{"id":245669,"date":"2025-09-22T06:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/245669\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T06:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:09:13","slug":"luke-donald-issues-warning-to-us-team-on-eve-of-2025-ryder-cup-that-could-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/245669\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Donald issues warning to US team on eve of 2025 Ryder Cup: “That could happen”"},"content":{"rendered":"

European <\/strong>Ryder Cup<\/strong><\/a> captain Luke Donald has warned the US players they risk losing support from their own fans if they under-perform, especially since they are being paid to compete in the biennial event.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The PGA of America confirmed last December that all 12 members of Keegan Bradley<\/a>‘s team will receive $500,000 each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Of that sum of money, $300,000 will go to charitable causes but the golfers are free to do whatever they want with the remainder of their “stipend”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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US captain Bradley has already pledged to give away every penny but it remains to be seen whether his team will follow suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Justin <\/p>\n

Justin Thomas<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The governing body that oversees the US arm of the Ryder Cup previously stressed that no player directly asked to be compensated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Former PGA of America chief executive Seth Waugh previously confirmed to Golfweek that the players “didn’t really” ask for compensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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But they “asked a lot of questions”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Waugh said: “You know, [they asked] ‘Why are we growing the game on the back of me?’ kind of thing. Which I understand, but it’s on the back of everybody.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But no, nobody ever specifically said I want to get paid. There are obviously implications of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve been talking for 25 years about being paid, and now it’ll be how much are we getting paid.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plenty took a dismal view of the position that no player asked for compensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Especially amid reports Patrick Cantlay was so annoyed that he wasn’t being paid to participate he decided not to wear a team cap at Marco Simone as a protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cantlay<\/a> has always strenuously denied this was the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Donald has warned the US team, though, that should Bradley’s red, white and blue not perform then they too could face the wrath of the New York crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“We all know how high the ticket prices are, averaging out at around $750 each. So it’s going to be an expensive trip out for a family of four.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If the US players are getting paid, and they aren’t performing, the New Yorkers could make them know about it.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Europe’s strategic advisor, former captain Paul McGinley, told reporters last week at Wentworth it was obvious the money issue was bubbling under the surface when the matches were played in Rome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Patrick <\/p>\n

Patrick Cantlay<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

McGinley said the US golfers were “greedy” for “rattling the money tree” despite the elite being paid gargantuan sums of money since LIV Golf<\/a> entered the picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Donald<\/a> sought the views of all the players involved in the Italian job at Marco Simone<\/p>\n

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The word back was a resounding “no”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy declared he would pay for the privilege of competing in the Ryder Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“That speaks to what the Ryder Cup means to these guys,” Donald added.<\/p>\n

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“A couple hundred thousand dollars to them isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“Those weeks of the Ryder Cup, they are the best weeks. There’s so much more to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“We certainly don’t need any motivation or monetary rewards to get us up.<\/p>\n

“Their voices are important. Everyone was like, ‘we haven’t even considered playing for money for that event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“‘We just don’t see that. We understand what it represents. We have a great purpose, and that\u2019s really enough for us’.<\/p>\n

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“And we understand that the Ryder Cup profits go to help the European Tour Group, and the grass roots of golf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“We talk a lot about this \u2013 we are here to inspire the next generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think our purpose, why we play the Ryder Cup, is pretty strong. And that\u2019s enough for this week.”<\/p>\n

The 2025 Ryder Cup gets underway next Friday.<\/p>\n

Keep checking GolfMagic<\/strong> for all the latest news, opinion and analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

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Related:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald has warned the US players they risk losing support from their own…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":245670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,102015,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-245669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-luke-donald","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115246462914149952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}