The captain of the European Ryder Cup team, Luke Donald, has sent a warning to the US players that they could lose support if they do not excel from day one. Reason? Namely, this is the first time in the history of the Ryder Cup that a team will be paid for the performance at the prestigious tournament.
The US public believes that the Ryder Cup is a matter of prestige, not money, outraged by such moves by the PGA of America. There are those who believe that money could be an additional motivation for golfers, but it seems that they are in the minority at the moment.
Former PGA of America chief executive Seth Waugh stressed that the players did not want financial injections for the performance, but it seems that they alluded to the desire for it through their actions.
Waugh is aware that such a topic has been looming for years, and now that it has finally been realized, the public has not reacted with positive emotions to it.
"You know, [they asked] 'Why are we growing the game on the back of me?' kind of thing. Which I understand, but it's on the back of everybody.
But no, nobody ever specifically said I want to get paid. There are obviously implications of it.
We've been talking for 25 years about being paid, and now it'll be how much are we getting paid."- he said, as quoted by Golf Magic.
Reactions
The well-known faces of this sport have stressed several times so far that the US crowd could have strong reactions if their players played below their level.
This is also the fear of the captain of the US team, Keegan Bradley, who talks about this tournament with a touch of caution, not wanting to emphasize too much on the fans and their reactions.
The captain, like the rest of the team, hopes for support from the audience, but the question is how it will all look.
