Play for pay at Presidents and Ryder Cups? Stipends are the new charitable contribution at Presidents Cup — and Ryder Cup may not be far behind

MONTREAL – Money makes the world go round. Over the past few years, we’ve seen all too well how greed is harming golf. It’s infiltrated the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup too, team events where there is no purse.

Golfweek has learned that the 24 players and nine captains who participated in the Presidents Cup last month received a “stipend” of $250,000 that they can do with as they please. That is a departure from previous decades when the competitors were not paid for their participation, but each competitor allocated an equal portion of the funds generated to charities of his choice.

“As part of the Tour’s overall total compensation program, distributions for the Presidents Cup have been adjusted to reflect the changing landscape of charitable giving, allowing players and captains the flexibility to support their respective foundations or personal charitable priorities,” the Tour said in a statement to Golfweek.

According to the Tour, $56.4 million has been donated from event proceeds since the inception of the Presidents Cup in 1994, including a guarantee of at least $1 million to the host site (since 2022). That’s nothing to sneeze at but in past years, the PGA Tour proudly boasted of the charitable contributions made by the players. As recently as 2019, the event media guide listed the charity and donation amount given by each individual player dating to 1994 – including how Tiger Woods gave to the Tiger Woods Learning Center and later simply to the Tiger Woods Foundation, Mike Weir to the Notah Begay Foundation, Fred Couples to the Frank Sinatra Foundation, Ernie Els to Els for Autism, Webb Simpson and Bill Haas to Wake Forest Athletics and Justin Thomas, Jimmy Walker and Patrick Reed among players who gave to the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA).

When I couldn’t find that information readily available this time, I inquired with the media relations staff thinking it would make a nice story – how about that Scottie Scheffler, what a swell guy he is. Turned out I stumbled on a bigger story in that Presidents Cup team members – including captains and assistant captains – no longer are mandated to make a charitable donation (although those spoken to by Golfweek claimed they still would do so).

Prior to 2022, each player, captain and captain’s assistant received $150,000 to give to a charity/charities of their choice. Starting in 2022, players and captains receive $250,000 of which they are able to use as they see fit and are not required to disclose how or where they direct the funds. According to multiple members of Team USA, this decision was made to unburden the Tour from having to coordinate and reimburse all of the travel expenses for the support teams – coaches, trainers, family, etc. – and put the onus back on the player to make the arrangements out of their stipend. But that stipend has grown to $250,000, equal to top 10 money at the Zozo Championship last week or the same as No. 31 (Brian Harman) received in FedEx Cup bonus money. An extra $100K should cover expenses and leave a good chunk of change to give more to charity.

Does this change have anything to do with the threat of LIV Golf and players having more leverage? The timing of the change – ahead of the 2022 Presidents Cup and during the rise of LIV Golf – fits the timeline of when the top pros received a number of concessions initiated to retain their loyalty –and this likely was an easy one to be rubber stamped by senior management without reaching the board level. Adding to the suspicion: It was a change that went unspoken.

The PGA Tour didn’t provide answers to a handful of specific questions but did send a statement. Over the past 25 years, the Presidents Cup has impacted more than 475 charities in 18 countries worldwide. With many of the Tour players choosing to support charities in their local communities, the Tour promised to give back a certain amount to the local community.

“The charitable mission of the Presidents Cup remains unchanged,” the Tour said in a written statement. “The current charitable distribution plan guarantees a lasting impact in the host city or region of at least $1 million,” said Matt Rapp, the Tour’s Senior Vice President, Championship Management, which runs the Presidents Cup among several prominent Tour events.

In 2022, the Presidents Cup totaled an overall charitable contribution of $2 million with the majority directed to local Charlotte-based non-profit organizations, highlighted by $575,000 towards the Charlotte Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative (MREI). (The Presidents Cup earlier this year made a charitable donation of $100,000 to the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation.)

The statement continued: “As part of the Tour’s overall total compensation program, distributions for the Presidents Cup have been adjusted to reflect the changing landscape of charitable giving, allowing players and captains the flexibility to support their respective foundations or personal charitable priorities.”

Left unclear is who initiated this increase from $200,000 to $250,000 and the change to a stipend where the players technically don’t have to give any of it to charity. Are sponsors such as Cognizant and Rolex aware that it is no longer a requirement for each competitor to allocate an equal portion of the funds generated to charities of his choice? And what impact will this change have on the Ryder Cup? At the Presidents Cup, Golf.com’s Nick Piastkowski asked several players during their allotted press conference whether players should be compensated for their participation in the biennial events.

