MEDINAH, Ill. — Presidents Cup stipends paid to players and captains are set to cross the $25 million mark this week.
The Presidents Cup, which begins Thursday at Medinah Country Club just outside Chicago, is a biennial team golf event pitting U.S. players against those from international countries outside of Europe.
This week’s competition is the third Presidents Cup that the PGA Tour, which operates the event, is paying participating players, captains, and assistant captains $250,000 each. There was no change to this year’s payments from the previous two editions, a PGA Tour spokesperson confirmed to Front Office Sports.
Those payouts come out to $4.25 million total per team across the 12 players, captain, and four assistant captains on both the U.S. and International squads. The annual $8.5 million combined sum for both teams per Presidents Cup now adds up to $25.5 million paid out in stipends for the three events since the current format began in 2022.
Pay for Play
Stipends at national team golf events became a hot topic last year when the U.S. Ryder Cup team began paying its players $200,000 stipends, in addition to a $300,000 allocation to be directed to a charity or charities of each player’s choice. That’s $6.5 million in total ($3.9 million specifically for charity and $2.6 million with no caveats).
The PGA of America (a separate entity from the PGA Tour) operates the U.S. Ryder Cup team. The European Ryder Cup team (operated primarily by the European Tour Group) did not pay stipends to its players, and the financial discord became a rallying cry for the eventual winners at Bethpage Black in New York.
That tension hasn’t reached the Presidents Cup, though. Since both the U.S. and International teams—and all facets of the competition—are run by the PGA Tour, there has always been uniformity in player compensation. Prior to the 2022 Presidents Cup, there were no stipends and instead $5.1 million of charitable donations were made—with each player, captain, and assistant captain giving $150,000 to the charity of their choice.
The Presidents Cup began in 1994 as the PGA Tour looked to capitalize on the popularity of team golf in the wake of more interest in the Ryder Cup, which was first played in 1927. It was also the first opportunity for golfers outside the U.S. and Europe to compete on an international team stage. Players from all of continental Europe were added to the Ryder Cup in 1979; previously the competition featured U.S. players against only those from Great Britain and Ireland.
