The Ryder Cup Is Now CHARGING Volunteers $350 To, Uh, Volunteer

Golf.com - In September 2025, the PGA of America will charge its free labor a $350 “volunteer package” fee to participate in the proceedings from Bethpage, according to multiple volunteers who spoke to GOLF.com on the condition of anonymity.

Everyone's talking about next year's Ryder Cup being too expensive and everyone is very pissed off about it. So much that multiple volunteers have anonymously contacted sports journalists concerning the injustice and it's funny because I didn't know volunteers had that much pull. Like I would've easily just assumed nobody gives a shit about the volunteers getting the Deal of the Century for half the price of admission.

At $750 per ticket, the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black will have the most expensive get-in price for a golf tournament in recorded history.

$750 buys you the opportunity to drop another $750 on merch immediately past entrance security and a solid half mile before you'll see any golf course. Then you're $15 a beer for anything worth drinking at 9am in the first place with the cost of parking and at least one earnest meal but probably two. Add that up and you're just a few clicks south of 2 grand. 

Meanwhile volunteers get a uniform, commemorative commemorables, 3-squares a day and a credential for the collection.

According to a letter sent to volunteers and obtained by GOLF.com, the $350 package will not provide volunteers with any additional goods or services: just a volunteer uniform, a drawstring bag, a commemorative pin, food (during shifts only) and a tournament credential.

That's at least 4 days on the course including practice round plus the collegial camaraderie and inside rope access and all the other shit that comes with the experience. 

So excuse me for asking: What's the big fucking deal here?

Volunteer (vol-un-teer, noun, French, 16th century): one who voluntarily undertakes a service

We're not cleaning up a Cook County Forest Preserve on a Sunday in November here folks. This isn't a group march across the Rust Belt for cleaner well water. 

We're about the world's premiere golf tournament hosted domestically just once every 4 years and people expect to just show up in Hoka's and a bucket hat for full range access across the week? I think a modest (if not reasonable) barrier to entry seems appropriate but again I'm no expert whatsoever. 

PS - Classic Baby Boomer behavior is actually getting a monster sweetheart deal and then abusing it for their benefit/to the detriment of others. Just watch. Two decades from now and I'll be on a merit-based waiting list to volunteer. This fuckin world man. 

PPS - I used the term Real Men of Genius in the title, which begets an obligation to share the #1 all time RMoG: Mr. T-Shirt Launcher Inventor

PPPS - I edited the title so the above PPS doesn't make any sense, but I love the T-Shirt Launcher Inventor too much to delete it now. So we have ourselves a minor predicament that I would like to just explain here simply: I have decided to keep it in.