“That question is a bit of a grenade, to be honest,” Xander Schauffele said. “I think there’s no place for a player to talk about prize money in this sort of event. That’s for other people to decide. Our preference is our preference. We’re here and we’re happy to play amongst each other and represent our country.

“It’s such a hot topic, but I think it’s pretty brutal to ask any player that because there’s no right answer a player can give you.”

“I don’t know. I haven’t really spent much time thinking about it,” Max Homa said. “I could play devil’s advocate to both. One, like these events make a ton of money and we are on TV playing the golf. But on the other side of the coin, I think we have been given so much as professional golfers and to get to do this is about as fun as you’ll ever have. So to do it for free is also fine.

“I get everyone’s point of view. I don’t think it should ever really be a hot-button topic. I don’t think it’s the end of the world either way. I get why there’s — why it can become a talking point. I just don’t think that it’s a massive issue either way.”

It certainly became a hot-button topic at the most recent Ryder Cup. For Rome, which hosted in 2023, U.S. players received $200,000 to donate to charities of their choice. With prices skyrocketing for tickets to $750 on the weekend at Bethpage Black for the 2025 edition, it begs the question of what does that mean for the player’s cut? A PGA of America official said that it is “currently reviewing that program and an announcement would be made before the beginning of the year.”

Golfweek has learned that the figure is expected to rise and at least match and possibly top the amount given to players in the Presidents Cup. In addition, sources say that the amount will become a stipend as well rather than a direct payment to a charity of the player’s choice. The play-for-pay debate heated up at last year’s Ryder Cup when it was reported that Patrick Cantlay refused to wear a Team USA hat in protest. Cantlay has repeatedly stated that this had nothing to do with him playing hatless and that he is proud to represent his country and pour all of his energy into winning points for his team.

Schauffele’s father, Stefan, was the most outspoken in addressing these growing concerns that while it is a romantic notion that these team competitions have no purse and the players are playing for country and pride, there’s a competing sense of the players being exploited as the events have become enormous cash cows for the non-profit associations.

“If they make profit off this and finance their organization of almost 29,000 [PGA of America] members for four years with the proceeds earned on the backs of these guys here, well, then they should share or they shouldn’t be allowed to do that,” Stefan told reporters in Rome.

The Ryder Cup charitable contributions began 25 years ago after a player protest became public at the 1999 British Open. After much debate about how the Ryder Cup profits were disbursed, players received $100,000. Several prominent American players, including Mark O’Meara and Payne Stewart, indicated they had concerns about what was happening to the millions of dollars generated by an event that has become a fifth major championship. O’Meara argued that players should be paid more than what was a $5,000 travel stipend at the time for the event.

In an Aug. 11, 1999 story in the Washington Post, Tiger Woods said: “I would like to see us receive whatever the amount is, whether it’s $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 and I think we should be able to keep the money and do whatever we see fit. I personally would donate all of it to charity. With all the money that’s being made, we should have a say in where it goes.”

Woods, who is now on the Tour’s board of directors and was the captain of the 2019 Presidents Cup team (and certainly in line to be Ryder Cup whenever he sees it), is finally getting what he always wanted.

U.S. team member Tony Finau said he would still be designating his stipend to charity through the Tony Finau Foundation. “Almost all of it minus my expenses to get there,” he said. Finau’s foundation improves the lives of inner city kids in Salt Lake City. Finau, who is an advocate for literacy, said proceeds from being a member of the U.S. side at five of the last six Cups helped his foundation fund the opening of a literary center in August and hire a teacher who is offering ESL classes.

Stewart Cink, who served as a U.S. assistant captain, said his foundation splits its financial giving between a neo-natal intensive care unit and breast cancer center in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta where he lives, and a ministry.

“We’re in it for babies and mamas,” he said. “To be a part of something like this and know it’s a charity event and in the end the winners are the communities and Montreal. It just reinforces how great a game golf is.”

Patrick Cantlay has made junior golf in Southern California one of his foundation’s top priority, underwriting four elite tournaments including a finale at Virginia Country Club, where he grew up. He also supports college scholarships via the First Responders Children Foundation.

Jason Day said he would give 100 percent of his stipend to Brighter Days Foundation, the foundation he started with his wife, Ellie, which benefits the likes of Habitat for Humanity, Blessings in a Backpack and the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Only South Korean Tom Kim said he didn’t have a specific charity he supported.

Is it still accurate to say that players aren’t paid to participate in the team competitions? That’s more of a gray area than ever but 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley may have provided the truest comment of all.

“Whether it was for a lot of money or no money, we would show up,” he said.