected. It was sold by the teams as a competition in which the self was suppressed and, until now, the professional need to make money was suspended for one week every two years.

Behind the competition people were asked to believe in bigger themes and the idea of pro bono professional golf was at its heart.

It was an abstract idea around the notion of celebrity sportsmen stepping out of their busy, strained and competitive lives for a changed sense of purpose. People saw that as fundamentally ennobling.

It is a fair question to ask if those abstractions belong in professional sport any more, if the simple motivations of passion and common cause alone still cut any ice.

But then, everyone gets paid these days. In Ireland that means ‘amateur’ athletes across different platforms. Their federations, the State and sponsors exchange money for medals.

Seb Coe surprised the sporting world this year, when he announced that gold medallists in each of the 48 athletics events at the Paris Olympics would for the first time receive money, $50,000. He said he will examine ways to introduce prize money across all sports at the Olympic Games if he is elected the next president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

So, next year at the Ryder Cup, US players will be paid for the first time in 98 years. At Wimbledon line judges will be removed after 147 years and at LA 2028 athletes in all Olympic sports could receive prize money for the first time ever.

There are not many sacred cows left to slay.

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