Patrick Cantlay questioned why Team USA players were not being paid to feature in Rome; Cantlay and close friend Xander Schauffele are believed to be sitting in a separate area of the team dressing room
By Jamie Weir
Team USA have been embroiled in an internal dispute during the Ryder Cup after Patrick Cantlay questioned why players were not being paid to feature in Rome.
Sky Sports understands Cantlay’s behaviour has caused a rift within Zach Johnson’s team room at Marco Simone GC, where USA trailed by a record-equalling margin on the opening day.
Cantlay believes players should be paid to participate in the Ryder Cup and demonstrated his frustration at not being paid by refusing to wear a team cap during the Saturday foursomes, having worn a cap during last year’s Presidents Cup.
The Presidents Cup is a PGA Tour event, not a PGA of America event, with whom Cantlay has a bigger axe to grind.
The former FedExCup champion also refused to attend the gala dinner earlier in the week and, along with his close friend Xander Schauffele, is sitting in a separate area of the team dressing room.
Before the Ryder Cup it was widely reported that the same pair were the ones refusing to allow Netflix cameras access to the team room, with both players also missing from Team USA’s pre-event scouting mission to Rome earlier in September.
Scheffler reduced to tears after record defeat
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler was reduced to tears after he and Brooks Koepka suffered a record-breaking defeat against Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg in the Saturday foursomes.
The American pair were five over inside the opening three holes and slumped to a 9&7 loss, which smashed the previous record foursomes win of 7&6 and is the largest margin of 18-hole victory in Ryder Cup history.
Europe were three up after three despite being over par and took the fourth hole when Åberg almost made a hole-in-one, with the home pair birdieing the sixth and then winning four consecutive holes from the eighth to complete a dramatic victory.
“We were playing two strong guys – the No 1 in the world and a five-time major champion – and we did not give them anything,” Hovland said. “We played really, really solid. I don’t think we could have done a lot better.”
McGinley: Something going on… are they treating this seriously?
Sky Sports’ Paul McGinley:
“It’s just unbelievable there is no reaction. It lends me to think: what is going on behind the scenes? What kind of attitude, atmosphere? Are these guys really primed to play the Ryder Cup?
“It’s quite clear from their schedules they are not. Nine of the 12 have had four weeks off and not played a golf tournament; they’d never go to a major on the back of four weeks off.
“Are they treating this as seriously as a major?
“There is something going on, they cannot be playing as bad as they are.”
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