Hank Haney explains why it's finally time for the Ryder Cup to play the players participating in the event and then he discusses the soaring ticket prices for the Ryder Cup next year.
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Gonna tell it like it really is. We know Haney doesn't give us silencing ridics and then the name missus Toru chips never except on't shoulders to get better. Everybody knows the name. Read about it or golf Teacher's Hall of Fame, never doubt it. It's time for the truth. He is our Do you listen in the Hany. You listen in the Hany, You listen in to Hany. It's time for the truth. Here is our due. You listen in the Hani listen to.
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Welcome to the hank Any Podcast. The hank Any Podcast is brought to you by Haniuniversity dot com. That's my website. Haniuniversity dot com is where you can find out information about golf lessons from me, either in person or online. Just go there and check it out at Handiuniversity dot com. All right. You can see the hank Anypodcast on nofilter dot net or on the hank Any Podcast YouTube channel. And you can hear the hank Any Podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. So make sure you check it out, all right. The big controversy I want to talk about in the podcast today. What has been going on with the Ryder Cup. Oh my goodness, gracious, this has shook everybody up. When the report came out that and it's not official, but the report came out that the PG of America was talking about paying all of the US Ryder Cup players four hundred thousand dollars each for them to play in the Ryder Cup. This is a huge story, a huge controversial story. Its set off a firestorm, especially with all the European golf media and European golf fans because they are so raw raw Ryder Cup. It's the biggest thing in the world. You should play for your country. On and on and on this went and it's still going on now. The PGA of America has not said for sure that they're going to do this. They said that they're going to talk about this. I don't know if they're floating a trial balloon out there with this story that went out, or if it's something that's just waiting for the next CEO. See right now, they are without a CEO the pg of America because Cethoah is done at the PG of America did a great job, but he's done, and they're waiting for the new CEO to come on and they said, this is going to be one of the first orders of business to talk about paying the players. Now, this is a long time overdue. Let me take you back on this controvery well. First of all, let's just talk about the Ryder Cup and who it benefits. First, the Ryder Cup has always been owned by the European Tour European Golf Tour, which is now the dp World Golf Tour, and the PGA of America. It is not even though these are all PGA Tour pros that play. The Ryder Cup was a PGA of America event. So the PGA of America the Golf Pros of America's basically what that stands for. They have two main events, the PGA Championship, one of the four majors, and the Ryder Cup. And besides that, the pg of America gets their money to operate from their twenty five thousand or whatever it is PG members that like myself that pay dues every year to be a member of the PJ of America. That's where they get their money. The PGA Tour players all play in the Ryder Cup but the Ryder Cup revenue and the profits go to the PJ of America to the greatest extent. Now, the PGA Tour does get reportedly like ten percent of the revenue from the Ryder Cup, and they get twenty percent, is what all the articles say from the television revenue, which is significant because that that amounts to about I don't know, six to nine million dollars a year. I think it's six million dollars a year. PGA of America gets like twenty three million dollars a year. It's a fifteen year contract with NBC that goes through two thousand and thirty and that pays the pg of America eighty percent and the PGA Tour gets the ten percent. So that's how this whole thing goes. The revenue from the tournament itself is substantial, and the PGA gets a boatloaded cash from that, and the PGA Tour gets like ten percent of that. So there's a lot of money to be had in this in the in the Ryder Cup, I mean a ton of money when the PGA Ryder Cup or the Ryder Cup is played in the United States, the PJ of America, I remember the Ryder Cups every two years, the PJ of America will get about twenty five million dollars from that, and the years when the Ryder Cup has played in Europe Ryder Cups every two years, the American side gets ten million. So it's ten million one's played in Europe and it's twenty five million one has played in the United States. So once every four years they make the big money, and once every two years they still make a lot of money. And they also make the television Revican So there's a lot of money that's made in the Ryder Cup and it doesn't go to the players. Now, this has been a controversial subject that nobody likes to talk about because the players have all been bullied for years and years and years. Remember the the PGA Tour players are to my knowledge, the only professional sports group that has no representation. There's no there is no players union. There's a players union in baseball, hockey, basketball, football, there's