Ryder Cup pay-for-play on tap?
Report says American players won't have to pass (or doff) hats to get rewarded at Bethpage
Caddie Joe LaCava tips is hat to Patrick Cantlay, igniting a kerfuffle (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
So are we to believe that Patrick Cantlay’s “alleged” protest at last year’s Ryder Cup, where he did not wear a USA hat, has helped lead to the possibility that players will now get paid?
Nothing has been announced and the PGA of America declined to comment, but The Telegraph’s Jamie Corrigan reported that there is a proposal that would see U.S. players get paid $400,000 each for participating in the biennial competition next year at Bethpage Black in New York.
The payment would need the approval of the PGA of America board of directors, which is in the process of hiring a new chief executive officer to replace Seth Waugh, who left the organization in July.
For approximately, 25 years, U.S. players have been able to earmark funds to a charity of their choice. Last year that amount was $200,000 per player. In theory, that practice would end in place of the $400,000 fee, for which the players would be free to choose how it is used.
That would mean an extra outlay of approximately $2.4 million for the 12 players. The captain and assistants would also likely be compensated, so let’s call it $4 million more than what will be doled out.
A drop in the proverbial bucket — equivalent to the total purse for a PGA Tour opposite event.
The PGA of America rakes in reams of cash for the Ryder Cup. It is in the midst of a 15-year, $440 million rights fee deal with NBC through 2030 and former PGA of America president Ted Bishop said the organization netted more than $25 million a year from the Ryder Cup — outside of TV revenue — a decade ago.
That is surely higher now and made more evident by the controversial 2025 ticket prices that are still causing a public relations nightmare. A one-day ticket for the competition matches in New York is $750. And that doesn’t include the corporate hospitality, parking, etc.
Fans in Rome derisively waved caps at the hatless Cantlay in Rome (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Cantlay found himself embroiled in controversy in Rome last year when he went hatless, a development that many believed was a protest over a lack of compensation or transparency. Cantlay denied reports that this was the case, but Stefan Schauffele — the father of Cantlay’s good friend and usual team partner, Xander Schauffele — did numerous interviews during the week in which he questioned the system.
During the Saturday round, Cantlay was taunted repeatedly throughout the afternoon match as word had been reported that the hat gesture was, indeed, due to the pay-for-play issue. The tension boiled over on the final green when Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, got into a dispute with Rory McIlroy, which spilled into the parking lot at the team hotel later.
The European team won the 2023 Ryder Cup easily and will be looking to win in America for the first time since 2012. The U.S. has now gone more than 30 years without winning in Europe, its last victory on foreign soil coming in 1993.
The Telegraph story said European players would not be paid for participating. Revenue that the DP World Tour derives from the Ryder Cup is a critical part of the operation of the European tour from year to year.