Keegan Bradley defends Team USA payments for 45th Ryder Cup

The home players in this week’s contest at Bethpage Black on Long Island are being given $500,000 for competing, with $300,000 having to be donated to charity while the remaining $200,000 had been labelled a stipend.

Patrick Reed, who earned the nickname ‘Captain America’ after making his debut at Gleneagles in 2014, believes the payment is “unnecessary”, with the European players insisting they will never seek monetary reward for playing in the biennial bout.

Bradley was asked about the American players being paid as he appeared alongside his opposite number, Luke Donald, in the first official press conference on Monday at this week’s venue outside New York.

“Well, the PGA of America came to me, they wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into the present day,” said Bradley. “The charity dollars hadn't changed since 1999 and they asked me to sort of shepherd their way into making it into 2025.”

As for how the money is being dispensed, he added: “I think for everyone it's a personal decision. A lot of guys aren't comfortable sharing what they're going to do with their money, but we're going to donate.

“For us, the PGA of America, this happens after the Ryder Cup, so this is something that we'll worry about after. But, ultimately, the PGA of America asked me to help out with this and this is the best way we came up with to do it.”

How US players use Ryder Cup money is ‘personal decision’

Bradley, who is bidding to win the trophy back after Team USA’s heavy defeat in Rome two years ago, was asked why he’d decided to donate the full amount to charity when he didn’t need to.

“I think that's a personal decision,” he insisted. “I don't donate to charities to publicise what we're doing. These guys on our team are incredible people, and they do a lot of incredible things with charity dollars and with their foundations. A lot of them aren't comfortable sharing that sort of information, and I feel the same way.”

Speaking in the build up to the match, Donald said he reckoned the New York fans, having had to cough up $750 for a ticket, could turn on the Americans over the payment issue if they underperformed this week.

“Well, I'm not concerned about what Europe does or what they think,” said Bradley in reply to being asked if the fact it could be perceived that by being happy to play for nothing, people could think the Ryder Cup meant more to Donald’s players. “I'm concerned about what my team is doing.

We wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into today's age

“I was tasked with a job the PGA of America asked me to do, and this was what we decided. We wanted to bring the Ryder Cup into today's age, and we felt like this was the best way to do it.

“We copied a lot of what the Presidents Cup does. We did the best we could, and I think a lot of good is going to come from this. I think the players are going to do a lot of good with this money, and I think it's great.”

It was then put to him that the optics of players being paid to play in this event are questionable when they are already earning mountains of money on either the PGA Tour or the LIV Golf League.

“I don't really get that,” he insisted, “but I think the goal here was that the charity dollars hadn't been raised in 25, 26 years, and that's what we started out doing.

“These players are going to do the right thing and do a lot of really good with this money. You can say that, but I think that the players are really good people and are going to do a lot of good things.”

Before playing their first official practice round on Monday morning, Bradley and his players stood together on the first tee as the US national anthem was played. “That was a really fun time to be out there with those guys and share that moment,” he said of that act of unity.