With so much going off in the game of golf in 2024, the story of the PGA of America paying its players for the Ryder Cup ended up being one of the major talking points.
Team USA’s players will pocket around $400,000 each and while the likes of Keegan Bradley have said his will go to charity, there remains uncertainty around the payments and end destinations.
Of course, plenty of reaction has already made its way into the public eye as players like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler have all had their say.
And now, adding more fuel to the fire, the often outspoken Padraig Harrington has now added his opinion into the mix.
Padraig Harrington gives his verdict on Team USA’s Ryder Cup payments
Speaking on the Beyond the Clubhouse podcast about the decision to pay the American players, Harrington suggested the whole debacle has just been a bad PR exercise for Team USA.
“Look, $400,000 is an awful lot money, I’m not doubting that. But for these guys, it was very poor PR for that. For $400,000. They don’t need it, and they’re getting terrible PR, so why do it?,” Harrington said.
“If they wanted to be responsible and do something they should have asked, or had a member have a say and like to see where the money goes.
“Now the TOUR have joined with the PGA of America, they get $11m or something, so they are getting paid it helps to run the door. So for $400k, I just think its bad publicity.”
Harrington went on to comment on Mark O’Meara getting it in the neck back in the late 90s and suggested that O’Meara would admit that it wasn’t worth the hassle and bad PR he got off the back of it.
What Tiger Woods wants Team USA players to do with Ryder Cup payments
As we know, Tiger Woods has been one of the advocates for the PGA of America to compensate players for playing in the Ryder Cup.
However, while he’s happy to see players paid big sums of money, Woods has been clear that he thinks it should go to charity.
“I hope they get $5million each and donate it all to charity… We didn’t want to get paid. We wanted to give more money to charity” Woods said on the matter.
Clearly, then, this is a topic of discussion that will continue long into 2025.
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