The European Love Has Gone Too Far

This first began creeping into my mind when player after player was questioned about where the money they would receive for this year’s festivities would be going.

This is nothing new.

Players have received several hundred thousand dollars for years, to be given to the charities of their choice. This is an issue that is nearly three decades old.

it's funny how similar this year's Ryder Cup money conversation sounds to this, from 1999:

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier)
6:30 PM • Sep 23, 2025

The difference this year is that U.S. players were given an extra $200,000 stipend to use at their own discretion. Every player’s response about what they would do with the money was the same.

Scheffler: “My wife and I like to do a lot of stuff in our local community, and I've never been one to announce what we do. I don't like to give charitable dollars for some kind of recognition. We have something planned for the money that we'll be receiving. I think it's a really cool thing that the PGA of America has empowered us to do.”

Cantlay: “I think one of the great things about these team events for me is there's always such a big charitable component to it, and so I'm going to donate the money to my charity. We work with a number of foundations. We work with First Responders Children's Foundation and we work with the SCPGA Junior Tour and we've work with St. Jude and Folds of Honor, and so I'm excited about our continued partnership with those organizations.”

Xander: “There's a lot of pride that comes into playing in one of these, and yes, we're happy to get paid for this, and yes, I plan on donating it. It's something that selfishly will make me feel good about what I do.”

Do Xander and Cantlay, specifically, deserve criticism for the way the aftermath of the 2023 Ryder Cup was handled, especially as it relates to alleged complaints about getting paid for their time? Absolutely. Is there a conversation about whether players who are taking part in an event that generates well into the nine figures should maybe receive something (even if that conversation sometimes feels icky)?

Also yes!

Are there questions about whether guys like Cantlay are funneling money into the wrong places by giving to their own foundations (or, just for example, purchasing shares of DeWalt stock to give away to families in need)? Sure!

But my gosh! The U.S. players are being critiqued for something that the Euros would be getting so much adulation and praise for that you would have to hold the press conference in a hotel room!

What’s true is that the Euros have probably earned the benefit of the doubt as an organization, and the Americans probably have not because of how they have backstabbed and because of all the pettiness along the way. But that doesn’t mean the conversation should be as binary as it has been (not everything European is correct and not everything American is incorrect).

Example: If Bryson played for the Europeans, he would be considered a wily personality that Luke Donald has tamed and brought into the fold. Look at that European team culture at work! Because he’s on the American team, though, he’s considered a “captain’s nightmare.”

As with everything, the answers you’re looking for are normally gray.

Which leads us to this nonsense.

The European team hired a fancy photographer to take some pictures of them apparently in different spots around New York. It’s fine and corny and whatever. It’s very Ryder Cup. And it’s been praised of course because the Europeans can do no wrong. But buddy, imagine if the dumb Americans did this! It would be referenced for the next four decades!

This is mostly just an elongated rant about how I think the hate for the U.S. team — a team that is several miracle putts in 2012 away from having split the last eight Ryder Cups — has gone way, way too far. Are the Americans sometimes tone-deaf and not very self-aware, and has their culture lacked at times over the years? Yes, of course. I have spent a lot of time (too much time!) discussing all of this.

But my brethren in the European media (as well as a lot of fans on the Euro side) have taken a position beyond aggrieved. We all think your group rules. You have to be blind not to see it. But the rhetoric has swung too far the other way, and that has, perhaps improbably, made the Americans seem like the incompetent underdogs.