Bringing the Ryder Cup to notoriously nasty Bethpage Black already was cause for concern. Imagine the most passionate, patriotic event in golf played before a flag-waving crowd that once harassed Sergio Garcia so badly he pointed at them with the wrong finger.
This could make the 1999 matches outside Boston look like a real tea party.
And now add money to the equation and the Americans will be under more pressure than ever to deliver that 17-inch gold trophy the home crowd expects to win in September.
The PGA of America took a step toward quashing the quibbling about whether players should be paid. It decided on a new compensation package that keeps charity at the forefront ($300,000) and gives players and the captain $200,000 to let them decide if it should go in their wallets or to a good cause.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, in a show of leadership far more valuable than team uniforms, declared all his $500,000 is going to charity.
Does the money make a difference? Not really.
The total compensation — charity and the stipend — is roughly the equivalent of what 10th place paid at the PGA Championship this year. Does anyone really believe the level of motivation on the biggest stage depends on the purse?
Tiger Woods is the richest man in golf and always played like he didn't have two nickels to rub together. Woods loves his money, but that's not what drives him. And anyone good enough to make the U.S. team most likely has that much in common with him.
Start at the top.
“I've been playing golf my whole life for free and the money's just a bonus,” Scottie Scheffler said two weeks ago in the Bahamas. “I want to win just as bad for zero dollars as I do for whatever millions of dollars it is.”
That would be $62,228,357 for those keeping track. Now the world's No. 1 player gets an additional $200,000. That probably won't motivate Scheffler more than the 9-and-7 loss he and Brooks Koepka suffered last time at Marco Simone.
Players — not just Americans — for a decade have been raising questions about the sharp rise in revenue at majors and the incremental increase in prize money. But money is the last thing on their minds standing over a 6-foot putt to square the match in the Ryder Cup.
This was always about economics.
It surfaced in 1999 going into matches at The Country Club. The Ryder Cup had become big business by then. The PGA of America was raking in millions (net profit estimated at $23 million that year) and players — the show ponies — were getting a $5,000 stipend.
“When you can’t show up and play for your country, if playing for your country is not enough, my heart bleeds for the game of golf," U.S. captain Ben Crenshaw said. This was after he had cashed in on a new golf ball endorsement and clothing deal as Ryder Cup captain. Big business.
Players wanted more say in how some of the proceeds were spent, and the PGA of America responded by setting aside $200,000 to be split between their college golf programs and their designated charities.
Why is this an issue in America? It's a difference in funding. The PGA of America uses PGA Tour players to make a mint (and pay for many of the association's noble projects). Income from the Ryder Cup in Europe supports the players' very tour.
Either way, money has been at the core of the Ryder Cup for some time. But now it's official, and it's a bad look for the Americans.
For the first time in this century-old competition, they get a check for their services. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer never got paid. Neither did Ben Hogan or Byron Nelson.
But this is where golf is right now. Everyone is sick of talking about money, but then most questions directed to players is about money. It's inescapable, even at the Ryder Cup.
“I'm tired of it. The whole world is,” said Seth Waugh, the previous CEO of the PGA of America, going into the Marco Simone matches in 2023. “We play for love and they play for money. The one time of the year they should be playing for love, we're still talking about money.”
And they'll be talking about it at Bethpage.
It's not enough that the Europeans have won eight of the last 11 times in the Ryder Cup and are better at this competition. They still look for an edge.
One year during the peak of their dominance they rallied around the PGA Tour asking its players to promote the Nationwide Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour) by referring to it as the second-best tour in golf. After Europe won handily in Ireland, Garcia said, “Hopefully we won't get asked if the Nationwide Tour is the second-best tour in the world anymore.”
“Behind Europe,” Luke Donald added, the ultimate Ryder Cup rim shot.
Now the U.S. team has given Europeans a rallying cry they didn't really need. They will proudly say they play for passion and their flag (and Seve Ballesteros, of course), that they would gladly pay for the right to play in the Ryder Cup.
European spirit against American greed. Yes, the Bethpage crowd will be watching.
The only way the Americans can escape this bad look is to win. That's how it was when this mess first unfolded. Consider the words of Davis Love III going into Brookline in 1999.
“If we lose this year after the Presidents Cup (loss in Australia) and losing the last two Ryder Cups — and after all that controversy over money — well, it’s going to be bad,” he said. “So, we can’t lose. We just can’t lose.”
