The Ryder Cup generates a lot of money for the PGA of America. This is where it goes

Former PGA of America President Ted Bishop was involved in selecting Bethpage Black for the upcoming Ryder Cup and is well aware of how important it is for the competition to head to the New York City area.

And he is very aware of criticism of ticket priceswhich will be $750 per person for competition days.

“If you’re going to a major sporting event, I don’t care where it is, that’s the ticket market,” Bishop said. illustrated sports in a wide-ranging interview 10 years after his overthrow from his position at the PGA. “My daughter lives in New York and she wants to go to the World Series and they are going for $1,100 on the top deck.

“Besides the Masters, it’s probably one of the most coveted tickets in golf. It’s once every four years (in the United States). I’m not going to criticize the PGA of America in any way. It is a very crucial part of the operating budget. When we made the decision in 2013 to play the Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship there (in 2019), the Ryder Cup was really the jewel in the crown. “We knew it was going to be a kind of Ryder Cup.”

As for its importance in the bottom line, Bishop says the US PGA a decade ago typically made about $10 million on an international Ryder Cup and about $25 million on a domestic event, not including rights revenue. television.

“What we would do is take that $35 million and allocate it over a four-year period. And if you break that down, the PGA of America when I was president had an annual budget of $156 million,” Bishop says. “So it was $8.75 million a year and a major driver for our partnership.”

How much of this goes to PGA of America professionals across the country? None of that directly. But Bishop said each of the 41 chapters receives an annual payout that increased from $90,000 to $180,000 plus an annual percentage increase after the 15-year, $440 million television deal (through 2030) that was negotiated during his tenure.

What about the players who compete? They also receive no direct compensation other than $200,000 in charitable donations that they can direct wherever they want.

But Bishop noted that the PGA Tour gets 20% of the PGA of America’s Ryder Cup television revenue, or about $88 million over the life of the contract. That equates to just under $6 million a year.

“I don’t know if the players really understood back then that the money was coming back to the Tour, but Tim Finchem (then commissioner) did a good job of explaining it,” Bishop said. “Those 12 guys aren’t paid directly, but the Tour as a whole was paid pretty well.”

The Tour has previously said that the money it receives from the PGA of America is used for compensation across the Tour, including the retirement plan.