Xander Schauffele Stoutly Defends Dad After Ryder Cup Pay Comments

Xander Schauffele has sought to clarify comments made by his father, Stefan, on the issue over whether members of the Team USA Ryder Cup team should be paid.

Currently, each US player reportedly receives $200,000 from the PGA of America to donate to a charitable cause, while it gives 20% of its revenue from the TV contract to the PGA Tour, which goes into the pension plan for its members, but in an interview with The Times, Stefan Schauffele argued that’s not fair.

He said: “They are using players’ intellectual properties to make money and the American players don’t get paid. More importantly, this would become a non-issue if all proceeds, net proceeds, from the Ryder Cup were to be donated to common charitable causes. Right now, the American players are asked to donate their time pro-bono in the name of patriotism so these organisations can benefit from the profits.

“The PGA [of America] uses this money, and the PGA Tour gets 20% that goes into the retirement of every member. The 12 players supposedly need to eat it and their intellectual property gets abused for the benefit of 200 other people. That’s not right.”

That interview came after Team USA lost the biennial match to the Europeans at Marco Simone following reports during the contest that Schauffele’s teammate Patrick Cantlay was leading a split in a “fractured” US Ryder Cup team over the lack of payment for players. Those claims were later dismissed by Cantlay as “complete lies” and “totally unfounded.”

This week, Schauffele will play in the ZOZO Championship, his first event since the match, and beforehand, he was asked why players don’t get paid for Ryder Cup appearances in light of his father’s comments.

However, the World No.6 suggested they had been misinterpreted. He explained: “If you look at what he said, I wasn't super fired up that he was speaking to media just because I know how things get twisted.

“I had to look back at what he said specifically and he specifically said that if the tournament's for-profit, then players should get paid. He also said that if it's charitable it should be a charitable event most likely and that everything should get donated.

“I don't know, when I look back on what he said, I think the headlines sort of skewed obviously what he was trying to say, but I don't think he ever really spoke directly to what you're referring to in terms of players getting paid. He just said it should be either or, not really as confusing as it is.”

Schauffele also reflected on his team’s performance in the match, who lost by 16.5 points to 11.5 points, and he admitted the start the Americans made left them facing an uphill battle.

"We were able to make it somewhat interesting on Sunday, which was a pretty cool feeling," said Schauffele. "It felt like the tournament slipped away really early on, and myself and I know the rest of the guys wish we could have sort of stabilised, you know, settled the ship earlier on just to make it feel like we weren't coming from behind the whole time.

"But it was my first time playing a Ryder Cup abroad and the fans are great and I had a lot of fun despite the losing.”