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FILE - Members off the United States Ryder Cup team cheer United States' Patrick Cantlay after he won his afternoon Fourballs match on the 18th green at the Ryder Cup golf tournament at the Marco Simone Golf Club in Guidonia Montecelio, Italy, Sept. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE - U.S. Ryder Cup golf team captain Keegan Bradley speaks at a press conference in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, file)
A blast of snow, ice, wind and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in parts of the central U.S. on Sunday, as a disruptive winter storm brought the possibility of the “heaviest snowfall in a decade” to some areas.
Snow and ice blanketed major roadways in nearly all of Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the state's National Guard was activated to help any motorists who were stuck. At least 8 inches of snow were expected, particularly north of Interstate 70, as the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where blizzard conditions were reported. The warning extended to New Jersey for Monday and into early Tuesday.
“For locations in this region that receive the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade,” the weather service said early Sunday.
About 63 million people in the U.S. were under some kind of winter weather advisory, watch or warning on Sunday, according to Bob Oravec with the National Weather Service.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole. People in the U.S., Europe and Asia experience its intense cold when the vortex escapes and stretches south.
Studies show a fast-warming Arctic is partly to blame for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its icy grip.
In Indiana, snow fully covered portions of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and U.S. Route 41, prompting Indiana State Police to plead with motorists to stay off the roads as plows worked to keep up with the pace of the precipitation.
“It’s snowing so hard, the snow plows go through and then within a half hour the roadways are completely covered again,” Sgt. Todd Ringle said.
Part of I-70 was closed in central Kansas by Saturday afternoon. Roughly 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow had fallen in parts of the state, with snow and sleet totals predicted to top 14 inches for parts of Kansas and northern Missouri.
Parts of upstate New York saw 3 feet (0.9 meters) or more of snow from a lake effect event expected to last until late Sunday afternoon.
The storm was then forecast to move into the Ohio Valley and reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday and Monday, with a hard freeze expected as far south as Florida.
The National Weather Service warned that travel in numerous states, including Kansas and Missouri, could be “very difficult to impossible.”
Indiana State Police reported a handful of spinouts and crashes Sunday.
A day earlier a fire truck, several tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles overturned west of Salina. Rigs also jackknifed and went into ditches, state Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said. He posted a video showing his boots sliding across the highway blacktop like he was on ice skates. He begged people to stay off the roads.
Governors in neighboring Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency.
The storms also caused havoc for the nation’s railways, leading to cancelations. Amtrak said in a statement that “adjustments have been made with no alternative transportation being offered” for many rail lines.
More than 20 cancelations were predicted on Sunday and more than 40 were planned for Monday.
The cancelations affected many parts of the country, but the Midwest was hit especially hard. A train between Chicago and New York and several regional trains between Chicago and St. Louis were among those canceled Sunday.
Nearly 200 flights in and out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport were canceled, according to tracking platform FlightAware.
Starting Monday, the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling cold and wind chills, forecasters said. Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) below normal.
In Chicago on Sunday, temperatures hovered in the teens (minus 7 to 10 Celsius) and around zero in Minneapolis, while dropping to 11 below in International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border.
The Northeastern states are more likely to experience several days of cold following what has mostly been a mild start to winter, said Jon Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. A plume of cold air coming down from Canada is likely to result in a cold but dry week, he said.
The cold air will likely grip the eastern half of the country as far south as Georgia, Palmer said, with parts of the East Coast experiencing freezing temperatures and lows dipping into the single digits in some areas.
Wind might also pick up as the week gets going, making for potentially dangerous conditions for people exposed to the elements for long periods of time, Palmer said.
The National Weather Service predicted 8 to 12 inches (about 20 to 30 centimeters) of snow for the Annapolis, Maryland, area, with temperatures remaining below freezing throughout the weekend.
In a statement on X, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency Friday evening ahead of the storm and encouraged residents to vote before the state's special elections on Tuesday.
Similar declarations were issued in Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and in central Illinois cities.
“This is the real deal,” meteorologist John Gordon said at a press conference in Louisville, Kentucky. “Are the weather people blowing this out of proportion? No.”
Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York, Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri, contributed. Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland. Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
Snow falls in St. Joseph, Mo., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram)
More snow falls near the American Legion Post in Lowville, N.Y., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
FILE - A leaf is frozen in the ice of a garden pond during cold weather in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - Steve Beckett with the street department in Owensboro, Ky., sprays a salt brine solution along Hickman Avenue in preparation for predicted snow and ice over the weekend, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. (Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)
More winter weather blows into Lowville, New York on Saturday, January 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
In a photo released by the Kansas Highway Patrol, a car is wedged between two trucks during icy weather Saturday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Salina, Kansas. (Kansas Highway Patrol via AP)
A snowplow passes through Lowville, New York, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
