It shouldn’t be difficult to enjoy golf.
Even if you find humor in a golf company placing a YouTube channel logo on a driver and charging $700, acknowledge that the polo in the pro shop can cost over $100, justify the cost and inconvenience of traveling to a top-tier golf resort, or doze off during numerous “playing through” commercial breaks on Sunday afternoon broadcasts, live professional golf has generally been entertaining.
You can walk around or find a good seat. Either way, you get to witness the best players in the world competing closer than almost any other sport can offer. Most of the time, it’s a great value — I can purchase a ticket right now for Sunday at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh for $185.
That ticket wouldn’t even get me through the gates on Tuesday at the 2025 Ryder Cup, three full days before the competition starts. And if I wanted to watch Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and the other top players in the world in an alternate shot match? The PGA of America has made it unattainable for most golf fans.
A single ticket for each day of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York will cost $749.51.
Seven hundred and forty-nine dollars and fifty-one cents. For one ticket. For one day.
It’s outrageous. Truly. I don’t want to hear about supply and demand or ticket resale prices. Rory McIlroy is not Taylor Swift, and the face value of tickets to her shows isn’t anywhere near that high.
The Ryder Cup is a massive event with ticket prices that now reflect that. (Adam Cairns / USA Today)
That’s four times the prices from the last U.S.-hosted Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in 2021. Practice days cost $255.27, and Thursday’s practice round, opening ceremony, and celebrity competition cost $423.64. Has the PGA of America lost its mind?
They argue that these tickets are actually Ryder Cup+ tickets, a marketing tactic that includes all the food and non-alcoholic drinks you want. Are those hot dogs really worth an extra $500? Can you bring a case of them to the parking lot? Because I’ll need them to feed my family for a while. Don’t forget the buns.
It will cost a family of four $3000 to attend the Ryder Cup. I’m not saying everything should be accessible to everyone, but that feels excessive, doesn’t it?
As a result, I anticipate the crowd at Bethpage Black to be a strange mix. On one hand, it will be overly corporate, with no concern for what’s happening on the course as they focus on deals under the tents. On the other hand, you’ll have those who have scraped together enough cash to get in and feel that paying $1,000 (including parking, merchandise, and alcoholic drinks) gives them the right to do and say whatever they want. Should be interesting!
Regular golf fans are understandably upset. We’ve endured years of disputes, lawsuits, and decisions that prioritized bank accounts over the quality of the product. Purses have never been higher, but so are the costs of sponsoring and broadcasting a PGA Tour event. This results in more ads and fewer golf shots, leading to declining TV ratings week after week.
However, the live golf experience is still great. If you live near a pro golf stop on any tour, you should definitely attend. You’ll likely enjoy it.
But the Ryder Cup is in a league of its own. It’s the only event that can rival the Masters and evokes a sense of national pride in all of us. The stakes are so high that the anticipation for every shot is intensified, and the atmosphere around the first tee box is awe-inspiring.
I hope you can witness it one day. I hope you’ve been fortunate enough to attend Bethpage without worrying about the cost. But if you can’t, I hope this pricing trend is just an anomaly and not indicative of things to come.
(Top photo: Alex Burstow / Getty Images)