Hunter Mahan Thinks Ryder Cup Players Should Get Paid. Here's Why...

The Ryder Cup pay debate entered a new phase this week when The Telegraph reported that USA's players could be in line to receive $400,000 each for representing their country in the event at Bethpage Black next year.

It follows the scenes in Rome last time out where a report emerged that Patrick Cantlay was refusing to wear a cap in protest over not being paid to appear, although Cantlay firmly denied it and maintained that he played without headwear due to not being able to find anything that fit.

The topic of pay in the Ryder Cup is a divisive subject with mixed opinions across the board, but three-time Team USA player Hunter Mahan believes that golfers should be paid to appear in the event under principle due to the money the spectacle generates.

Mahan, who retired from pro golf at the age of 39 to become a high school coach, played in the 2008, 2010 and 2014 editions in a career that included six PGA Tour wins, a career-best world ranking of 4th and over $30m in career earnings.

While he says players should be paid due to a simple goods and services transaction, he doesn't believe it needs to be millions, and thinks that European players not receiving payment could well be a story that runs right up until the week in New York.

"I do," Mahan told Golf Monthly on whether players should be paid, before continuing: "It doesn't need to be lot, I mean, it's not millions of dollars or anything, but, I think when your goods and services are being used for someone else's gain, you should be able to sort of recoup some of that money because they're using you, right? So, that's sort of a simple short answer to it.

"But there's a lot that goes into this sort of question and the European Tour is not as fertile as the PGA Tour and the PGA of America. Even though this is a big deal for the PGA of America because it funds those tournaments, their association and what they do.

"Clearly this is something that some players feel is necessary going forward and it'd be interesting to see who drafted this. It feels very broad in its terms but it sounds like the PGA of America is okay with that and I don't think the dollar amount is of any real significance in terms of both sides for how much money the PGA of America is going to make, and I think the players just want to feel like 'hey we're not getting used' in sort of this situation.

"Saying that what Rory said [he'd pay to play in the Ryder Cup] and I saw what Shane Lowry said, I don't want to speak for everybody but having played in a few of them the experience in itself is incredible and overwhelming at times so it's not something that you would need to be paid to play but at the end of the day it is sort of a goods and services transaction.

"I think some players want to feel like, 'hey, we're not being taken advantage of' and in this day and age, player empowerment is coming up."

Mahan stressed that certain players should not be lamented when nobody knows who is calling for US Ryder Cup players to be paid, who is against it and who, frankly, doesn't care.

The six-time PGA Tour winner, who won two World Golf Championships in his career, doesn't think the news will turn fans off but believes that this is a story that will not be going away any time soon.

"I think it being one-sided could be a little bit of a storyline. I think the European side and the fans are definitely going to use it and I think the players will definitely use it when they can before the event and even during the event," he said.

"We've already seen Shane and Rory kind of speaking out about it so I think for a year it could be a little bit of needling in a way, which I think this event is prone to do is to find something and use it... I know the European media is going to run with it like crazy.

"Maybe not right away, but definitely leading up to the event, it's going to be a topic of conversation without a doubt. And the problem is the players are going to have to sort of talk about it and even the players that don't maybe support it or were not even a part of it or even care are going to have to answer questions about it.

"So we'll have to see how that sort of turns up but it's definitely going to be significant portions of time we're going to see the story pop up again.

"This is going to be an unfortunate side story to the event. I don't think there's any doubt about it."

The 42-year-old Californian, who won six points from his 12 matches over three Ryder Cups, believes that Europeans not demanding pay shows the relationship with the European Tour is significantly stronger and more deep-rooted compared to Team USA's relationship with with the PGA of America.

"The PGA of America is something you play once a year and then if you're lucky enough and you qualify, you play it once you play another event once every two years. So there's not a connection to it," he said.

"I think a lot of the European players have an affinity and they have a relationship and they have a will to keep the European Tour going and going very, very strong, which I totally support and totally understand.

"So, it's great to see Rory and Shane speak as they do. And I think a strong European Tour is great for golf and I'm rooting for their success in every way."

Mahan also supports Keegan Bradley's appointment for Bethpage. The 2011 PGA Champion will be 39 when he leads out the Americans next year to become the youngest US captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

"He's gonna have a good group of people around him. It's a great time to have a change of youthfulness and someone who's going to really understand, who's going to have a great relationship with the players and have a connection with them that’s gonna relate to them, understand what they're going through and work really hard to make sure everyone's on the same page much earlier," he said.

"You just can't get to the Ryder Cup and then try to figure things out. Everything's got to be laid out way way beforehand and that's the pairings and everything. You've just got to lay everything out much earlier and really get everybody on board with what you're doing and how you're doing it and why you're doing it.

"And I think he understands that and I think he's going to do a great job because I think that at the end of the day the goal is to win. The goal isn't to have a good time and I think everyone understands that and sort of makes sense of that."

The 2025 Ryder Cup is set to be a hostile atmosphere in front of the New York fans, and Mahan believes that the Europeans will face a raucous crowd where things could cross the line "numerous times." He warned the Europeans not to instigate them.

"It's going to be a massive event and it's going to be loud. It's going to be raucous and it's going to be interesting," he said.

"They're going to have to really stay on people. I don't know how they can control people, but it's going to cross the line, I'm sure, at numerous times and so, I'm not sure how they're going to control so many fans and it's such a passionate, intense place and the event itself is really intense.

"And so it's going to be really interesting for the teams how they're going to handle that, on both sides. I don't think the Europeans want to instigate this crowd. I think you could do that at other places. I don't think you want to do that there because I think it's just going to be too much.

"So It's going to be loud. It's going to be crazy. And as I said, it's going to be an interesting test for both sides to figure out how are we really going to play this?

"And I don't think you want to make an enemy of the crowd that week. It's just not the week to sort of be needling each other. It's a week to just really sort of get them on your side and sort of have fun with them more so than see them as an adversary."