a players union in all those sports. There is no players union in golf. So they have they have this board and they have a little representation, but not much. There's nobody negotiating anything for them. It's it's stuff that they do on their own. And they have been bullied and bullied and bullied for years and years and years and taken advantage of. And now things have changed with live goff and all the money that's come in, and for years has been a controversial subject. The players have always talked about this. I've coached touring pros for over thirty five years. I have had them come in and out of my facility and I've heard every one of them talk about the PGA Tour and the Ryder Cup and this and that. And you know, players love to play in the Ryder Cup. They love to represent their country. It's not that they don't, but they still question where does all this money go? Why is all this money generated? And why don't we get anything? And I remember, way way back when, I mean way back when this was a subject that mark O Mira got absolutely the nicest guys in the world, student of mine forever, got absolutely lambasted for because he brought up and it wasn't just him talking, it was a lot of other players talking, but Mark was the one that kind of brought up the subject. And Tiger brought it up too, But Mark brought up the subject and got just lambastard for it when he brought up the notion way back when that the player, you know, why don't the players get paid? And then Tiger said something Mark Mark took the heat on this matter of facture this this eventually costs Mark the opportunity. They can they can say whatever they want, but this cost Marked the opportunity to ever be a Ryder Cup captain, which he he should have been a Ryder Cup captain, I mean a Hall of fame golfer, played many Ryder Cups, UH, President's Cups, UH, a former Player of the Year, PGA Tour, a two time major winner, hall of famer, as I said, and he was never a Ryder Cup captain. A lot of people thought he should be the Ryder Cup captain when they played at UH in the one in Ireland at the K Club, and Uh, Mark would have been, you know, he's a Irish descent, would have been, you know, a perfect, perfect choice for that had had a great relationship with a lot of people in Ireland, still does and would have been a great pick for that. He never never got the opportunity and and players that nowhere near his stature did get the opportunity and Mark Mark never got it, and a lot of people know that that's the real reason why it didn't happen, because they held it against them forever. When you say something, it's something that a lot of people are thinking, but they they shoot the messenger. I mean, this has happened to me in my life before too. They love to shoot the messenger. And uh, players were talking about this back in the day. I heard them all the time, talking about why don't we get paid? Why is all this money go to this? Why aren't why don't don't we get any any of this money? Where's all this money going? Uh? You know, supporting is supporting that, and they of course that they always hide behind the charitable aspect of it. You know, well, the money's going to charity. You represent your country. You should want to play for your country, you know, you should. You should feel honored to play for you And it's not that they don't feel honored to play for their country. And it's not that they don't want to play for their country, and it's not that they don't love to represent their country. But this is what the argument that people make when they want to argue against players being paid. I mean, I hear all these arguments. I see all these argument this, this, this has been going on from them, of course, and of course Europe wants it more. In Europe. It means more to the European players because they never want to get paid, and then the American players want to get paid. And of course this whole subject came up again in the last couple Ryder Cups. When you know Patrick Canley, they blamed it all on him wanting to get paid. And once again he was speaking for a lot of people when he said something, and and you know, they blamed him, and they blamed Xander Schoffley. And then Xander Schoffley's dad got into it and said, you know what, you know, what all these players are, you know, putting up their time and why aren't they getting paid? And where does all this money go? These are all these are all questions that, you know, are logical questions that people like, like, hey, you know, where is all this money going? And that's a lot, it's a lot of money, and it doesn't really have anything to do with the fact that players don't like representing their country. And I hear people talk about this all the time. You shouldn't, you know, you shouldn't have to get paid or want to get paid, or you should represent your country. It's only once every two years. Well, first off, it's not once every two years. These players get taken advantage of once a year because the President's Cup, which was another Ryder Cup kind of format deal that the PGA Tour came up with. And the reason the PGA Tour came up with it is because they wanted to make revenue, period, and the story let's make let's make some more revenue. So they came up with this stupid President's