Golf revolving around money
GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy — In a year where golf seems to revolve around money, the Ryder Cup is not immune.
The PGA Tour had 11 tournaments with at least $20 million in prize money — excluding the majors — as it tried to hold off the threat of Saudifunded LIV Golf. And then it struck an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund to be business partners.
Pro golf is only going to get richer, however that Saudi agreement gets worked out, if it does.
“I’m tired of it. The whole world is,” Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, said in an interview leading into the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone. “We play for love and they play for money. It’s the one time of the year they should be playing for love, and we’re still talking about money.”
The idea that players should be compensated to play in the Ryder Cup is nearly as old as the Americans’ 30-year losing streak on European soil.
But it surfaced again Saturday morning with an unsubstantiated report from Sky Sports — the broadcast partner for the European tour at Marco Simone — that singled out Patrick Cantlay as causing a rift among the Americans because he thinks they should be paid.
“It’s not about that,” Cantlay said after he birdied the last three holes to win the last match of the day. “It’s just about Team USA and representing our country. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
The report also claimed Cantlay was not wearing a hat out of protest. Cantlay also did not wear a cap at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in 2021. Rory McIlroy rarely wears a hat in the Ryder Cup but did so this week, primarily because of the hot sun.
“Not at all. This is the first I heard of it right when I got off the green,” Cantlay said. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
He said the hat didn’t fit him right, just like at Whistling Straits.
All afternoon, fans began waving their caps at Cantlay, a cerebral type who is difficult to rile. He egged them on at times and told his partner, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, to use it as fuel.
The PGA of America declined comment, other than to say some allegations in the report — such as Cantlay and Xander Schauffele being in a separate area of the locker room — were not true.
Waugh said he had not had any conversations with players about it this year, though he has in the past on the topic of getting a bigger share of the revenue.
“Nothing obnoxious or awful,” Waugh said. “That makes sense.”
Several players in recent years have questioned what percentage of the revenue goes to players in the form of prize money at the four majors, which are not run by the PGA Tour.
Waugh said the nonprofit PGA of America operates on a break-even basis over four years and money goes back into the game in various forms.
The PGA of America hosts the Ryder Cup every four years.
The European tour has a majority stake in the Ryder Cup when it’s held in Europe.
The difference is the PGA Tour has no involvement in the Ryder Cup except that American players are PGA Tour members (along with 10 Europeans from this year’s team, who also are European tour members).
Waugh said that in order to secure the players’ releases, the PGA of America gives the PGA Tour 20% of its television contract for the Ryder Cup. That could be an indirect payment.
“We ask that that goes to the pension plan,” Waugh said Saturday in a text message. “The tour could in theory give that directly to the 12.”