Rory McIlroy 'Would Pay For The Privilege' Of Playing In The Ryder Cup

Rory McIlroy says he would "pay for the privilege" of playing in the Ryder Cup, and feels adding financial rewards for players would ruin the "purity" of the event.

Debated has raged on Ryder Cup payments after a Telegraph report that Team USA would get $400,000 a man for the 2025 event at Bethpage Black.

McIlroy says that none of the 24 players involved in next year's Ryder Cup need an extra $400,000, and while he's not opposed to players getting paid, he's worried it would "change the dynamic" of the event.

“I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy told BBC Sport as he had his say on the debate.

“The two purist forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and Olympics partly because of the purity of no money being involved.

“I don’t think any of the 24 players on either team needs the $400,000. Every two years we play there’s 104 weeks and for 103 you can play golf and can get paid so that’s reasonable enough.

“It would make the competition seem a little less pure but it wouldn’t change anything from a European perspective. We would all welcome the money if it didn’t change the dynamic of what we had but I think it would change the dynamic.”

McIlroy can see the argument for player payments, given the enormous revenue the Ryder Cup generates, but from a European team's perspective they would rather the cash was spent on supporting the golfing pyramid on the continent.

"I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup does create a lot of revenue it’s one of the top five biggest sporting events in the world so I get the argument that the talent could be getting paid," McIlroy added.

"We have all had a conversation with Luke about it over the past few weeks because we obviously heard [about the USA payments].

"The common consensus among us is that $5m would be better off spent elsewhere on the DP World Tour to support other events or even to support The Challenge Tour."

McIlroy also had sympathy for fans who were priced out of attending the Ryder Cup due to prices of $750 for a match day ticket, but the PGA of America announcing they had already sold out shows the demand is there.

“It makes us look very unrelatable to the average person on the street because of how much money is being pumped into the game,” McIlroy said.

“But at the same time that’s not our fault in a way. There’s people willing to pay what they are willing to pay and we are fortunate to be in the position, we’ve been in the right place at the right time."

But when it all comes down to it, although McIlroy does feel it makes sense for the "talent" to be rewarded for playing in the event, he's still doesn't want that to be introduced for the European team.

“There’s two sides to the coin. I’m not criticising at all because if the Ryder Cup generates $100-200m in revenue you would think the talent should have a piece of that.

"That’s not the way it has been and as Europeans we don’t want to change because of how good it has been the last few years but it’s more than reasonable that if you put an event on and it creates so much revenue that some of it should flow back to the talent but it hasn’t been that way in the Ryder Cup and it’s a massive change.

"But the Ryder Cup is so much more than that, especially to the Europeans and to this tour."