The PGA of America's board of directors approved a plan to pay United States players a stipend while increasing separate charitable money for those who participate in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Players will now receive a total of $500,000 -- $300,000 to contribute to charity at their discretion and another $200,000 that does not have to be directed towards charity.
Under the prior practice, players received $200,000 in their name to be donated to charities and junior golf organizations. The PGA of America confirmed in its statement that no current players were pushing for the increase. Rather, this was an organizational decision.
"Sometimes, people look at the PGA as this big organization, but it's really 41 sections. All we're trying to do is grow the game," PGA president Don Rea told GolfChannel.com. "The Ryder Cup is an amazing international competition, but at the end of the day, it's just one of the ways the PGA helps to grow the game. We're just trying to do good with the money we have. The message was to grow the game and help charities. The players are our members as well and we treat them just like we do all of our members."
While the pay-for-play conversation stretches back to 1999 -- when the original plan was introduced -- discussions resurfaced following a report that the PGA of America was considering a change to the structure. This caused members of the European Ryder Cup team, who do not get paid to play in the Ryder Cup, to push back at the notion of receiving money for their participation in the biennial event.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were among a European contingent to state that they would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup, not the other way around. Meanwhile, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley expressed his disappointment that the speculative talks were publicized, and Tiger Woods was bothered by the idea of players wanting to be paid outside of charitable contributions.
"I just think that the event is so big that I think that we can give so much money to different charities, and I've said that since '99 when we had the Brookline negotiations," Woods said at the Hero World Challenge. "If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that's their decision to do that. That's their team. I know, when it's on European soil, that it subsidizes most of their Tour, so it is a big event for the European Tour. And if they want to pay to play in it, so be it."