NASSAU, Bahamas – In the late 1990s, Tiger Woods found himself on the wrong side of a move to compensate U.S. Ryder Cup players, so news last month that the PGA of America was considering a similar plan was welcomed by the 15-time major champion.
“I would have to say that going back to my playing days, we had the same conversation back in ’99, we didn’t want to get paid, we wanted to give more money to charity, and the media turned it around against us and said we want to get paid,” Woods said Tuesday at the Hero World Challenge. “The Ryder Cup itself makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities?
“I hope they would get $5 million each and donate it all to charity, different charities. I think it’s great. What’s wrong with that?”
According to a report in The Telegraph last month, the PGA of America is poised to pay U.S. players $400,000 to play next year’s matches at Bethpage Black, although it’s unclear whether that money would go directly to the players or a charity of their choosing.
Some European players pushed back on the notion of getting paid to play the matches, including Rory McIlroy. “I personally would pay for the privilege to play on the Ryder Cup,” he told BBC Sports last month.
“If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that’s their decision to do that, that’s their team,” Woods said. “I know when it’s on European soil that it subsidizes most of their tour, so it is a big event for the European tour and if they want to pay to play in it, so be it.”
Woods and a few U.S. players, including Mark O’Meara, were criticized in 1999 for pushing the PGA of America to provide players a portion of the proceeds from the matches. The PGA ultimately allocated $100,000 to each player’s charity for the Brookline matches. It has since provided charitable contributions per player, as much as $200,000.
