Rory McIlroy said Thursday he will pay to play in the Ryder Cup following a recent report that the PGA of America could compensate American players up to $400,000 to play in next year’s matches at Bethpage Black.
“Personally, I would pay for the privilege of playing in the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy told a handful of reporters after the opening round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. as shown here by Golf Digest. “I talked about it a lot. The two purest forms of competition in our game today are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics. Both are pure because no money is involved.
“I don’t want to say that getting paid would taint the game, but it would give it a different feel. What we’ve done a really good job of is being a really cohesive group over the last decade. We wouldn’t want anything to change that. »
The Telegraph reported this week that the PGA is ready – pending board approval – to reward the 12 American players for their participation after the simmering pay-to-play controversy last year in Rome. In recent editions, $200,000 per player has been donated to charity. For reference, the reported payment of $400,000 equates to a 13th-a spot in the PGA Tour Players Championship, which carries a $25 million purse.
But the growing commercial success of the Ryder Cup — and ticket prices for Bethpage that have soared as high as $750 — has intensified debate over whether participants should be compensated. McIlroy said members of the European team have already had discussions with captain Luke Donald about possible payment plans, and while he understands the ongoing debate, McIlroy believes the money is better used elsewhere on the European side.
“The Ryder Cup generates a lot of revenue; it’s probably one of the five biggest sporting events in the world,” McIlroy said, according to the report. “But the Ryder Cup is much more than that, especially for the Europeans and for our tour. We’ve all had a conversation with Luke over the past few weeks. The consensus is that $5 million or whatever amount paid to the team would be better spent elsewhere on the DP World Tour – even to support the Challenge Tour.
Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood all told Digest that they supported McIlroy’s comments and had no interest in following the Americans’ lead.
“Pay me nothing or pay me $10 million to play in the Ryder Cup, I’m still going to do it,” Fleetwood told Digest. “I really never thought about getting paid to play. I never really thought it was a thing. So I won’t worry about it now. It is likely that we will still have the same system that we have had until now. And we will always play for the same reasons we have always played.
