Team captain Bradley defends US player pay at Ryder Cup

FARMINGDALE, New York :Team USA captain Keegan Bradley defended a plan to pay U.S. players at the Ryder Cup on Monday, arguing that the break from tradition at Bethpage Black in New York would bring the competition into "today's age."

U.S. players will each get $500,000 - with $300,000 of that going to charity and the remaining $200,000 serving as a stipend - the PGA of America announced last year, an increase from the $200,000 that had been designated only for charity since 1999.

European Ryder Cup Team members do not get paid and Europe's captain Luke Donald told members of the British media this week that the U.S. players risk having the home crowd turn on them over the issue of pay.

"If the U.S. players are getting paid a stipend, or whatever it is, and they aren't performing, the New Yorkers could make them know about it," Donald said, according to reports.

Bradley, who said he planned to donate his stipend in addition to the money earmarked for charity, pushed back as a reporter suggested the pay-for-play approach had "questionable" optics.

"I don't really get that, but I think the goal here was that the charity dollars hadn't been raised in 25, 26 years," he said ahead of Friday's start to the biennial match play competition.

"These players are going to do the right thing and do a lot of really good with this money."

The topic of player compensation came up during the Americans' disastrous 2023 campaign in Rome, when Patrick Cantlay declined to wear a Team USA hat in what some reports suggested was an act of protest.

Top-calibre golfers are among the best compensated athletes in all of professional sports.

"I'm not concerned about what Europe does or what they think. I'm concerned about what my team is doing," said