Mark O’Meara on PGA of America paying players in Ryder Cup: ‘Should have listened to me in ’99’

ORLANDO — Mark O’Meara was ahead of his time back in 1999 when he was part of a group of PGA Tour players advocating for Ryder Cup players to be paid.

Now, he is wondering why it took so long to happen.

The PGA of America announced this week each member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team will receive $500,000, with $300,000 earmarked for charity. The remaining $200,000 is a stipend. While players are allowed to keep that money, it is expected some may donate that portion to charity.

Keegan Bradley, the Jupiter resident who was named captain of the 2026 team that will compete against Europe at Bethpage Black in Farmington, New York, in September, already said his entire check will go to charity.

“They should have listened to me in ’99,” O’Meara said Thursday after playing his pro-am round ahead of this weekend’s PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. O’Meara will play with his son, Shaun.

“Everybody around the Ryder Cup makes money. The guy’s putting on the show don’t make any money. They could have done something back then, they chose not to, and obviously it’s become an issue.”

The Ryder Cup generates at least $90 million in revenue every two years.

“I’m a pro golfer,” O’Meara continues. “This is what I do for a living. I know what people think, ‘Oh, it’s greedy.’ It’s not. I don’t think that’s greedy. I mean people are paying to come and watch you play.”

O’Meara was part of a group of players including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval, who first raised the issue of players being compensated at the Brookline Country Club outside of Boston. That’s when the PGA of America decided it would donate $200,000 to charity in each player’s name.

O’Meara, a two-time major champion who played in five Ryder Cups and was the 1998 PGA Tour Player of the Year, believes his stance cost him a chance to captain the 2006 Ryder Cup team. That honor went to Tom Lehman.

“No disrespect, Tom’s a nice player, but Tom doesn’t have the record that I have and he didn’t play in as many Ryder Cups,” O’Meara said. Lehman was a member of three U.S. Ryder Cup team.

“More than likely that kept me back. Plus I had Tiger on my side, and Tiger wanted me to be the captain.

U.S. players viewed as ‘Ugly Americans’

Stewart Cink played on five U.S. Ryder Cup teams and was a vice captain in 2023 under Zach Johnson. Cink does not believe players should lobby to be paid but now that the PGA of America made the decision to pay them he’s in favor.

When announcing their decision, The PGA of America emphasized none of the players asked to be compensated.

“It does make a lot of money,” said Cink, who is playing the PNC with his son Connor. “It is a business and these guys are professional athletes.

“We’re paying college athletes to go to school and play their sports. I don’t have a problem with it.”

The issue reached a boiling point last year in Rome when the reports were the U.S. team, which lost to the Europeans, was staging subtle protests over players not being paid, like Patrick Cantlay refusing to wear a cap. Cantlay denied that had anything to do with his decision to go cap-less.

And when the Europeans chimed in that they believed the Ryder Cup is pure and all about national pride, and some said they would pay to play for their country, the U.S. again was labeled the Ugly Americans.

“I hear Rory (McIlroy) say I’d pay to play, I’m thinking, all right, you want to pay to play, go for it, pay to play of it means that much to you,” O’Meara said. “But I’m thinking to myself, in fairness, you do have your own airplane.”

O’Meara says PGA of America finally doing right thing

O’Meara remembers the backlash captain Tom Kite took in 1997 after the U.S. lost to Europe 14.5-13.5 at Valderrama in Spain. Europe had a five point lead heading into the final day, too much for the U.S. to overcome.

O’Meara was angry at the vitriol directed at his captain and the team, saying Kite “just got butchered in the media.”

That was when he started to believe the PGA of America should have the players’ backs and start compensating them.

“The point that I tried to make was you should do the right thing,” O’Meara said. “The PGA of America is doing the right thing now.”

Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mark O’Meara joined Tiger, Phil to advocate Ryder Cup pay 25 years ago