Rory MclIroy says he would pay to play at the Ryder Cup rather than take apperance or prize money.
However, McIlroy doesn’t share the US ideals. “I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder cup” McIllroy explained.
“I’ve talked about this a lot, I’ve come along way on this, especially with the Olympics, but the two purest forms of competition in our game right now is the Ryder Cup and the Olympics”.
“Because of the purity of no money being involved”. It was a discussion that was happening in Rome” McIlroy explained.
“I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup creates a lot of revenue” added McIlroy. “It’s probably one of the top five biggest sporting events in the World”.
“So I get the argument that the talent should be or could be getting paid. But I just think, the Ryder cup is so much more than that”.
Money better off spent on the DP tour
The Portadown man, a five time winner with team Europe, admitted conversations had taken place with Europe captain Luke Donald regarding payment.
“We’ve all had a conversation with Luke about it over the last couple of weeks, because we obviously heard. I think the common consensus is, that whatever it would be to pay the team" the "US$5 Million better off spent elsewhere on the DP World Tour to support other events or even to support the challenge tour”.
McIlroy added“I think for us, I don’t want to say taints it, but it would give it a different feel. I think what we’ve done a good job is being this cohesive group over the past decade and we don’t want anything to change on that”.
