Tiger Woods Wants U.S. Ryder Cup Players to Be Paid, Under One Condition

Speaking at his Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods said he supports players getting increased stipends next year, but he has a stipulation for it.

Tiger Woods, pictured during his vice captaincy at the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, said he favors players getting a share of the event's substantial profits as long as the money goes to charity. / Rob Schumacher-Imagn Images

NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods is in favor of U.S. Ryder Cup team members sharing more in the immense profits the event generates but insisted it is always been about earmarking the money for charity.

Woods has plenty of experience with the matter and noted his own involvement going back to the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, where the issue first caused controversy, with suggestions at the time that were quelled by then-captain Ben Crenshaw that there might be a player boycott.

The 15-time major champion said Tuesday much of the conversation at the time was misconstrued.

“We didn’t want to get paid; we wanted to give more money to charity,” Woods said at the Albany Resort, where he will serve as host but not play in this week’s Hero World Challenge. “The media turned it around against us and said we want to get paid. No, the Ryder Cup makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities?

“What’s wrong with each player, 12 players, getting a million dollars and doling it out to any amazing charities that they’re involved in, that they can help out in their hometowns, all the different junior golf associations or endeavors that the members are involved in?

“We allocate funds to build help our sport or help things that we believe in back home because it’s so hard to get onto that team. There are only 12 guys.”

Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time since he missed the cut at the British Open in July, Woods was asked a bevy of questions in a 30-minute news conference in advance of the 20-player tournament that begins Thursday.

Woods is recovering from a microdecompression surgery on Sept. 13 that was performed due to nerve impingement in his lower back.

Last month, the Telegraph reported that the PGA of America was to consider a proposal to have each player on the U.S. Ryder Cup team receive $400,000. There was no mention of charitable funds. The organization now gives each player $200,000 that is directed to a charity of their choice, a continuation of a policy that was put in place back in the 1999 timeframe Woods referenced.

Asked what the messaging should be on this issue going forward, Woods said: “Make it clear that whatever money they get will go to charity. I hope they get $5 million each and donate it all to charity, different charities. I think it’s great.”

Leading up to the 1999 event, the pay was a big topic, led mostly by Mark O’Meara and David Duval. Woods, too, was involved and was quoted at the time saying that money distribution should be looked at.

“It’s completely unfair, the way it is now,” he said then. “I played in one (1997) and didn’t enjoy it at all. It’s like ‘pros on parade.’ They take us to a bunch of functions that raise money, yet everybody is compensated except us. Let’s take some of that money and spread it around.”

Duval took a majority of the heat but did acknowledge the need for the money to go to charity.

It is also often forgotten that at the time, one of the World Golf Championship events, the NEC Invitational, only invited players who were part of the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. It was an indirect form of payment.

Now, there’s been considerable pushback on the idea of pay for the Ryder Cup, especially in light of all the money talk in the game and the fact that the European side is not in favor of getting paid and won’t.

“I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup, Rory McIlroy said two weeks ago in Dubai, ahead of his victory at the DP World Tour Championship. “I have come a long way in this, especially with the Olympics but the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and Olympics partly because of the purity of no money being involved.

“It was a discussion that was happening at the last Ryder Cup in Rome. I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup does create a lot of revenue. It’s one of the top five biggest sporting events in the world so I get the argument that the talent could be getting paid.

“The Ryder Cup is so much more than that, especially to the Europeans and this tour. We’ve all had a conversation about it with (European captain) Luke (Donald) because we obviously heard (about the possible U.S. plans) and the common consensus is that the $5 million paid to the team would be better spent on the DP World Tour to support other events and even to support the Challenge Tour.

“For us, it would give it a different feel, what we have done a very good job of is being a very cohesive group over the last decade and we wouldn’t want anything to change that.”

Woods said he understood the European side.

“That's fine, that's their right to say that,” said Woods, who turned down the 2025 Ryder Cup captaincy. “I just think that the event is so big that I think that we can give so much money to different charities, and I've said that since ’99 when we had the Brookline negotiations. If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that's their decision to do that, that's their team. 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.”