To borrow a phrase from the famous sign that adorns Bethpage Black in New York, site of the 2025 Ryder Cup: WARNING. The Ryder Cup Is An Extremely Expensive Event Which We Recommend Only For Highly Cash-Flow-Positive Golf Fans.
The Ryder Cup has announced ticket prices for next year's event, and goodness gracious are they steep. A family of four is going to drop three grand on tickets just to get in the gates — and that's if they win the lottery to purchase tickets. The Ryder Cup is one of the exceptional events on the sports calendar, but the 2025 version will definitely tax — pun very much intended — the loyalty of American fans.
That's $255.27 for two practice days, $423.64 for the "celebrity matches" and Opening Ceremony, and a whopping $749.51 for each of the three match days. But hey, at least food and (nonalcoholic) beverages are included!
The easy comp, of course, is the Masters, where tickets run about one-fifth of the Ryder Cup prices, and you could feed an entire village on $750 worth of Masters food. (Merch, of course, is a very different story.) Granted, the Masters could charge Ryder Cup-level prices and Augusta National Golf Club would still sell out, but can the Ryder Cup? (Probably, honestly.)
The irony of these high prices at Bethpage Black is that the course itself is one of the most notable public tracks in the United States, a testament to the inclusive nature of golf. Greens fees are reasonable — a New York resident could play the course about 10 times for the cost of one Ryder Cup ticket — and getting a tee time is dependent on whether you can operate a cellphone, not on whether your great-grandfather knew the elites of his day.
There's a subtler reason behind the high get-in costs beyond just simple profit motive, however. The Ryder Cup is the most nakedly partisan event in golf, with crowds that rival European soccer or college football for sheer vocal ferocity. Coming into this next Ryder Cup, there was substantial concern on both sides of the U.S.-European divide about the anticipated behavior of New York-area fans. (European fans are every bit as passionate, they just curse in different accents and languages.)
High prices could do a whole lot to deter the kind of fan likely to curse out Rory McIlroy. The result could end up being an uncommonly tepid crowd, which is exactly what the Ryder Cup doesn't need. Home-field advantage isn't just palpable at Ryder Cups, it's virtually necessary; the home team has won eight of the last nine Ryder Cups. There's a conversation to be had about evening the playing field at Ryder Cups, but is pricing out a chunk of the gallery the right move? We'll find out a year from now.
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