Ryder Cup Appearance Money

[PaulMdj]

I don't think players should be paid to play in it. Give it 20 or 30 years and it will all be about the money a player can earn by making the team rather than the unique experience. The players benefit in other ways just now. They'll get loads of commercial opportunities from being a RC player, especially on a winning team.
Someone mentioned the volunteers paying to "volunteer" at the RC, are they mad. Imagine how big a hit they would take in prize money every week if volunteers decided they wanted paid for their efforts. For one week out of every 104 do it for the joy and the glory.

I “volunteered” at Medinah in 2012, planned the trip before hand, applied for tickets through every channel I could find, failed in every avenue.
US PGA site had a link asking for volunteers, I tried that and was successful.

So instead of paying $150.00 per day on average, I paid $100.00 for access for 5 days, “worked” 2 hours each day (apart from first day) for 4 days, “working” involved standing on 16th tee box making sure spectators didn’t go under the ropes.

The remaining 8-10 hours at the course I could go and watch the golf or have a beer etc.

We were given $20.00 per day food vouchers, I got a Cap, 2 Polo’s, a pair of trousers and a jacket, all branded with Ryder Cup logo etc.

Fair enough the $100.00 “paid” towards all this, but I have to be honest it’s still one of the best things in my life outside of family.

The $100.00 to volunteer was money well spent and worked out way cheaper than going as a spectator, being in Marshall Uniform and having a pass meant you could go anywhere on the course and indide the ropes, no jostling for space or standing at the back of a 10 - 15 deep crowd trying to see the action.

Gleneagles in 2014, I don’t remember what we paid as volunteers, but again, for the access, clothing and lunch vouchers was well worth it.

I’d say anyone who had an opportunity to attend a Ryder Cup on the cheap and instead paid the day ticket prices would be mad.

 

[D-S]

Wouldn’t it be easy for the PGA Tour and DWP Tour to have a Ryder Cup Foundation into which they pay all the higher than normal ticket revenue and broadcasting money as well as any excess profits and monies that are ‘Player Wages’.
This could be used in various ways to ‘grow the game’ and help disadvantaged groups.
A public dedicated programme would show what good the Ryder Cup is doing for the game and be a major plus for the brand and positively link the Cup to good works.
Also players demanding money would be taking it out of the Foundation pot so it would be a more difficult thing to ask for and grumbles about pricing are not as easy if it’s going straight to good causes.
Making charitable works very public can only be a good thing.

 

[PaulMdj]

Wouldn’t it be easy for the PGA Tour and DWP Tour to have a Ryder Cup Foundation into which they pay all the higher than normal ticket revenue and broadcasting money as well as any excess profits and monies that are ‘Player Wages’.
This could be used in various ways to ‘grow the game’ and help disadvantaged groups.
A public dedicated programme would show what good the Ryder Cup is doing for the game and be a major plus for the brand and positively link the Cup to good works.
Also players demanding money would be taking it out of the Foundation pot so it would be a more difficult thing to ask for and grumbles about pricing are not as easy if it’s going straight to good causes.
Making charitable works very public can only be a good thing.

They already have The Ryder Cup Development Trust which funds, amongst other things, Golf at grassroots level.

There are also a couple of other Ryder Cup charities and I believe the money “paid” to European players is so the players can donate it to the Charity of their choice.

Could they do more? Probably, but we musn’t forget the Ryder Cup has been donating and looking after some charities for years now.

 

[stymied]

I “volunteered” at Medinah in 2012, planned the trip before hand, applied for tickets through every channel I could find, failed in every avenue.
US PGA site had a link asking for volunteers, I tried that and was successful.

So instead of paying $150.00 per day on average, I paid $100.00 for access for 5 days, “worked” 2 hours each day (apart from first day) for 4 days, “working” involved standing on 16th tee box making sure spectators didn’t go under the ropes.

The remaining 8-10 hours at the course I could go and watch the golf or have a beer etc.

We were given $20.00 per day food vouchers, I got a Cap, 2 Polo’s, a pair of trousers and a jacket, all branded with Ryder Cup logo etc.

Fair enough the $100.00 “paid” towards all this, but I have to be honest it’s still one of the best things in my life outside of family.

The $100.00 to volunteer was money well spent and worked out way cheaper than going as a spectator, being in Marshall Uniform and having a pass meant you could go anywhere on the course and indide the ropes, no jostling for space or standing at the back of a 10 - 15 deep crowd trying to see the action.