Cup thing where it's a US against the international team. Everybody that's not eligible for the Ryder Cup is makes up the international team and it's just an absolute wipeout event, never closed. I mean I think the international team won once, tied once, and all the years it's ever been uh you know, competed, and it's just it's it was a joke again last year, and it'll be a joke again next time, and it'll be a joke again the time after. I mean, right now they're trying to figure that out because it's such a joke. But it was it was an event that they came up with to raise money to make money so that they could subsidize everything the PGA Tour does, like you know, add tournaments and and pay for the corn Ferry Tour and you know everything else that they do, the Champions Tour and everything else. So they came up with this presidence. And so so the point is this, the players on the PGA Tour, this isn't like the Olympics. You know, you play in the you play in the Olympics, and it's once every four years. That's it. And by the way, a lot of players, you know, and in other sports don't play in all these limbs, like basketball players don't. They don't all say they're going to play. But it's once every four years. It's it's not once every two years like the Ryder Cup is, or throw in the President's Cup, which is in the year in between the Ryder Cup. So really the United States players are asked to play one week out of the year for free, and the one week they play, you know, the first year, it benefits the PGA Tour. And do they see some of that money. I guess indirectly they see some of that money. They're the top players, but money, who knows where that money goes, it goes all over the place. Maybe they see a little bit of it, but not much. So they play that year for free. And it's not that they don't enjoy it. It's not that they don't enjoy representing their country. It's not that they don't have fun at the team event, but they're asked to play for free. And then the next year is the Ryder Cup, and it's the same thing again. Now the Ryder Cup, it doesn't even benefit Okay, twenty percent of it does or ten percent of it does benefits the PGA Tour, but the rest of it benefits the pg of America and touring pros understand that, you know, the PGA of America is the lifeblood of golf in the United States, and a lot of these players, if not all of them, grew up with a PGA pro helping them, and they have some indebtedness to those pg pros. But still, the fact is is that every year the PGA pros that play on these teams the Ryder Cup and the Presence Cup, and usually it's it's pretty much the same cast of characters in both. They are asked to play for free and when they want to get paid people play all these stories about them, you know, like, oh, he should want to do this for his country. They're greedy. Look at all the money they make. Well, I mean, look at all the money that's being made. When when there's money being made, you look at others sports, you know, basketball, baseball, football, there's a players union and basically the way that it works is fifty percent of the money ends up going into the salaries for the players and bonuses and whatever. Fifty percent and fifty percent of the money goes to the ownership group. Well, on the PGA tour, the money goes to charity and it goes to running a PGA tour, and of course the PGA tour hides behind the charitable organization when everybody knows it really isn't. But that money goes to there and then it goes into the purses. I don't know what the breakdown is, but there is a breakdown. And maybe it's called maybe it's fifty percent, maybe it's even better. I don't know. You know, I'm not sure exactly what that figure is. They're so secretive with all their numbers. Who knows. But you look at this event, the Ryder Cup or the President's Cup, which are to me, are pretty much the same deal because they both take advantage of the players. Those two events, none of the money goes to the players indirectly. Some of it goes for the President's Cup, but none of it goes directly to them. And when all that money is being generated, the question is is the players are the entertainment there? You know, I am pro player on this stuff. I was a coach, not a player, but I'm pro player. I think the players should be compensated. I have no problem with them getting paid. Now how much should they get paid? You know what? I like deals that are fair. First point, I look at you know, when I'm structuring some kind of deal, I don't want a deal that's just good for me. I want a deal that's fair. And I think that when they're generate, and the kind of money they're generate, we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars. I mean, they're talking about the fact that the tickets at the Beth Page are seven hundred and fifty dollars a ticket and that thing is already sold out. The next Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York, and people are up in arms about that. I'm going to get into that in a second. But they're going to generate so much revenue, and you know, yes, the event is a big event, and it it can you know, carry itself to a certain amount. But what if they had no players? Would that event be as popular if they're out there with a bunch of let's just say, we'll get rid of