‘Sad commentary’: Brandel Chamblee slams pros reportedly seeking Ryder Cup pay

When a report broke this week that the PGA of America is considering paying U.S. Ryder Cup players for the first time in history, European players such as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were quick to register their disagreement. Now Brandel Chamblee is jumping into the fray.

On Tuesday, James Corrigan of The Telegraph reported that the PGA is nearing agreement on a plan to pay American Ryder Cup members $400,000 to compete for their country at Bethpage Black next year.

When asked about the report, McIlroy and Lowry, two stars of the European Ryder Cup team, came out against the idea, with McIlroy telling the Irish Golfer he “would pay for the privilege to play the Ryder Cup,” and Lowry similarly telling reporters at the DP World Tour Championship that he didn’t care about getting paid because “the Ryder Cup is a privilege.”

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Wednesday night, Chamblee, a former Tour pro and longtime Golf Channel analyst with a penchant for supporting the traditional aspects of the game, took to X to share his own displeasure with the Ryder Cup pay idea.

He first acknowledged that Rory “hits the nail on the head,” before unloading on a “few players with misdirected and undo power” who he claims are treating the entire game of golf as “transactional.”

Chamblee went further, declaring that those same players are causing recreational golfers, whom he called “the lifeblood of the game,” to turn “away from those that play it professionally.”

In addition to a “commentary on greed” about Michelangelo, Chamblee shared his own difficulty accepting the ways in which the game of golf is being transformed by money, stating, “the increasing commoditization of this game is a tough pill to swallow.”

You can read Chamblee’s comments in full below.

“Once again Rory hits the nail on the head. It’s a sad commentary on the professional game that a few players with misdirected and undo power treat every aspect of this game, including the privilege of playing for one’s country, as transactional. They are the reason the very lifeblood of this game, which is to say those that play it recreationally, are increasingly turning away from those that play it professionally.”

The increasing commoditization of this game is a tough pill to swallow. I recently read a commentary on greed that went something like this: Think of Michelangelo, who in seeking to merely honor the glory of man, carved the statue of David, and wanting to highlight the capacity that humans have for compassionate suffering, he carved the Pieta.

Neither of these masterpieces were motivated by money, they were motivated by wanting to draw the human spirit upward.

To play at the highest level, players have to rediscover the reason to pursue the highest level. And it is not for money. It is merely striving to take full advantage of one’s talents and resources to simply see how good they can become. And occasionally give back to the game by playing for one’s country.

And, dare I say, for the privilege of it, and not the profit of it.”

The controversy over Ryder Cup pay is not a new one. It first bubbled up at last year’s Ryder Cup in Rome, when a report alleged that U.S. team member Patrick Cantlay refused to wear a Team USA hat at the competition in protest of not getting paid.

The report, which Cantlay denied, set off intrigue on the course, with fans jeering at Cantlay and U.S. players. Eventually it set off a near dust-up among players and caddies on Saturday night that continued off the course in the parking lot.

The hot-button issue has extended to the Presidents Cup. Golfweek reported that U.S. Presidents Cup players at the 2024 event were given a $250,000 stipend to do with as they please, a change from the past when players were only able to donate their portion of the Presidents Cup funds to charity.

The 2025 Ryder Cup gets underway Friday, September 26th, 2025, at Bethpage Black in New York.