Tom Watson gets problem with 2 Ryder Cup rules changes

with 2025 Ryder Cup Just a few days away, historical figures from the past of the event are offering their knowledge of competition. Tom Watson is among them.

A twice captain of Ryder Cup Ryder, Watson has a rich experience with the biennial event, and in a recent appearance on TV, Eight -Great Winner revealed his problems with two recent changes to Ryder Cup rules. One includes payments for players, while the other is about the captain’s choices.

Here’s what you need to know.

Watson says we Ryder Cup ‘players don’t have to be paid’

A big difference for this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, at least for the American team, has to do with money. For the first time, American players will be paid to participate in the event.

The change was originally in the largest Ryder Cup controversy of 2023. That year in Rome, a European journalist reported that American player Patrick Cantlay refused to wear a hat in the protest for not paying. The team Xander Schauffe and his father Stefan Schauffele were also alleged to have complained about compensation in the tournament.

This LED European fans in Rome to Lambast Cantlay during his matchesto whom Cantlay responded by constantly pretending to shake an imaginary hat in the main moments.

The act preceded a raging moment in the 18th green, when Cantlay housed a match winning blow and some classic match-match antiques nearly led to a physical confrontation With European players Rory Mcilroy and Shane Lowry.

For the record, Cantlay and Schauffle strongly denied claimsWith Cantlay adding, “This tour is about representing our country and being with my teammates and representing SH.BA and I am extremely proud to be here.”

Then in December 2024, the PGA of America announced They would really start paying us Ryder Cup players. In 2025, every American player will receive $ 500,000: $ 300,000 for charity and $ 200.00 for themselves.

In one Golf Channel interview with Eamon Lynch This week, Watson was asked what he thought about changing the payment of the Ryder Cup, for which Lynch noted has become a “offensive cry” for the European team.

Watson revealed that he agrees with Europeans: US Ryder Cups should not be paid.

“Personally I disagree with him,” Watson told Golf Channel. “(In the past) they gave us some money for favored charity. And I think that was the right thing to do for players.”

As Watson pointed out, US players have always been given money by the US PGA to give charities at their own liking. In 2023, each American player received $ 200,000 for charity.

But Watson thinks Americans have to play for something bigger than money.

“But again, I just don’t think the players have to be paid. They have to play for their country and their teammates,” Watson said closely.

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Watson: ‘Way Many’ Ryder Cup captain choices

This is not the only problem Watson has with the modern Ryder Cup. He also dealt with the ever -increasing number of captain’s elections that make up every Ryder Cup team.

When Covid-19 pushed the Ryder Cup of 2020 to 2021, a rule change was made to accommodate the benefits of the shortened season played in 2020. Previously, there were eight automatic qualifiers and four captain choices for the US team. For 2021, Captain’s elections increased to six. This change has remained in the country since then, with the European team eventually adopting the same number of captain’s elections.

Watson is not a fan of this change rule, as well.

“Personally I think six is ​​too much.

He went on: “If you played so well and you are on the list of points there, I don’t think you should be eliminated when you are the seventh or eighth or ninth player. I don’t think that’s the right way to do it.”

Among the players who have suffered from the change of captain’s choice is 2025 US Captain KEEGAN BRADLEY. He left the 2023 team, despite his high ranking of Ryder Cup.

For the 2025 team, Bradley chose to pass over Maverick McNealy for choosing a captain. McNealy was ranked 10th in the Ryder Cup Ryder’s list. Bradley, ranked 11th, also left himself out of the team, except for Brian Harman, who ranked 12th.

Watson showed the original rule when he first qualified in 1977, when all 12 players had to automatically qualify for the US team as another example of a better system.

“When I came to the tour, I wanted to be on the Ryder Cup team, and the only way to do it was to get into the first 12 places in the point,” Watson said. “There were no choices. You had to qualify that way.”

Interesting, if the 12 main players in the US rankings automatically qualified for the 2025 Ryder Cup team, Bradley would have been a captain playing in Bethpage Black.

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Tom Watson and 2014 Ryder Cup ‘Errors’

Watson captured the US team twice in the Ryder Cup. First, a 1993 US victory was no surprise. But his selection as the 2014 Ryder Cup captain at the age of 65 was as shocking as Bradley’s choice for captaincy this year.

Captain’s bold choice did not retire well.

The 2014 US team lost badly, with Europe holding the cup 16.5-11.5. Following the incident, American player Phil Mickelson claimed that Americans were “removed from a winning formula”, comments received as a public slide in Watson.

When asked about the 2014 Ryder Cup and the mistakes he thought he made, Watson said, “You do the things that are needed at the time, and sometimes make mistakes – you will make some mistakes.”

He went on: “You go through many different scenarios of who to pair with whom. And sometimes it just doesn’t work. You have to fly near your pants seat. You have to look at the players in their eyes when they are playing there in their matches and see how they are dealing with pressure.

In general, he argued that any decision he made as a mistake in Hindsight was the best decision at the moment.

“If you look at it again and say,” Have I made a mistake? “,” Watson asked rhetorically. “Well maybe you do. But at the time you didn’t think it was a mistake. You made the best possible decision you could you could at the time.”

The 2025 Ryder Cup in Bethpage Black begins on Friday, September 6.