In a first for the Ryder Cup, players on the 2025 U.S. team will receive a $200,000 stipend for competing in the biennial team golf event.
The PGA of America, which operates the U.S. team and runs the Ryder Cup when it is played Stateside every four years, announced the decision on Monday, following recent reports that U.S. players would be paid.
“While no players asked to be compensated, the PGA of America Board of Directors has voted to increase the allocation to the members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team from $200,000 to be directed to charities—a figure unchanged since 1999—to $500,000, with $300,000 of that to be directed to the charity or charities of the players’ choice. The balance is a stipend,” the organization said in a statement.
Players on the European Ryder Cup team will continue to not receive any payment. U.S. players could still choose to donate their $200,000 stipend to charity—something U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who will also get the six-figure payment, told the Associated Press he would do.
In the Presidents Cup—run by the PGA Tour and played in non–Ryder Cup years, pitting U.S. players against those from international countries outside of Europe—players from both teams receive $250,000 stipends, a practice that began in 2022. In the Olympics, golfers can receive prize money from their country’s Olympic federation. Scottie Scheffler received $37,500 from the U.S. Olympic Committee for winning gold at the Paris Games.
With 12 team members and captain Bradley, the PGA of America will be paying out $2.6 million in stipends, in addition to a smaller amount given to assistant captains, according to the AP.
Money-Making Machine
Tickets are already sold out for next September’s event at Bethpage Black Golf Course just outside New York City, despite prices starting at $750 for the three competition days. Beyond ticket sales, NBC pays the PGA of America $55 million for the U.S. media rights to each Ryder Cup, as part of a $440 million deal running through the 2031 edition. The PGA of America pays roughly 20% of its Ryder Cup broadcast fee—about $11 million each cycle—to the PGA Tour, in exchange for using PGA Tour players.
When the Ryder Cup is played across the pond every four years, revenue is largely used to support tournament purses and the operations of the European Tour, which for sponsorship reasons is called the DP World Tour.
Cash Controversy
The question of whether players should be paid emerged as a controversial topic at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, which Europe won. A British reporter claimed that U.S. player Patrick Cantlay wasn’t wearing a hat during the Ryder Cup in protest of not being paid. Cantlay refuted that report.
However, pay-for-play has remained in the spotlight for the U.S. team.
When reports of U.S. players getting paid emerged this fall, Rory McIlroy, who has competed in seven Ryder Cups for Europe, told BBC Sport that he “personally would pay for the privilege to play on the Ryder Cup.”
Earlier this month, Tiger Woods, who passed up the opportunity to captain the U.S. team in 2025, said players didn’t want to be paid but pushed for them to have a larger say in where revenue from the event goes.
“The Ryder Cup itself makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities?” he said ahead of the Hero World Challenge that he hosts annually in the Bahamas. “And what’s wrong with each player, 12 players getting a million dollars and the ability to divvy out to amazing charities that they’re involved in that they can help out?” Later, Woods added, “I hope they would get $5 million each and donate it all to charity.”
