Luke Donald has revealed that Team Europe’s players rejected any opportunity to get paid for function in the Ryder Cup, despite the fact that Team USA received a fee for function on Bethpage Black.
PGA of America announced last year that US players would receive $ 500,000 to represent Team USA at the Ryder Cup, with $ 300,000 (£ 222,000) donated to a charity of their election and a $ 200,000 (£ 144,000) ‘Stipend’ to use how they want.
This week’s event in New York marks the first time in the Ryder Cup story that the extra payment will be offered to US players, with the debate for pay-to-play, which dominates early structure for the two-year competition.
Rory McIlroy has previously stated that he would “pay for the privilege of playing” in the Ryder Cup, with Donald ‘Proud’ of his European players for their approach to whether they should be rewarded financially for playing.
“This [payment] came up and i would come in front of it and talk to the 12 guys in Rome when it looked like the US should do something else with payments, “Donald told Sky Sports.
“Each one of them was like ‘we don’t want to get paid – this is not a week to get paid’. We have such a strong purpose in this team and what we play for.
“To be honest, we reinvest some of the money back in the experience of these guys. I feel like if you have the experiences that you remember for the rest of your life, it’s more than a few hundred thousand dollars in the back of your pocket.
“For me, I was very proud of the guys. The ideals of how this Ryder Cup was created back in the 1920s by Samuel Ryder, and I think he would have been proud too.”
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Andrew Coltart, Dame Laura Davies and David Howell discuss Team US’s decision to pay his Ryder Cup players for participation in this year’s tournament
Bradley: ‘Very well comes from this’
A charity donation of $ 200,000 has been awarded to each American Ryder Cup player since 1999, when Tiger Woods, Mark O’Meara and David Duval were among those who questioned how profits from the Ryder Cup were spread and whether a fee should be given.
This figure has been the same ever since and is less than the $ 250,000 given to players from both teams at the Presidents Cup – run by PGA Tour – last September, with Bradley supporting the change and supporting its players to spend the increased money for good.
Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley turned to the media Monday ahead of the Ryder Cup in New York
“I’m not worried about what Europe is doing or what they think,” Bradley insisted. “I’m worried about what my team is doing. I was given the task of a job that America because of Bad Me to do, and that’s what we decided.
“We wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into today’s age and we felt this was the best way to do it. We copied a lot of what the presidents Cup is doing. We did the best we could and I think a lot of good comes from this. I think the players will do very well with this money and I think it’s good.”
The change, which has shared meaning, comes when players play for huge prize wallets and in a year when tickets are at a record high, with prices starting at $ 750 – including food and soft drinks – for each of the competition days.
“I don’t really get that [bad optics]”Added Bradley.” I think the goal here was that the charity dollars had not been erected for 25, 26 years and that is what we started to do.
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Will Luke Donald lead Team Europe to a historic Ryder Cup win over Team USA on Bethpage Black? Watch this year’s Competition Live from 26th to 28 September at Sky Sports Golf
“We did a lot of what the presidents Cup did, and these players will do the right thing and do very really well with this money. I think the players are really good people and will do a lot of good things.”
When is Ryder Cup Live on Sky Sports?
There will be expanded live coverage from every day in the Ryder Cup week, where Team Europe seems to regain the trophy with a historic outdoor victory in the United States.
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