Mcllroy: “I’d Pay For The Privilege To Play Ryder Cup”.

10 months ago by Comments Off on Mcllroy: “I’d Pay For The Privilege To Play Ryder Cup”.

The growing debate as to whether or not Ryder Cup players should be renumerated to represent their respective USA or European teams has taken another step with seven-time European star Rory McIlroy declaring: “I personally would pay for the privilege”.

Mcllroy’s comments come after fellow Irishman Shane Lowry and 2014 victorious European captain Paul McGinley spoke of their dislike if American golfers were paid to tee-up next September at Bethpage Park Black

See: http://www.golfbytourmiss.com/2024/11/lowry-on-being-payed-to-play-ryder-cup-i-dont-care-whether-i-get-paid-or-not/

McIlroy has played on seven straight European teams since his debut in 2010 but not for a moment would McIlroy have thought that in representing Europe and also competing in an Olympic Games, as he did in August this year, that he would be getting paid.

“I’ve talked about this a lot.I think the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics. And it’s partly because of that, the purity of no money being involved”, said McIlroy speaking with the BBC after posting an opening 67 to be sharing the lead after day one of season-ending DP World Tour Championship.

“Look, it was a discussion that was happening in Rome. I can see the other side of the argument, because the Ryder Cup does create, as you know, a lot of revenue.

“It’s one of the probably top five biggest sporting events in the world.  So I get the argument that the talent you know should be or could be getting paid.

“But I just think that the Ryder Cup is so much more than that, especially to to the Europeans and to this tour.

“We’ve all had a conversation with look about it over the past few weeks, because we obviously heard, and I think the common consensus amongst us is that, you know, whatever that would be to pay the team $5 million would be better offspent elsewhere on the DP World Tour to support other events, even to support the Challenge Tour.

“So, yeah, I don’t think any of the Europeans who are players… I think for us, I don’t want to say, taints it, but it would give it a different feel.

“And I think what we’ve done a really good job of is, is being this really cohesive, collective group over the past decade, and we wouldn’t want anything to change that.“

The BBC also asked McIlroy what he thought of how the ‘dynamics’ of what is now the third biggest sporting event on the globe may change if one team was being paid and the other was not.

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t think any of the 24 players on either team needs that 400 grand”, he said.

“I mean, every two years there’s 104 weeks and 103 weeks you can play golf and get paid.

“I’d say that’s reasonable enough. So again, it won’t change anything on our side.You know, it could look it could call into question. Obviously, there’s been conversation around how high the ticket prices are. Obviously the tickets are sold out, and that’s that’s great for the event.

“But if the PGA of America is looking to make more money out of the Ryder Cup, or the players are starting to be paid, that ultimately comes from the people that are paying to watch the event. So it’s a it’s a double edged sword.

“But again, I understand both sides of the argument, but I think the European consensus is that we, we don’t want anything to change what we have over here. So we probably, you know, won’t be getting paid for for Bethpage, which is totally fine.”

“Again, there’s two different sides of the coin,” he also said to the BBC.

“I’m not criticising at all because if the Ryder Cup generates $100 to $200million in revenue, you would think that the talent should probably have a piece of that.

“That’s never been the way the way it has been. So I think, from a European perspective, we don’t want anything to change because of how good it’s been over these last few years.

“But I think it’s more than reasonable that if you put an event on and that event creates so much revenue, that some of that revenue should flow back to the talent, but it just hasn’t been that way in the Ryder Cup.

“So I just think it’s a massive change compared to what it has been. And as I said, every other tournament, we get a percentage of that revenue every 103 weeks out of 104 and you know, I think going back to that purity aspect.

“It makes the competition seem a little less pure, but again, it won’t change anything from a European perspective, because it seems like the common consensus is that we would all welcome money if it didn’t change the dynamic of what we had.

“But I think the money coming in would really change the dynamic of what we had. So that’s why everyone’s like, you know, let’s, let’s just not do that.“

What we need now is to hear from the Americans.

 



Comments are closed.