all these guys. You guys want to get paid, We'll get rid of all you guys. We'll get rid of all the best players. You know, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Speeth, Justin Thomas, I don't know anybody you know back in the day, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson. Well, no, ay, guys, we don't need any guys. We'll just throw anybody in there that will play for free. That tournament would would not have the prestige that it has. And with all this money that's being generated, to me, some percentage, some percentage of the money, whatever it is, pickup number more than zero, should go to the players. That's what I believe is fair. I don't think it's fair that all this money gets generated and then none of it goes to the players. So I am on the side of paying now I hear these arguments people say, like, like one of the arguments I saw on the X on the Twitter, you know, four point five million dollars the players that want well, it's it's you know, four hundred thousand times twelve, so it's four point eight million dollars. So four point eight million dollars the US players are want to get paid. And you know, the argument was, look at all, look at all the things you could do with that money. You could you know, give it to charity, you could give it junior golf. What could it do for? Like, like, that's first off, there's gonna be plenty of that's not all the money. They're not taking all the money if they if they pay four point eight million dollars to the US players, and if they paid four point eight million dollars to the European players, which by the way, none of them want to get paid because they're you know, it's it's very fashionable for them to say, oh, we don't we don't need to get paid, we don't want to get paid. We just like playing for our country because it makes them look like they want it, you know, which is which feeds right into the European golf media, and they makes them feel like, oh, this is why they're so much better at the Ryder Cup because it means so much more to them, and the US players are just greedy and want to get paid. I don't think it's that the US players are greedy. I think it's that all this money that's generated, why do they get zero? And remember, US players have to do something once a year for free. European players don't have that that that once yer thing for them. It's once every two years. Okay, there's a big difference between the Olympics, which is once every four years playing for your country. The Olympics are a break even thing if they're lucky. The Olympics are not making money all the money that it's made on the Olympics, from tickets, from from television revenue, from everything that's generated from the Olympics. If you you look at these these cities that host the Olympics, usually they lose their their butt. You know, maybe they make it up in tax revenue from hotel rooms and food and so on and so forth. Like the Olympics are not sitting on, you know, one hundred million dollars after the event's over, they're trying their best to break even once every four years represent your country. You know, you win a medal, you win a gold medal, it means something. You win a Ryder Cup. Does that do something for your In some cases it does, In a lot of cases it doesn't. Some players have become stars off the off the the Ryder Cup. I mean Patrick gree became captain America. Ian Poulter became a you know, a star because of the Ryder Cup. But usually these stars, these stars were already stars and and and when they're playing in the Ryder Cup, they're they're they're making nothing. They're making nothing. Now Olympics, I get it, they're making nothing, but it's not generating. Ryder Cup's generating tons and tons, hundreds of millions of dollars and the players get zero percent of that. I don't think that's fair. That's just my that's that That is my opinion. Maybe it's not a popular opinion, but it's it's it's my my opinion. I don't think it means that the US players don't want it as bad. I don't think it means that the European players are better people because they don't want to get paid. I think that when a player, when somebody performs, these are entertainers, performers, professional athletes. That's why they call them a professional, because they get paid. They're not amateurs. They are professionals. Remember the Olympics used to all be amateurs. Okay, well now they're all getting paid too, But back in the day, it was all amateurs. This is a professional event, and it's a professional event that nowadays is generating millions and millions and millions of dollars. And I think the professionals, the professionals should get paid. That's why they are professionals. And the money is there, you know what, the money is there, why not give them some portion of it. Four point eight million dollars to the US players is not a big percentage. As matter of fact, if they were represented by a players union and they were saying, Okay, you want us to play in this Ryder Cup and it's going to generate one hundred million dollars, and you're gonna give us You're gonna give us this percent of it. You're gonna give us five percent of it is what you're gonna give us. You know that's not that's not a very good deal. That's not gonna work. Now, you know, maybe