By Amy Tennery
FARMINGDALE, New York (Reuters) -Team USA captain Keegan Bradley defended a plan to pay U.S. players at the Ryder Cup on Monday, arguing that the break from tradition at Bethpage Black in New York would bring the competition into "today's age."
U.S. players will each get $500,000 - with $300,000 of that going to charity and the remaining $200,000 serving as a stipend - the PGA of America announced last year, an increase from the $200,000 that had been designated only for charity since
1999.
European Ryder Cup Team members do not get paid and Europe's captain Luke Donald told members of the British media this week that the U.S. players risk having the home crowd turn on them over the issue of pay.
"If the U.S. players are getting paid a stipend, or whatever it is, and they aren't performing, the New Yorkers could make them know about it," Donald said, according to reports.
Bradley, who said he planned to donate his stipend in addition to the money earmarked for charity, pushed back as a reporter suggested the pay-for-play approach had "questionable" optics.
"I don't really get that, but I think the goal here was that the charity dollars hadn't been raised in 25, 26 years," he said ahead of Friday's start to the biennial match play competition.
"These players are going to do the right thing and do a lot of really good with this money."
The topic of player compensation came up during the Americans' disastrous 2023 campaign in Rome, when Patrick Cantlay declined to wear a Team USA hat in what some reports suggested was an act of protest.
Top-calibre golfers are among the best compensated athletes in all of professional sports.
"I'm not concerned about what Europe does or what they think. I'm concerned about what my team is doing," said Bradley.
"I was tasked with a job the PGA of America asked me to do, and this was what we decided. We wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into today's age, and we felt like this was the best way to do it."
Bradley, who omitted himself from the U.S. lineup, should have more than the usual home team advantage from the famously rowdy New York sports fans, after playing college golf just 25 miles (40.23 km) down the road at St John's University.
Beloved among diehard fans, the three-day Ryder Cup has not seen an away winner since Europe's "Miracle at Medinah" in 2012.
After dealing the Americans a devastating 2023 defeat, Europe's captain knows the holders can expect a partisan crowd that includes U.S. President Donald Trump on the opening day.
"What makes Ryder Cups fun is the atmosphere, is the energy that it brings. It really is an environment that you want to experience as a player because it's nothing quite like it that you get to play in an individual tournament," said Briton Donald. "These guys embrace that. They thrive in it."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris)