Gleneagles in 2014, I don’t remember what we paid as volunteers, but again, for the access, clothing and lunch vouchers was well worth it.

I’d say anyone who had an opportunity to attend a Ryder Cup on the cheap and instead paid the day ticket prices would be mad.

Your shift was 2 hours? Also when not on shift I was a normal spectator and not inside the ropes. Never volunteered at the RC. Some traditional PGA events do not charge to volunteer and allow volunteers the opportunity to play the course after the event.

 

[PaulMdj]

Your shift was 2 hours? Also when not on shift I was a normal spectator and not inside the ropes. Never volunteered at the RC. Some traditional PGA events do not charge to volunteer and allow volunteers the opportunity to play the course after the event.

Yes, 2 hours, I had previously volunteered in the UK and Europe and never had it so easy as Medinah, whether that’s the way the US work it I’ve no idea, at Wentworth I’ve done different jobs from walking with the players with the scoreboard and working in the Press tent.

At the German Open 3 of us were assigned 1 hole and we stayed there for the duration of play, working breaks between us.

The only event I’ve paid for over here was the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. Big difference though was only getting a single Polo or Jacket, in the early 90’s we got nothing.

Only course I’ve played afterwards was Ratingen after the German Open.
Haven’t done any further marshalling since Gleneagles.

 

[BubbaP]

TW chipping in...

Tiger Woods: US Ryder Cup players should get $5m and donate to charity

Tiger Woods suggests that each American player in the Ryder Cup should receive $5m (£3.9m) and give that money to charity.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Mel Smooth]

US players confirmed to be getting paid - cue lots of outrage by the "state of the game" protagonists...

 

[Arthur Wedge]

US players confirmed to be getting paid - cue lots of outrage by the "state of the game" protagonists...

PGA of America announces increase in stipend for American Ryder Cup players in 2025

American players will receive more money to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, after all.

ca.sports.yahoo.com

Suspect most will give it to charity


we all know that a number are motivated purely by money

https://twitter.com/x/status/1868677140977176781

 

[Mel Smooth]

PGA of America announces increase in stipend for American Ryder Cup players in 2025

American players will receive more money to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, after all.

ca.sports.yahoo.com

Suspect most will give it to charity


we all know that a number are motivated purely by money

https://twitter.com/x/status/1868677140977176781

It's 750 dollars a ticket - players have nothing to do with setting those prices. I guess it's not just the players that are motivated purely by money.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

It's 750 dollars a ticket - players have nothing to do with setting those prices. I guess it's not just the players that are motivated purely by money

Are the Europeans asking to be paid

Think it’s anywhere over £50mil cost to host the Ryder cup

A lot of the money earned though the Ryder Cup goes back into the sport

The good news is that multi millionaire Patrick Cantley will finally be able to put food in his kids mouths after struggling to make ends meet earning just under $7mil in prize money

 

[AussieKB]

From Thomas Dai

More and more I’m beginning to hope that the next Ryder Cup is an absolute disaster (without anyone being actually physically injured) to the extent that the event never takes place again.
Whilst I’m rather sad writing this I believe the Ryder Cup has become a prime example of everything that is wrong with modern era sporting contests.

Then from Tom Doak

There has always been a huge gap in the interest of the Ryder Cup between the European players and the Americans.


Europe's team is never as deep, with the bottom 4-6 spots on the team filled by guys who aren't serious contenders to win a major championship in their careers. This makes the Ryder Cup the most important event of their lives. There is no one on the American team for whom that is true . . . they are all dreaming of majors and individual glory.


Meanwhile, the stars on the European team have always loved sticking it to the Americans . . . partly because the PGA Tour treated them so badly, and partly because the Americans are so self-assured.


The other disconnect has been the whole issue of who makes the $. The European team's winnings go straight to supporting the European Tour . . . but the American half of the event is owned by the PGA of America, not the Tour. [Indeed, the PGA Tour now makes 15% off the European team and 0% off the American team.]


The 1950s generation of players saw themselves as PGA professionals first and Tour players second, so in their world the money going to the PGA was appropriate, but that's been out the window for a long time. So, as the event started to produce more money in the 1990s, the U.S. players rightly started wondering how the PGA of America was using all those millions of dollars. And the media [and fans] ALWAYS in all sports finds a way to side with ownership and criticize the players as greedy, just as they've been beating the drum about LIV this whole time.


It was always hypocritical to demand that the players "represent their country" for free, when there was $ being made.