the number is bigger than that, maybe it's ten percent. Maybe, however they come up with with with this number. I don't know how they came up with the four hundred thousand, but I'm sure there's some kind of logic to it, and maybe it is logical. But they're not taking the lion's share of this this profit, I can tell you that much. That's not not even close a four hundred thousand, not even putting a dent into what into what they're they're making off off of this this thing. And and a lot of times, you know, the Ryder Cup will make a bunch of money, and sometimes it'll make an astronomical amount of money, like it's gonna make it at beth Page because they're charging seven hundred and fifty dollars a ticket. Now, that's another thing people are all up in arms about. They're all up in arms about the fact that the tickets are so expensive, and they're like, how does the average guy come to watch the tournament? And I'm like, you don't what it's supply and demand. I mean, if I wanted to go to to the Super Bowl, if I'm trying to be an average guy going to the Super Bowl. Average guys maybe don't get a chance to go to the Super Bowl. If I want to go to the to the World Series Finals, and am I gonna Am I going to get a ticket for one hundred dollars? No, I'm not going to get a ticket for one hundred dollars. And you know what's gonna happen at all these big events. They're gonna the tickets are going to be scooped up by all these ticket broke and you know, the stub hubs and the Vivid tickets and the all these you know, ticket masters, all these ticket places are all going to grab up all the tickets. And if the PG of America and the European PG, if they charged you know, one hundred dollars a ticket, it's not it's still gonna turn. It's still gonna be the same thing. They're gonna they're gonna buy buy all these tickets up. Stub hubs and everybody else is going to buy all these tickets up. And the next thing, you know, you're going to go on there. You're going to go on their website, you know, and what are you going to see on the website. You know what you're going to see on the website. I'll tell you what you're going to see. You're going to see a ticket that they're asking fifteen hundred dollars for. Now, maybe they won't get it. Maybe that ticket will come down on you know, Saturday night before Sunday's finals, and maybe you can pick it up for eleven hundred dollars, or you know, maybe you wait for the last minute and you can pick it up for nine hundred dollars. But it isn't going to be in there for one hundred dollars. So that the argument that that that you're pricing people out of the Ryder Cup supply and demand. You're not getting in there for one hundred dollars. Anyways, it's not happening. It was never going to happen. If those tickets were out there for fifty dollars, you know, they'd be sold out in ten minutes and they'd be on the resale market. And even if that average Joe bought it. If the average Joe could buy a ticket, and the average Joe could buy a ticket to the Ryder Cup for one hundred dollars, what do you think the average Joe would do if it was selling in the in that aftermarket for fifteen hundred dollars. What do you think average Joe would do? You know what average show would do more times than not, I'm going to tell you what average Joe would do. Average Joe would sell his ticket to stub Hub and he would pick up some nice cash, is what he would do. That's what I would do. I mean if I could buy it. You know what if I could buy a ticket for one hundred dollars and I could sell it for fifteen hundred dollars, I am a seller. I will watch on TV. So this argument that the tickets are so expensive, you were never going to pay that low price anyways. It was never going to be an option. They can only fit so many people on the golf course. They have four matches in the morning, four matches in the afternoon in the first two days, and then and then the next thing, you know, on Sunday they have twelve matches, so they're playing on there on twelve holes maximum, And and how many people can you fit out there on the golf course if they're only playing four holes in the morning, morning and four hole. You know, if you got four groups in the morning, four groups after they're.
On four holes total.
I bend to Ryder cups. I mean, you can only fit so many people out there, and what you end up having to do is you have to you get to watch one hole, so you watch on the first hole, and then all the groups come through. So all four groups come through, and next thing, you know, you can't jump up to five because people are already they're waiting at five. So now you're going to you gotta go from one to like eight, and you got to jump up to eight and wait for them to come through, and then you jump up again to like number twelve and wait for them to come through. And then you just try to do your best at the end of the round and see if you can see anything. That's the way it goes, and they might fit, you know, eight to ten thousand people on a hole and it's so crowded you can't even see. The point is there's not an unlimited amount of people out there. It's not there. You can't put one hundred thousand people on a golf course, and you certainly can't put one hundred thousand dollars or one hundred thousand people on a golf course