In a year where golf seems to revolve around money, the Ryder Cup is not immune.
The PGA Tour has held 11 tournaments with at least $20 million in prize money – excluding majors – to try to stave off the threat from Saudi-funded LIV Golf. And then he made a deal with the Saudi National Wealth Fund to become a business partner.
Professional golf will only get richer, but the Saudi deal will be a done deal, if it goes through.
“I’m tired of him. The whole world is,” Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America, said in a pre-Ryder Cup interview with Marco Simone. “We play for love and they play for love. money. It’s the only time of year they should play for love, and we always talk about money. I understand.”
Waugh said he has not had any conversations with players about it this year, although he has done so before on the topic of getting a bigger share of the revenue.
“Nothing unpleasant or horrible,” Waugh said. “That makes sense.”
In recent years, several players have questioned what percentage of revenue goes to players in the form of prize money at the four major tournaments, which are not managed by the PGA Tour.
The idea that players should be paid to play in the Ryder Cup is almost as old as the 30 years of consecutive defeat of the Americans on European soil.
But it resurfaced on Saturday with an unsubstantiated report from Sky Sports – the broadcast partner of Marco Simone’s European tour – which pointed the finger at Patrick Cantlay as causing a divide among Americans because he believes they should be paid.
The PGA of America declined to immediately comment, except to say that some allegations in the report — such as Cantlay and Xander Schauffele being in a separate area of the locker room — were not true.
The report also claimed that Cantlay did not wear a hat in protest. Cantlay also did not wear a cap during the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Rory McIlroy rarely wears a hat at the Ryder Cup, but he did this week, mainly because of the hot sun.
The PGA of America hosts the Ryder Cup every four years. The European Tour has a majority stake in the Ryder Cup when it is held in Europe.
The difference is that the PGA Tour is not involved in the Ryder Cup, except that American players are members of the PGA Tour (along with 10 Europeans on this year’s team, who are also members of the European Tour).
Waugh said that in order to secure players’ release, the PGA of America is giving the PGA Tour 20 percent of its Ryder Cup television contract.
“We don’t pay them,” Waugh said, “but we pay for their association.”
This became a topic of public discussion before the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, when David Duval brought up an estimated $63 million gross revenue for the PGA of America and questioned where it was going.
Duval hinted at the possibility of a boycott one day and suggested taking “some of this big Ryder Cup pot, cutting it up and giving it to charity,” similar to the Presidents Cup. This was resolved when the PGA of America agreed that each player will get $200,000 to distribute to the charity of their choice, half of which will go to a college golf program.
The PGA of America made a slight change for this Ryder Cup, with all of the $200,000 going to the players’ chosen charity or foundation. At the last Ryder Cup, $100,000 of the contribution went to the Boys & Girls Club of America; the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship; and the Junior PGA League.
The Presidents Cup also brought a change and it is possible to demonstrate that the players are paid.
Previously, each player, captain and assistant captain received $150,000 for charitable purposes, which raised more than $54 million from 460 charities in 18 countries from 1994 to 2019.
For 2022 games at Quail Hollow, players and captains received $250,000 without specifying where it goes. The PGA Tour said the Presidents Cup alone brought in an additional $2 million, with the majority going to nonprofit organizations in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the topic of money – what else? – was part of the conversation as Europe took a commanding lead in its bid to retain the Ryder Cup. This is the biggest prize of the week.
