Keegan Bradley defends Patrick Cantlay as he discusses US players being paid to play at the Ryder Cup 

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Team USA’s Ryder Cup player payment continues to dominate the narrative ahead of the 2025 event.

For the first time, the American team will be paid for their participation in the Ryder Cup. Each player will receive $500,000, with $300,000 going to charity. That said, multiple players and captain Keegan Bradley have pledged to donate the entire sum to charity. 

Luke Donald’s opening ceremony speech featured multiple jabs at Team USA. “It is not about prize money or World Ranking points, it’s about pride”, said Donald. That has been a running theme coming from Team Europe throughout the week. 

The topic of player payments is nothing new to the Ryder Cup. Even at the last event in 2023, Patrick Cantlay was rumoured to be protesting the players’ lack of payment by not wearing a hat throughout the tournament. 

Bradley recently dismissed those rumours and was asked how he expects the New York fans to receive his team through this ongoing controversy.

Keegan Bradley welcomes ‘new era’ of the Ryder Cup

Bradley defended the decision to pay players earlier in the week, but after Donald’s speech, questions continued to be aimed his way. 

This time, he was asked by BBC 5 Live Sport if Cantlay was wearing a hat at this Ryder Cup because this time, he’s being paid.

He answered, “Definitely not. I think Patrick couldn’t get a hat that fit him. We blew this way out of proportion. He got a hat that fit him this year, and he wore it today. No big deal.”

Bradley continued, saying he was one of the people trusted with the decision to give the players money for the event. He said he followed the Presidents Cup model, which aims to raise money for charity.

He said, “I think the PGA of America asked me to shepherd in this new era of the Ryder Cup and I was tasked to help them do that. This is what we came up with. We have a lot of experience with this with the Presidents Cup, and we sort of copied their format.”

Players don’t need to donate their entire paycheck to charity. They are free to do what they please with $200,000. But many of the players have taken the opportunity to donate their money. Whether that’s because of their own will or public pressure, there is no way of knowing. 

Keegan Bradley says he ‘can’t worry about’ New York fans turning on Team USA

The New York fans are supposed to give America an advantage at Bethpage Black. Many think Europe have a better Ryder Cup team than the USA, but their home fans make them favourites. 

However, there are concerns that American support may not take kindly to their players being paid for something that is supposed to be an honour, representing their nation at the Ryder Cup.

Bradley said it’s not something he is allowing himself to think about ahead of the tournament. He said, “I can’t worry about that. I am worried about my team, my players, my team room.

“I feel really lucky to be playing in front of the New York fans and I expect them to be rowdy and on our side.”

Whether it has an effect once the players tee off remains to be seen, but the distraction cannot be welcome to the Americans, who must surely want to focus on and talk about the golf.

The fact that Bradley is even taking these questions just one day removed from the first match shows that Donald and Europe’s media strategy is working perfectly.