for a Ryder Cup event when they're only on four holes, even when they're on twelve holes on Sunday, you can fit more people on the golf course, sure, but it's not an unlimited amount. There's a limited amount of tickets, and there's always going to be a limited amount of tickets because you can only handle so many people for a golf tournament. And this isn't even a golf tournament. They're not spread out over eighteen holes. They're spread out over four holes or twelve holes on the last day. So these tickets are going to be rare. They're going to be hard to come by. Whether you pay the price to the PGA of America and the European Tour or you pay the price to the ticket brokers, it's not going to be cheap. And I don't they think. I don't think there's anything wrong with them trying to get as much money as they can, make as much money as you can. Support the dp World Tour, support the PGA of America, support the PGA Tour, and by all means, give some of that money to the players. They deserve to get paid. They are professionals and they are the show, and in my mind, they should be paid and if they want to get paid, I don't care how much they want to get paid. You let them get paid as much as they want to get paid. I still think that that does not mean that they are not patriotic. It doesn't mean that they don't want to play for their country. These are two totally different issues. I don't think they're the same issue. Everybody wants to make them the same issue, like, oh, if you get if you want to get paid, you're not a patriot, that is. I just don't believe that to be the case. You know what you are, You're a professional. What other sport don't they get paid? What other sport are they asking people to do stuff for free? And don't say the Olympics it's once every four years. Once every four years does not compare to once every year. I think PGA tour pros have gotten screwed forever. And I know they've gotten screwed forever, and that's why they're now. They're getting paid, and they're getting paid because l I V And would there be some players that say I'll play for play for free? Of course there are because they love the Ryder Cup they love being part of the Ryder Cup. And you know what if you say you if you if you come out and you say I would play for free, like Rory McElroy came with it. You know I would pay represent my country or my you know, Europe, and I'll play. You know I would play. I would pay to play in the Ryder Cup. Well, of course somebody's gonna say that because it's gonna make them look good. You know, it's gonna make them look good. Is that because because everybody who's who thinks that you shouldn't get paid and thinks these players are greedy and thinks all these other things, is going to think, well, that guy's a great guy. I love that guy. Look look what he said. He said he'd play for free. But to me, you know what, they're just they're just saying it to look good. And I can't imagine they would turn it down if they got paid. And I think they deserve to get paid. I hope they all get paid. I hope they get paid more than they're getting getting paid. Should they get paid the lion's share of it? No, they shouldn't. Should they get paid some percentage of it? Yes they should? And I would like to see professional golfers get represented. I think that is the biggest thing that's missed. That is how this whole mess started. The whole mess in golf today started because the players have no representation, and that is the bottom line, and getting getting paid is the first thing that anybody representing them would do. Hey, what would be fair? There's that, that's that's that's the premise. You start with, what would be fair? Zero is not fair. Zero is not fair, not in my mind anyway. That's my opinion. So it's a hot topic and it won't go away. But I'm gonna tell you what. They may vote on it. They may not, They may it may be four hundred thousand, who knows what it is. If it's four hundred thousand, it probably should be eight, you know, because because I'm sure they're they're they're not giving them a big percentage at four hundred thousand. But whatever it turns out to be, and it may turn out to be zero, maybe they'll change their mind, you know, backlash and this and that, But the day will come when the players get paid, whether or not it's it's next time at beth Page or the amount of money they're generating at beth Page, Oh my goodness. I mean, think about it. They're getting seven hundred and fifty dollars a ticket. I mean, if they put out, you know, forty thousand people out there, I mean, are you Are you kidding me? Man? It's like thirty million dollars in a day, and they can't come up with four point eight million dollars for the pros? Are you kidding me? And people say you should want to play for free, Well, they may want to play for free, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be paid. And that's all I got to say about that. So anyway, that's my opinion. Hope everybody enjoyed the podcast. Hit the follow button. iHeartRadio app wherever we get your podcasts, and make sure you check out the hank Any podcasts on the hank Any podcast channel on YouTube as well. I love sharing all these thoughts with you and I can't wait to talk to you next time time. Hope everybody has a great day.