Ryder Cup players should be paid. As pro sportsmen, it's their job

The debate on Ryder Cup pay can be split into two sides.

Do the players need to be paid? And, should the players be paid?

We’ll start from the start, as this is the easy one. They don’t need to be paid. This event happens every two years and, in the time it isn’t on, the competitors earn endless wealth from grossly inflated prize purses in the US.

They earn a spot on their team on merit and become a part of history, following in the footsteps of the greats who’ve also gone unpaid to this point.

You’re playing for a nation, or a continent. Compensation shouldn’t be required to win an event with almost 100 years of heritage. Ask a professional golfer if they’d compete for the Claret Jug and the Green Jacket for free, and 99% would say ‘yes’. Many of them will tell you they don’t play golf for money.

But there appears to be a silent 1% that says Ryder Cup players should be paid. Many will shudder at this stench of greed, but stay still. We need to think about this properly.

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I have been to one Ryder Cup, the last one in Rome. I walked inside the ropes with various groups, navigating the crowded hills of Marco Simone. The entourage of god knows who that follows the players on each walkway is mindblowing.

This chaotic snake of human life is a microcosm of what figures like Patrick Cantlay are alleged to demand. Everyone is tucking into their piece of this unfathomably enormous pie, apart from the ones that are actually playing.

“I’ll wear a hat when I’m paid to be here like he is,” Cantlay was reported to have said about a PGA of America executive at the 2023 event in Italy. The story of that Ryder Cup was that Cantlay supposedly refused to wear a cap out of protest at not being paid.

The Ryder Cup props up the DP World Tour when it comes to Europe, and the PGA of America pick up some decent scratch from it too.

There are sponsorship logos splattered about the place like Jackson Pollock’s Convergence, the clothing in the shop is as expensive as you know it is, and it was $750 for a ticket to watch golf over 50 people’s shoulders.

You might also throw in how much hotels in Long Island can charge their customers when the Ryder Cup is in town, and I doubt Sky Sports and NBC dread this week, or fear for their viewership. Everyone will be watching.

Put all of this into a calculator, and it comes to a heinous amount of money, none of which is going to the players.

US players are getting a $200,000 stipend this week, on top of a $300,000 charitable donation. US captain Keegan Bradley is giving all of his share to charity, as I suspect most of the US players will do out of sheer guilt.

It’s time to forget what moral sentiment people feel about Ryder Cup pay, and get real for a moment.

Ryder Cup players don’t need to be paid, but there is a mighty strong argument to say they absolutely should.

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