Tiger Woods: I hope Ryder Cup players get $5 million each

Tiger Woods has waded into the Ryder Cup pay row.

The issue flared up once again at last year’s showdown in Rome, with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele believed to be among the aggressors, and last month it was reported that the American team would be handed a $4 million purse to split between them.

The notion of being paid to play in the Ryder Cup was quickly dismissed by a number of the European players, but speaking at his annual press conference ahead of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Woods said this is nothing new.

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“We had the same conversation back in ’99,” the 48-year-old explained. “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. No, the Ryder Cup itself makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities?

“What’s wrong with each of the 12 players getting a million dollars and giving it out to amazing charities that they’re involved in, that they can help out, whether it’s their hometowns where they’re from, all the different junior golf associations or endeavours that the members are involved in.

“This was never really about getting paid, it’s how can we allocate funds to be able to help our sport.

“Because it’s so hard to get onto that team, there’s only 12 guys, what’s wrong with being able to allocate more funds?”

When pressed on the current crop of stars looking for a Ryder Cup payday, Woods added: “I hope they get $5 million each, and donate it all to different charities.

“I think that’s great. What’s wrong with that?”

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Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton were among those turning their noses up at the thought of getting paid to play in the Ryder Cup, while Rory McIlroy said he would actually fork out to be pull on the famous yellow and blue.

“That’s their right to say that,” Woods continued. “I just think that event is so big 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 that when it’s on European soil it subsidises most of their tour, so it is a big event for the European Tour.

“If they want to pay to play in it, so be it.”

Meanwhile, Woods updated us on his latest injury setback before moving onto the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which still rely on the Department of Justice’s approval.

“All of us who have been part of this process would have thought that it would have happened quicker than this,” the 15-time major champion said. “But even if we had gotten a deal done by now, it’s still in the DOJ’s hands.

“We wish we would have had something more concrete and further along than we are right now, but things are very fluid.

“We’re still working through it, and it’s happening daily, from a policy board standpoint and an enterprise standpoint.”

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor