Major winner Justin Rose on Tuesday echoed Rory McIlroy’s stance that European stars are not paid to play in the Ryder Cup, saying “we play for the badge”.
Northern Irishman McIlroy said last week he would “pay to play” for Europe at the Ryder Cup, following reports that American golfers would each be paid $400,000 to enter the Ryder Cup competition. next year.
McIlroy said Europe’s best did not need financial incentives to give their all in the biennial match against the United States.
“The two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics, and it’s partly because of that, the purity of no money,” he said. McIlroy told the BBC.
Englishman Rose won Olympic gold in 2016 and has been part of four Ryder Cup winning teams.
“These are two of the three best moments of my career and none of them were about financial rewards,” Rose said in response to a question from AFP on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Open, which begins Thursday.
The thorny issue of getting paid to play was “knowing what’s good collectively for your team”, added the 44-year-old former world number one.
“I think for us we are playing for the badge and we are also playing for the European Tour,” he said.
“The Ryder Cup probably underpins a lot of things on the European Tour and it’s a great way to support the Tour that gave us so much early in our career.
“If you do it with this goal in mind, it’s as big a motivation as anything,” added the veteran, winner of the US Open in 2013.
Rose will this week attempt to regain the Hong Kong Open title he won in 2015 against a field that includes American Ryder Cup player Patrick Reed and South Korea’s rising PGA Tour star Tom Kim.
Rose said he had difficulty understanding the sums allegedly proposed from the U.S. side.
“I didn’t quite understand. It’s not four million dollars each,” said the former world number one.
“It’s a lot of money, but it doesn’t change anything in these guys’ lives.”
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