Sir Nick Faldo has entered the debate of whether the American side should go ahead with paying their players and so break nearly 100 years of Ryder Cup tradition by saying that the “only motivation” he needed was winning for his team-mates and Europe.
Telegraph Sport revealed on Wednesday that, after decades of US golfers objecting at the absence of compensation for their endeavours in the biennial tournament, the PGA of America is ready to hand almost £4 million collectively to Keegan Bradley’s men for next year’s match in New York.
The organising body of the starred-and-striped arm of the Ryder Cup is planning to give $400,000 (£316,400) to each of their representatives at Bethpage Black Golf Course, with no stipulation that any of the fees must be passed on to charity. The decision has yet to be confirmed but insiders expect the proposal to be ratified at board level as soon as the association that represents more than 30,000 club golfers appoints a new chief executive.
In contrast, there are no plans for Europe to follow suit, although the circuit does contribute a seven-figure sum to the Ryder Cup European Development Trust to support golf development in European nations.
It means there is a highly realistic prospect of one team being paid while the other is playing solely for passion and honour, but Faldo, the six-time major winner, second on the Ryder Cup all-time points scorers list, does not believe this will be an issue for Luke Donald’s team. Indeed, anything but.
“If a few of the US team feel that being paid is what they need to give 100 per cent for their team, then so be it,” Faldo told Telegraph Sport. “For me, there was no better feeling or motivation to walk out of the team room with my fellow players, like Seve [Ballesteros], Ollie [José María Olazábal], Bernhard [Langer], Woosie [Ian Woosnam], Monty [Colin Montgomerie] to name a few, on a simple mission of winning a point for our team, no other motivation was needed.
“There’s no greater memory for me, than getting up and down at the 1995 Ryder Cup to win a crucial point for our team, far greater than thinking I was being compensated for my efforts.”
Since the 1999 match in Brookline where the likes of Tiger Woods, Mark O’Meara and David Duval voiced their dissent, the PGA of America has donated $200,000 per player, with $100,000 going to junior golf schemes and foundations and the other $100,000 to charities of each participant’s choice.
Yet last year in Rome the thorny issue came to the forefront again, when Patrick Cantlay was accused of not wearing a “USA” cap in protest at the lack of financial rewards – a mini-mutiny that Cantlay vehemently denied waging. The situation turned ugly on the Saturday evening when, in the wake of taunts by European fans, Rory McIlroy and Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, entered a row that eventually spilt into the car park.
In the aftermath of the heavy US defeat, Stefan Schauffele, the father of world No 2 Xander, who is Cantlay’s playing partner and close friend, urged the PGA of America “to have the players share in that profit instead of being so damned intransparent about it”. It appears there have been moves to act on those demands.
The association has so far declined to comment.
