Bonuses for American players in the Ryder Cup?

According to British media, future players on the American Ryder Cup team should be paid when they participate in the next edition in 2025 in the United States, for the first time in the almost centuries-old history of the competition. Europe would remain spared for the moment by this new proof of the galloping inflation of professional Golf.

Among the last bastions still spared by results bonuses, Olympic Games and the Ryder Cup could still make the best professional players in the world look like pious, chivalrous golfers. The controversy launched by the American Patrick Cantlay during the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy had cracked the dam which would definitively collapse if Team USA obtained a participation bonus to compete in the most beautiful golf competition.

But American players want a bonus. And the PGA of America seems ready to give in to their will. From 2025 in New York, each American player should be able to claim nearly 400,000 euros.

Europe not concerned… initially!

If European players have obviously not (yet?) shown financial desires, it is difficult to imagine in the long term a team of paid players facing a team of “volunteer” players (and this, even if a place in Ryder Cup is the certainty of opening Pandora's box into which a myriad of future sponsors will inevitably slip).

The European captain Luke Donald had clearly given its opinion last year when the question of bonuses appeared in the debates.

« It's a week where we play for more than ourselvesrecalled the man who will once again be the European captain in 2025. We form a team. It's not about points or money, but about passion. And the fans feed off that! I don't think we should be paid for participating in the Ryder Cup. »

An image to restore

If it is also true that the Ryder Cup generates a lot of money, thanks in particular to the players who could therefore claim their share, this emerging controversy will not contribute to changing the image of golfers guided mainly by money, particularly since the emergence of the Saudi circuit of LIFE Golfeven though this sport needs to polish its image since it is singled out for its ecological impact… which it nevertheless tries to minimize as much as possible.

With or without bonuses, the future Ryder Cup Bethpage Black once again promises to be grandiose. As a reminder, it will cost around 700 euros per day ($750) to follow this 45th edition on the fairways of the Long Island golf course as a spectator and 300 euros for the volunteers (the real ones, not the European players). You have to pay the premiums…