In the absence of Ian Poulter, Shane Lowry has become the heartbeat of the European Ryder Cup team and he insists his passion can’t be bought as he weighed in on the reports that the USA team could be paid $400,000 per player at next year’s contest.
According to reports the $400,000 figure is likely to be ratified for the biennial bash at Bethpage Black. US players already receive $200,000 for charitable causes but this money would now go straight to their bank accounts and whether they donate or not would be at their own discretion.
If this motion gets passed then it would be the first time players were remunerated in the contest’s 97-year history. At the recent Presidents Cup, all 24 players earned a “stipend” of $250,000, rather than a proportion of funds allocated to charity.
As it stands, there are no plans for the Team Europe players to be paid and Lowry says representing Europe in the Ryder Cup is a privilege and whether he was paid or not would have no impact on his motivation to secure a first away win for Luke Donald’s side since 2012.
“I don’t really care whether I did (get paid) or not to be honest,” admitted Lowry. “You know, the Ryder Cup is a privilege, and it’s what I work for. It’s what I’ve worked for for the last ten, 15 years, to be able to play Ryder Cups, and I’ve been fortunate to do two of them and have great experiences at them and build my brand playing Ryder Cups. I love the tournament and I just want to be involved. I don’t care whether I get paid or not.
I think obviously we’re The European Tour. They are The PGA of America. They are not the PGA TOUR. They are The PGA of America. It’s their call, not our call. It’s up to the powers that be what happens there.
‘We don’t need any more motivation to go next year and win.”
At last year’s contest in Marco Simone, the pay for play debate exploded when Patrick Cantlay was reported to refuse to wear a team USA cap in protest – an allegation he denies. While Xander Schauffele’s father Stefan is on the record saying these competitions having no purse is a romantic notion and that players are being exploited as these events have become enormous cash cows for the non-profit associations.
The prospect of a Ryder Cup boycott over player compensation has popped up on occasion particularly in 1999 while Tiger Woods has previously claimed that players should be compensated for playing.
The Ryder Cup is a crucial cash injection for the DP World Tour to fund various projects with EBITDA of £9.4m from Ryder Cup companies was registered in 2023.
Sponsorship revenue from the 2023 Ryder Cup jumped 153 percent from the Paris 2018 figure.
Calls for player compensation in the Ryder Cup have usually been USA player dominated, while the European captains are known to hand out gifts to their 12-player panels, a tradition that began in 1983 under Tony Jacklin.
Some suggest that the Ryder Cup is a chance for players to give back once every two years but Lowry has never considered it that way.
“Yeah, we all know in Europe that the tour lives off the Ryder Cup and it helps run the Tour,” added Lowry. “Not that we’re happy to be a part of something — like you don’t think about it when you’re there. You know that obviously the Ryder Cup makes a lot of money and it helps run The European Tour, the DP World Tour.
“And you’re not even giving back because it’s a privilege to be there, you know what I mean. Like I’d give anything to in know that I’m on the team next year. I’m going to spend the next ten months stressing my head off trying to make the team.”
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