YouTube golf star Peter Finch is the latest to share his thoughts on USA Ryder Cup players receiving payment at the 2025 Bethpage Black event.
United States players will receive $400,000 each for their efforts in New York, where a 97-year Ryder Cup tradition will end.
Team Europe is set to use the payment scandal to their advantage, and Rory McIlroy has backed the decision to remain unpaid.
The European media will undoubtedly want to ensure that the payment discourse continues between now and the first shot at Bethpage Black.
Peter Finch reacts to USA Ryder Cup payment
Finch, unsurprisingly, is the latest prominent golfing personality to slam the decision.
“I can’t think of something that annoyed me more when I heard that. I just don’t understand it,” he told the Rough Cut Podcast.
“I don’t get the premise of how you can turn people against you in an instant. Just leave the Ryder Cup alone. Give us something that has the veneer of what golf and competition are about for the majority of players.
“If you qualify for a Ryder Cup team, you do not need an extra $400,000, which is what the American team are going to be paid. If you automatically qualify for a Ryder Cup team, you have had an incredible couple of years.
“You are fine. We don’t need to worry about you. So getting compensated financially to play in an event which means so much to so many people and is one of the truest forms of golf and one of the best forms of entertainment still within golf – leave it alone.”
Do USA players deserve payment for the Ryder Cup?
It’s hard to fully support the PGA of America’s decision, with the 12-man USA team set to be well compensated throughout the season.
However, there is an argument to suggest that those at the centre of the event and ultimately making the money deserve to be compensated. Finch can understand this argument if the American stars weren’t already financially rewarded.
“I will play Devil’s advocate here. The PGA of America—which isn’t the PGA Tour—has the rights to the Ryder Cup, and the DP World Tour has the rights to the Ryder Cup in Europe. When you have an away Ryder Cup, the European Tour won’t get anything for the American Ryder Cup; as far as revenue goes, it all goes to the PGA Tour of America,” Finch added.
“What the argument is is that the Ryder Cup is financially by far the biggest event in golf, in terms of the money that is generated and the TV rights. As a single event, nothing comes close.
“So, the American players are saying that you have this massive money machine, yet the talent who are playing in it is not being paid to play. And if I’m being honest, I can understand where they are coming from if they weren’t already being very well compensated for what they were doing.”
The USA payment saga isn’t new, however. The 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline was nearly boycotted after several players voiced concerns ahead of the event.
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