Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley insists that United States players will “ do the right thing and do a lot of good with this money” as they get paid to play in the event for the first time this week.
The PGA of America announced that they will give their 12-man team $500,000 (£370,000) each, with $300,000 (£220,000) going to a charity or charities of the player's choice. The remaining $200,000 (£148,000) has been labelled a “stipend” for the players to keep.
Previously there was only the charitable element, with $200,000 having been designated for charity since 1999.
The move comes two years after Patrick Cantlay refused to wear his Team USA cap in Rome, allegedly in protest at players not getting paid to play, as confirmed by inside reporting at the event. Cantlay later denied these reports, weakly claiming that the hats were too small for his head, and European fans then relentlessly taunted him by waving their caps at him.
It ultimately led to a heated confrontation between Rory McIlroy and Cantlay’s caddie Joe LaCava in the car park.
European players won’t get paid to play at Bethpage Black this week, and Team Europe captain Luke Donald confirmed that none of his side had asked to be, but Bradley vehemently defended the American move.
He said: “The PGA of America came to me. They wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into the present day. The charity dollars hadn't changed since 1999 and they asked me to sort of shepherd their way into making it into 2025.
“This was what we decided. We felt like this was the best way to do it. We copied a lot of what the Presidents Cup does.
“We did the best we could. These players are going to do the right thing and do a lot of really good with this money.”
Bradley revealed he will donate his entire $500,000 allocation to charity but will not put the same pressure on his players.
He also dismissed the idea that the optics of players being paid looked bad, given the finances in the sport, and had no interest in the European position on the matter.
“I don't really get that,” added Bradley on the idea of poor optics. “You can say that but I think that the players are really good people and are going to do a lot of good things.
“I'm not concerned about what Europe does or what they think. I'm concerned about what my team is doing.”
The US team will be favourites to win when play gets underway on Friday, with only two Ryder Cup away victories having been recorded since 1995.
A lot of the pre-event chat was around Bradley’s decision not to select himself as a player with one of his six captain’s picks after he came close to qualifying automatically before finishing 11th in the standings.
At his Monday press conference, the 39-year-old once again explained his decision-making, saying: “I've thought about it every second but I've also thought about how impossible it would be.
“I feel like I've been called for a bigger cause here but, in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking, 'I could have been out there'.”
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