The PGA of America’s decision to pay its players for the Ryder Cup in 2025 has caused quite the stir in the media this week and Rich Beem has now joined in with his own opinion.
Team USA are set to be paid around $400,000 each at the event in New York and it’s safe to say that the yet to be 100% confirmed call has caused a fuss.
Indeed, Dame Laura Davies has slammed the Americans as a ‘disgrace‘, as she agreed with Rory McIlroy’s stance on the matter.
Brandel Chamblee has also echoed the comments of McIlroy and Davies as he criticised the Americans for being motivated by money.
And adding weight from the pundit side, Sky’s Rich Beem has become the latest to hit out at Team USA.
Rich Beem says why Team USA’s Ryder Cup stance is ‘kind of sad’
Speaking on Sky Sports about the decision to pay the players on the American side, popular Sky Sports pundit and former major winner Rich Beem conceded it was a poor look all around.
“I really don’t see that as a positive development. And to be fair, I think that the chatter around players should be paid to play in the Ryder Cup – at least from the American side – has been going on since I played back in the 2000s when Phil Mickelson and Tiger kind of hinted at it,” Beem said.
“Look I think Jamie Weir was spot on last year when he got a whiff of it, saying that the Americans, especially Patrick Cantlay, why he’s not wearing a hat is kind of in defiance of the Ryder Cup money that’s coming in for the PGA of America and DP World Tour.
“I think it’s kind of sad. I think the honour of playing in the Ryder Cup, with all the history, all the great players in the game, the hall of famers, why the players feel they need to get paid? I would imagine the budget that’s spent on each and every one of them, not only during that week but leading up to it.
“The gifts, every part of what goes on. The clothing, the swag, you name it, they already have a massive budget anyway so for them to feel like they need to get paid in saying and using the fact that PGA of America makes a lot of money on it, but they’re also spending a lot of money on these players in the weeks leading up to it.”
What have other players made of the Ryder Cup payment story?
Clearly, as Beem mentions here, this is something that the Americans have been talking about for some time and he referenced Tiger Woods in his quotes.
Woods has been outspoken in the past on the matter and has called for players to have access to the money to decide themselves where it goes.
“I would like to see us receive whatever the amount is – 200, 300, 400, 500,000 dollars, whatever it is – and I think we should be able to keep the money and do whatever we see fit,” Woods said.
“Personally, I would donate all of it to charity. But I think it’s up to the other person’s discretion what they would do with it. With all the money that’s being made, I think that we should have a say in where it goes.”
After this latest announcement, European player Shane Lowry has said he doesn’t care for being paid, while Tyrrell Hatton backed that stance as well.
It seems, then, that Team USA have scored a bit of an own goal here and could be in for more and more scrutiny as the event nears.
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