Associated Press
Bringing the Ryder Cup to the notorious Bethpage Black has already raised concerns. Imagine golf's most passionate, patriotic event being played in front of a flag-waving crowd that once harassed Sergio Garcia so badly that he pointed the wrong finger at them.
It might have made the 1999 game outside Boston look like a real tea party.
Now, add money to the mix, and Team USA will be under more pressure than ever to deliver the 17-inch gold trophy that home crowds expect to win in September.
The PGA of America has taken a step toward quelling the debate over whether players should be paid. It decided on a new salary package that prioritized charity ($300,000) and offered players and captains $200,000 to decide whether they should keep the money in their own wallets or use it for charity cause.
Showing leadership worth far more than a uniform, Team USA captain Keegan Bradley announced that all of his $500,000 will be donated to charity.
Does money do anything? Not really.
The total compensation in charity and stipends is roughly equivalent to what a 10th-place finish at this year's PGA Championship paid. Does anyone really believe that motivation levels on the biggest stages are determined by wallets?
Tiger Woods is the richest man in golf, and he always plays like he doesn't have two nickels to rub together. Woods loves his money, but it's not what drives him. Anyone good enough to make Team USA likely has a lot in common with him.
Start at the top.
“I've been golfing for free my whole life and this money is just an added bonus,” Scotty Scheffler said two weeks ago in the Bahamas. “I want to win for zero dollars just like I won for millions of dollars.”
For those keeping track, that would be $62,228,357. The player currently ranked No. 1 in the world will receive an additional $200,000. That may not motivate Scheffler any more than the 9-7 loss he and Brooks Koepka faced last time at Marco Simeone Arena.
For a decade, players — and not just Americans — have questioned the dramatic growth in major championship revenues and ever-increasing prize money. But on a 6-foot putt at the Ryder Cup, money is the least of their concerns.
It's always about economics.
It debuted in 1999 at a country club tournament. By then the Ryder Cup had become a big business. The PGA of America made millions of dollars (net profit for the year was estimated at $23 million), while the players (show ponies) received a $5,000 stipend.
“When you can't go out there and play for your country, if playing for your country isn't enough, my heart bleeds for the game of golf,” U.S. team captain Ben Crenshaw said. It happened after he bought a new golf ball. Endorsements and apparel deals as a Ryder Cup captain are big business.
Players wanted more say in how some of the proceeds are spent, and the PGA of America responded by allocating $200,000 to their college golf programs and designated charities.
Why is this a problem in the United States? This is a financial difference. The PGA of America exploits PGA Tour players to make tons of money (and pay for the association's many lofty projects). Revenue from the European Ryder Cup supports the players' tours.
Regardless, money has always been at the heart of the Ryder Cup. But now that it's official, it doesn't look good for Americans.
For the first time in this century-old competition, they received a check for service. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer never got paid. Neither did Ben Hogan or Byron Nelson.
But that’s where golf is right now. Everyone is tired of talking about money, but most questions directed at players are about money. Even at the Ryder Cup, it's inevitable.
“I'm tired of it. The whole world is,” former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said while watching the 2023 Marco Simone tournament. “We're fighting for love, they're fighting for money. For the one time of the year they're supposed to be fighting for love, we're still talking about money.”
They'll be talking about it in Bethpage.
European teams have won eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups and it's not enough to be better at the competition. They are still looking for an edge.
One year, at the height of their dominance, they rallied around the PGA Tour and asked its players to promote the Nationwide Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour) as the second-best tour in golf. “Hopefully we won't be asked again if the Nationwide Tour is the second-best tour in the world,” Garcia said after Team Europe's comfortable win in Ireland.
“Behind Europe,” adds Luke Donald on ultimate Ryder Cup rim shot.
Now Team USA is giving the Europeans a rallying cry they don't really need. They will proudly say that they play for passion and for the flag (and Seve Ballesteros, of course) and they happily pay for the right to play in the Ryder Cup.
The European spirit is opposed to American greed. Yes, the Bethpage audience will be watching.
The only way for Americans to get out of this bad situation is to win. This is what happened when this chaos first happened. Consider what Davis Love III said when he entered Brooklyn in 1999.
“If we lose this year after the Presidents Cup (losing in Australia) and lose the last two Ryder Cups – and after all the money controversy – then it's going to be bad,” he said. “So, we can't lose. We just can't lose.”
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