The PGA of America will pay players from the United States Ryder Cup team for the first time in competition history this year. Each player will receive $300,000 to donate to charity along with a $200,000 personal stipend, but a number of players (and captain Keegan Bradley) said this week their plan is to donate the full $500,000.
Bradley noted that each player’s decision is personal and there would not be a team-wide mandate, but a number of players confirmed their plans to donate their stipend and try to do some additional good. For Bradley, the donation and stipend were created to help push forward the charitable contributions of the Ryder Cup.
“[PGA of America] wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into the present day. The charity dollars hadn’t changed since 1999,” Bradley said. “And they asked me to sort of shepherd their way into making it into 2025.”
Previously, a $200,000 donation was made in each player’s name by the PGA of America, but that number hadn’t changed since it began in 1999, even as more money came into the event. Scottie Scheffler echoed that sentiment and focused on the positives of what the increase allowed players to do and the impact it could have.
“I’ve never been one to announce what we do. I don’t like to give charitable dollars for some kind of recognition,” Scheffler said. “We have something planned for the money that we’ll be receiving. I think it’s a really cool thing that the PGA of America has empowered us to do.”
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The issue of paying players came up in 2023 in Rome, when reports surfaced that Patrick Cantlay was not wearing a USA hat in protest of not getting paid — which led to jeering from the European crowd and a parking lot incident with Rory McIlroy and Cantlay’s caddie Joe LaCava.
Cantlay has denied his hat choice had anything to do with a protest, insisting the hats in 2023 didn’t fit correctly. Both he and his longtime Ryder Cup partner Xander Schauffele brushed aside the idea the new payments are a negative, while confirming their plans to donate the full amounts to charity.
“You guys keep talking about it and trying to make it this negative thing. It’s whatever everyone views it as,” Schauffele said. “There’s a lot of pride that comes into playing in one of these, and yes, we’re happy to get paid for this, and yes, I plan on donating it. It’s something that selfishly will make me feel good about what I do.”
“I think one of the great things about these team events for me is there’s always such a big charitable component to it, and so I’m going to donate the money to my charity,” Cantlay said. “We work with a number of foundations. We work with First Responders Children’s Foundation and we work with the SCPGA Junior Tour and we’ve work with St. Jude and Folds of Honor, and so I’m excited about our continued partnership with those organizations.”
On the other side, the Europeans have turned the payment situation into a rallying cry for their cause and the belief that they care more about the event than their American counterparts. Captain Luke Donald was asked by the British press about the payment situation on the U.S. side, and noted his guys shot down the idea of doing the same.
“I wanted to get ahead of this when I first heard about it last year and looked like it was likely going to happen,” Donald said. “I reached out to all the 12 guys from Rome to see how they felt. Their voices are important. Everyone was like: ‘We haven’t even considered playing for money for that event.’ We just don’t see that. We understand what it represents. We have a great purpose and that’s really enough for us.”