Rory McIlroy has said he would pay to play in the Ryder Cup after it emerged US team members could collect $400,000 (£315,000) each for taking on Europe in New York next year. McIlroy believes such a move would undermine the “purity” of the biennial contest.
After pressure from leading players, the PGA of America’s board is seriously considering breaking with Ryder Cup tradition and paying the 12-man American team from a $5m fund. No such plan will be considered in Europe; a situation McIlroy, the continent’s leading player, is fully behind.
“I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup,” said McIlroy. “I have come a long way in this especially with the Olympics but the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and Olympics partly because of the purity of no money being involved.
“It was a discussion that was happening at the last Ryder Cup in Rome. I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup does create a lot of revenue. It’s one of the top five biggest sporting events in the world so I get the argument that the talent could be getting paid.] t
“The Ryder Cup is so much more than that, especially to the Europeans and this tour. We’ve all had a conversation about it with Luke [Donald, the European captain] because we obviously heard [about the Americans] and the common consensus is that the $5m paid to the team would be better spent on the DP World Tour to support other events and even to support the Challenge Tour. For us, it would give it a different feel, what we have done a very good job of is being a very cohesive group over the last decade and we wouldn’t want anything to change that.”
While understanding of the concept, McIlroy has questioned whether the payment to Team USA members is particularly necessary. He added: “I don’t think any of the 24 players on either team needs the $400,000. Every two years we play there’s 104 weeks and for 103 you can play golf and can get paid so that’s reasonable enough.
“Going back to the purity aspect it would make the competition seem a little less pure but it wouldn’t change anything from a European perspective. We would all welcome the money if it didn’t change the dynamic of what we had but I think it would change the dynamic.”
The Ryder Cup, whichThe tournament will take place at Bethpage next September, has already attracted fierce criticism for $750 per day tickets during the competition itself. McIlroy admits that conversation will take on another dimension with players in part benefitting from steep prices.
“It makes us look very unrelatable to the average person on the street because of how much money is being pumped into the game,” said the four-time major winner. “But at the same time that’s not our fault in a way. There’s people willing to pay what they are willing to pay and we are fortunate to be in the position, we’ve been in the right place at the right time.
“There’s two sides to the coin. I’m not criticising at all because if the Ryder Cup generates $100-200m in revenue you would think the talent should have a piece of that. That’s not the way it has been and as Europeans we don’t want to change because of how good it has been the last few years but it’s more than reasonable that if you put an event on and it creates so much revenue that some of it should flow back to the talent but it hasn’t been that way in the Ryder Cup and it’s a massive change.”
McIlroy was speaking in Dubai, where he posted a 67 to tie the lead with Tyrrell Hatton after the first round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
