Editor’s Note: A version of this story first ran in November 2024, shortly after tickets for the 2025 Ryder Cup went on sale at a price point that created plenty of conversation on social media. PGA of America officials proudly says that they sold out of tickets quickly for the three days of competition at Bethpage Black.

Have the people been priced out of “The people’s country club?” That was the general worry on social media last November after ticket prices for next year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, revealed earlier in 2024, went viral. Golf Twitter can be a tough crowd, yet this wasn’t just a few amplified voices manufacturing a controversy, as the subject became one of the trending topics on both X and Google trends. We did our best to sort the Ryder Cup mess out below.

Wait, what Ryder Cup controversy?

The uproar began when golf writer Kevin Van Valkenburg posted a screenshot of the daily badge prices for the 2025 Ryder Cup. He amplified it by writing: “I would like to go on the record now and say that if Europe wins the Ryder Cup at Bethpage because the crowds were turned into a polite snooze fest like LACC by the insane ticket prices, it’s going to go down as a massive own goal.” That would be a nod to the infamous turnout at the 2023 U.S. Open, where tight confines and a pernickety Los Angeles Country Club membership limited the allotment of general admission tickets to fans, leading to one of the quieter galleries in recent major history. But this time it’s not topography or a club keeping the public out, but potentially the cost. Entry for one of the event’s three days of competition started at $750 per person, with practice days tagged at $255. That was the pitch, at least. Not long after, however, fans discovered there also were $200-plus fees attached, with resale prices well north of four figures:

Hold on … that’s the cheapest ticket?

Correct, not including any secondary markets. It does come with unlimited food and non-alcoholic drink vouchers, although we suppose you’d have to be Joey Chestnut to see savings on the food end of the deal.

That, uh, seems high?

Also correct. Using the 2023 Ryder Cup as context, general admission tickets into Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy were between €50 ($52.97) and €60 ($63.56) for the practice days, €250 ($264.83) for Friday and Saturday tickets and €260 ($275.42) for Sunday. Yes, New York is a big market, but it’s not like Rome is a particularly small town.

How does that compare with other golf events?

It’s on the expensive end of the spectrum. In 2025, Masters badges—inarguably the gold standard for golf tournament experiences in the United States—cost $140 per tournament day and $100 for practice rounds. The USGA charged $60 to $85 for practice-round tickets at this year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, with general admission on tournament days ranging from $150 to $200. The 2023 Open Championship at Royal Troon averaged around €100 for tournament days. As for the PGA Championship (which, like the Ryder Cup, is run by the PGA of America), 2025 tickets at Quail Hollow for tournament days clocked in at $219, although that too included food and drink.

Hasn’t the PGA of America been accused of price gouging before?

Yes, very recently in fact. During the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, even Justin Thomas, who went on to win the championship, ripped the price gouge, with the PGA of America brass defending the charges, citing them as comparable to what you would see at a stadium or arena. Although, as one who lives outside New York City, these aren’t exactly Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden prices as much as the type of dollar signs you’d expect to see at a trendy bar located on the moon.

This will only reignite the Ryder Cup’s player-payment debate, won’t it?

Absolutely. In 2023, reports surfaced that American players questioned whether there should be payment for participation in the event (currently, players don’t receive money for competing but each is given $200,000 to donate to charities of their choosing). In the wake of Xander Schauffele reportedly being threatened with dismissal from the U.S. team over issues with the player benefit agreement, his father Stefan Schauffele said the topic of payment for players was worth having a “meaningful conversation about.” Considering major golf events are run by a free workforce of volunteers and the changing landscape of name, image and likeness usage in American sports, the 2025 ticket prices will only give more fodder to critics that the PGA of America may need to start sharing the massive amounts of profit its make from the biennial match.

What was the response about the ticket prices?

Not great, to put it lightly. It’s not so much the money as what it represents. The optics of charging that type of coin at Bethpage, one of the rare municipal golf facilities in the U.S. that has a championship-level course, seemingly goes against the very egalitarian ethos of why Bethpage matters. Then there is the backdrop of the past four years of civil war, greed and self-interest in the professional game, a schism that has made many fans feel forgotten as golf’s central actors appear to care more about themselves than where their actions are taking the sport. The Ryder Cup prices, then, could be construed as another dis to the common fan. Throw in the fact the Ryder Cup is supposed to be the ONE event that’s not about money … yeah, people aren’t thrilled.

What’s the defence?

The PGA of America didn’t have any official comment about the prices but Bryan Karns, Ryder Cup championship director, explained their thinking plan when talking to various media outlets.

“We really did the research relative to where we were with our event. There’s such a demand and it’s in New York and it built up just this unprecedented demand,” Karns told GolfChannel.com. “We were also aware of the revenue we take away from this event for our [PGA of America] members.

“We believe the Ryder Cup is one of the preeminent events in all of sports and it only happens once every four years in the U.S. and this year it’s happening in one of the world’s largest markets.”

He shared similar thoughts on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. “We view ourselves as a Tier 1 event that’s on par with a World Series, or with an NBA Finals Game 7,” Karns said. “That was a part of it. … There are people who have the Ryder Cup on their bucket list in the same way that someone would have a Yankees opening game World Series on their bucket list. Ultimately, we felt like that’s where we are. The demand is at an all-time high for this event, so we wanted to make sure we priced it appropriately.”

What does the secondary ticket market look like right now, just days before the 2025 Ryder Cup is finally played?

A quick look at Stubhub shows the cheapest Friday/Saturday/Sunday tickets are $820 with the highest at $12,000. Most are being listed at more than $1,000.

Anything else?

Only that we long for simpler times where a man not wearing a hat constituted a controversy.

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Main Image: Kohjiro Kinno