{"id":159969,"date":"2025-09-21T20:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159969\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:32:08","slug":"ryder-cup-home-crowd-could-turn-on-usa-team-at-bethpage-claims-luke-donald-ryder-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159969\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryder Cup home crowd could turn on USA team at Bethpage, claims Luke Donald | Ryder Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Donald has cranked up the heat on the United States Ryder Cup<\/a> team by claiming the home crowd at Bethpage from Friday may be more likely to turn on Keegan Bradley and his players because they are being paid to take on Europe. In what is a highly controversial move, Bradley and his 12-man side will each collect $500,000 (\u00a3370,000) \u2013 $300,000 of which must be directed towards charity, with the rest labelled a stipend \u2013 while the European contingent continue to perform at the Ryder Cup for free. Added to the mix is the fact that tickets start at $750 per tournament day.<\/p>\n

Much has been made of likely antipathy from the New York audience towards Donald and his players as Europe look to retain the trophy they won in Rome two years ago<\/a>. However, the Englishman believes USA could find themselves under intense gallery pressure if Europe gain an upper hand. \u201cThat could happen,\u201d said Donald. \u201cWe all know how high the ticket prices are, and it\u2019s going to be an expensive trip out for a family of four. If the US players are getting paid a stipend, or whatever it is, and they aren\u2019t performing, the New Yorkers could make them know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald, who also led Europe in 2023, seems comfortable that the visitors have avoided the cash element despite the Ryder Cup escalating as a commercial entity. \u201cI wanted to get ahead of this when I first heard about it last year and looked like it was likely going to happen,\u201d Donald said of the USA team being paid. \u201cI reached out to all the 12 guys from Rome to see how they felt. Their voices are important. Everyone was like: \u2018We haven\u2019t even considered playing for money for that event.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t see that. We understand what it represents. We have a great purpose and that\u2019s really enough for us. We understand that the money raised goes to help the European Tour Group and the grassroots. We talk a lot about this, we are here to inspire the next generation. So this money is going to good things. It will hopefully help future Ryder Cup players become great players. I think our purpose, why we play the Ryder Cup, is pretty strong and that\u2019s enough for that week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt speaks to what the Ryder Cup means to these guys. A couple of hundred thousand dollars to these guys isn\u2019t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. Those weeks of the Ryder Cup, they are the best weeks. There\u2019s so much more to them. We certainly don\u2019t need any motivation or monetary rewards to get us up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victorious European team in Rome in 2023. Photograph: Marco Iacobucci\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Donald\u2019s level of grit is often underplayed. The 47-year-old is softly spoken but lacks nothing in competitive steel. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of anger and a chip on my shoulder underneath,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to win. When I was No 1 in the world, I would look at any slight towards me and use that as motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly could have easily walked away a couple years ago after a great job in Rome and people were pleased. This is a great challenge. To have this opportunity, to push yourself to try to do something that\u2019s very difficult to do, that\u2019s pretty motivating for me. Hopefully we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Sunday night Donald could become the first European captain since Tony Jacklin to win home and away Ryder Cups. Recent records suggest he faces an uphill task, with the Europeans without a win on US soil since 2012, but the captain is keen to accentuate positives. Donald\u2019s 10 \u00bd points from 15 matches when a player stands out as an exceptional modern day return and was a key part of the Miracle of Medinah 13 years ago. Donald will be assisted in New York by Thomas Bj\u00f8rn, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, Alex Nor\u00e9n and the Molinari brothers, Edoardo and Francesco.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think not even just me but you look at the vice-captains,\u201d Donald said. \u201cBetween playing, vice-captains, captaining, we have been part of 35 Ryder Cups, the six of us, and we have won 29 of those, 83%. It\u2019s pretty good. I think our team has a lot of confidence in those guys. We have a lot of history. That\u2019s something to really feel confident about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously have to make some changes from the last couple [in the US] because those weren\u2019t very good. Between myself and the other vice captains that\u2019s kind of been our thinking, how do we make it a little bit closer and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Donald has cranked up the heat on the United States Ryder Cup team by claiming the home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-159969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}