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Since the turn of the century, Team Europe has absolutely beaten the brakes off of Team USA in the Ryder Cup. The Europeans are 8-3 against the Americans in that span and have never lost on home soil, while also claiming a pair of victories on American soil.
There have been plenty of hypotheses about why this is. Some years, the Europeans just had a better team. Other times they’ve had the benefit of a raucous European crowd and a course setup that plays to their advantage. But recent comments by Irish duo Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry appear to show the real difference.
Shane Lowry And Rory McIlroy Comments Signify Major Difference In Ryder Cup Teams
In response to recent reports that the PGA of America will pay Team USA players $400,000 to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, both McIlroy and Lowry said that they have neither need, nor interest in being paid to play in the legendary event.
“I personally would pay for the privilege,” McIlroy told BBC Radio via the Irish Independent.“I’ve talked about this a lot. I think the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics. And it’s partly because of that, the purity of no money being involved.”
While Lowry laughed off the idea of paying in order to play, he did say that he doesn’t need or want to be paid for it.
“I can only speak for myself. I don’t really care whether I did (get paid) or not, to be honest,” he said. “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.”
Now, let’s compare that to Team USA. The Americans laid an egg in 2023 at Marco Simone Golf Club in Italy despite entering as heavy favorites. At one point, reports emerged that the Team USA locker room was fractured, in part, due to the lack of pay.
That’s an absolutely massive divide. Clearly, the Ryder Cup means much more to European players than it does to American players. And while that doesn’t solely account for the difference in success, it’s a huge part.
The PGA of American clearly believes that paying players will fix that. But their logic might be flawed. Players are reportedly set to be paid a flat fee to play in the event. So what’s the additional incentive to win? They get paid regardless of the result. There is no win bonus. There is no incentive structure, just another check to cash
Until Team USA starts taking some serious pride in its play, it will continue to get its butt kicked.