Tiger Woods has weighed in on the Ryder Cup payment debate.
Last year reports surfaced that American players questioned whether they should be getting money for competing in the biennial event (currently, players aren’t directly paid to play but each is given $200,000 to donate to charities of their choosing). In the wake of Xander Schauffele reportedly being threatened with dismissal from the U.S. team over issues with the player benefit agreement, his father Stefan Schauffele said the topic of payment for players was worth having a “meaningful conversation about.”
While the debate over payment for participation in the event goes back decades, the issue gained steam recently in light of the unexpectedly high ticket prices that the PGA of America was charging for the 2025 match at Bethpage Black. Shortly after this controversy erupted, reports emerged that the association, which runs the event when held in the U.S., was considering paying American players for next year’s event.
In contrast, several players and leaders of past European Ryder Cup team asserted they would never seek pay for the event, which lead several European writers on Tuesday at the Hero World Challenge to ask Woods his thoughts on the matter.
“Well, I would have to say that going back to my playing days, we had the same conversation back in ‘99 and it was … we didn’t want to get paid, we wanted to give more money to charity, and the media turned it around against us and said we want to get paid,” Woods said, nodding to the controversy between David Duval, Mark O’Meara and others wanting payment for the match at Brookline. “No, the Ryder Cup itself makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities? And what’s wrong with each player, 12 players getting a million dollars and the ability to divvy [it] out to amazing charities that they’re involved in that they can help out? It’s their hometowns, where they’re from, all the different junior golf associations or endeavors that the members are involved in. It’s never really been about getting paid, it’s how can we allocate funds to help our sport or help things that we believe in back home, because it’s so hard to get onto that team, there’s only 12 guys. What’s wrong with being able to allocate more funds?”
When asked a follow-up if he thought the money should be used strictly for charity, Woods responded, “I hope they would get $5 million each and donate it all to charity, different charities. I think it’s great. What’s wrong with that?”
As for the Europeans’ universal contention that they don’t want money for the Ryder Cup, Woods acknowledged “That’s fine, that’s their right to say that,” although he quickly pointed out how much the DP World Tour depends on revenue generated from the event to pay its bills.
“I just think that the event is so big, 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. If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that’s their decision to do that, that’s their team,” Woods explained. “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.”
Woods was in the running to be the American captain for the ‘25 Ryder Cup, but ultimately pulled himself out of consideration due to time constraints, with Keegan Bradley accepting the position.
Main Image: Kevin C. Cox
