The Big Apple fight between Team USA and Europe in Bethpage next year is a Ryder Cup blockbuster, but it quickly became apparent Tuesday that most golf fans have been taken off the price of a front row seat.
For Kevin Mountford, a golf fan from Chester, England, it’s a “farce” that has potentially ruined a dream trip to New York for his wife’s birthday.
The flights were already booked. Planning for the hotel was underway. The only thing left were the tickets. And even they seemed to be in the bag when Kevin received the golden ticket: an access code to ticket sales.
Kevin and his wife had been willing to spend money on the $749.51 tickets advertised on the Ryder Cup website (an amount that had already been dismissed by many golf fans as “greedy elitism”), but imagine their surprise when the PGA of America redirected them. to resale site Seat Geek, where the promised tickets were already listed for a staggering $2,000.
“It’s very disappointing,” Kevin told the Daily Mail. ‘The content on the PGA site is misleading in terms of the ballot. The expectation that by being selected at random, you would expect to have the opportunity to obtain face value tickets and not be redirected to a resale site.
Team USA will take on the Europeans at the 2025 Ryder Cup in New York next September
“What was going to be an exciting few days in New York has been hugely impacted, regardless of what we decide to do.
“It’s bad for the golf enthusiasts who were willing to travel across the water to see what is an incredible event that is truly unique in any sport.”
Kevin revealed that tickets were reselling for over $2,000 for Sunday and Saturday admission, while others on social media claimed prices for Friday’s play were a staggering $1,000.
DailyMail.com has contacted the PGA of America for comment.
Fans were already furious when prices for the biennial showdown between Team USA and Europe were revealed last month.
Ahead of this week’s Random Selection ticket sale, which only included Ryder Cup+ tickets, it was revealed that it would cost a staggering $255.57 (£195.82) for practice days, $423.64 (£195.82) 324.60) for Wednesday and a staggering $749.51 (£574.29) for real competitive action on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The $750 was already about three times what it cost to get through the turnstiles at Marco Simone last year or at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits, the home of the United States’ devastation of Europe in 2021.
But the eye-popping thousand-dollar prices listed for admission to the People’s Country Club on Long Island don’t seem to be for people at all. For Kevin, it seems like extortion of loyal golf fans.
Tickets on sale for those with pre-access codes this week were around $2,000.
‘Looks like they’ve already been sold. “There was nothing on the website to suggest you might be facing this level of extortion,” he said.
‘I’m pretty attentive to the terms, conditions and all that. But I was really hoping we went through this link, they offered us tickets and $749.51 and we would have paid it.
“Even if it’s a big price dynamic, that’s one thing, but the fact that these were all verified resales suggests that the entire allocation had been exhausted before these windows were open.”
“It was a scam, not in terms of someone hacking the site, but the PGA of USA.”
“I definitely feel cheated by the PGA,” he added. ‘Even the FAQ they had was a little ambiguous in some ways. In fact, even on the website now, it still says $749, but that’s actually misleading. “I suppose from a UK marketing and advertising perspective, I think that would be frowned upon.”
Kevin acknowledged that the sale of random selection tickets for the Ryder Cup+, which They include food and non-alcoholic beverages, plus access to the grounds, and are still operated on a first-come, first-served basis.
However, he maintained that after clearing the queue within 10 minutes of its accessibility window opening, he should have had a fair opportunity to purchase tickets at face value.
This isn’t his first rodeo either. Kevin has attended two previous Ryder Cups, cheering on Europe at home in Rome and at the K Club in Ireland in 2006.
On the PGA website, tickets were listed at $749.51 for play on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The exorbitant prices could cause European fans to avoid traveling for the showdown.
However, he feared that even if he shelled out the money to make the trip across the pond for the fight in the Big Apple, even with the raucous reputation of New York sports fans, the atmosphere in Bethpage would be missing an ingredient. key: visiting fans. .
‘In my experience in Rome, there were many Americans. The atmosphere was amazing. “Okay, it was a European victory, but there was real passion,” he said.
‘The initial face value was no longer well regarded by many. If you then have to pay for the flight, the hotels and everything else that comes with it in a city like New York, I think it’s going to put off a lot of real European fans.
“I think for a lot of genuine fans traveling from Europe to New York, it would be difficult. It could become very corporate.”
And not only could the outrageous prices dampen fans’ passionate and vocal love affair with the Ryder Cup by deterring Europeans – and even those closer to home – from making the trip to Long Island, but Kevin admitted that could be discouraged in the United States. sporting events for life.
“I think certainly from the United States’ point of view,” he admitted when asked if this week’s ordeal could affect his decision to compete for the Ryder Cup in the future.
“We were talking about going in 2026 and maybe getting some tickets to the World Cup, but now you start to think. This is clearly an important event from the United States’ point of view and it will certainly temper my enthusiasm, particularly if there is some sort of process voting.’
The exorbitant price to enter the People’s Club is a stain on the spirit of the Ryder Cup, and it seems the game of golf has only one factor to point to.
“Commercialization is killing the spirit of what is obviously a fantastic and long-standing sport,” Kevin insisted. “As a golfer I am very disappointed, but what disappoints me most is the PGA of America, because I think it is a completely misleading farce.”