FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Scottie Scheffler said he doesn’t think President Donald Trump plans to address the U.S. team before the Ryder Cup this week, but said Trump reaches out to him often as a lover of golf.
Trump plans to attend the opening day of the Ryder Cup on Friday. The Daily Telegraph of London reported that he will wait until the afternoon matches to arrive, avoiding the security issues surrounding his attendance that delayed the start of the U.S. Open men’s tennis final earlier this month.
“It’s been a tough few weeks for our country with some of the stuff that’s been going on, and to have our president here and for us to represent the United States of America, albeit being in a golf tournament, is extremely important for us and we’re excited to be on home soil with the home crowd and we’re ready to get this tournament started,” Scheffler said.
The opening shot of the Ryder Cup is at 7:10 a.m. (ET) at Bethpage Black, a public golf course on Long Island. Tens of thousands of fans are expected each day, many coming via public transportation. The afternoon matches begin at 12:25 p.m. (ET).
Stars like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have played golf with Trump in the past year, and Scheffler said he often gets calls or texts from Trump congratulating him after a win.
“He loves the game of golf, he loves supporting golfers,” Scheffler said.
Trump owns several prestigious golf courses worldwide, and expects to host PGA Tour and LIV Golf events at two of them in 2026. He has again assumed a cozy relationship with the world of golf during his second administration.
After multiple events were removed from his properties over the past decade, PGA Tour leadership visited the White House numerous times this winter in an effort to secure a deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which funds LIV. Trump hosted a meeting in the Oval Office that included PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
The other hot-button issue in the lead-up to the weekend is the U.S. team’s compensation by the PGA of America, with each player receiving $300,000 to donate to a charity of their choice and a $200,000 stipend. Team Europe is not paying players, with captain Luke Donald stating this week is not about getting paid.
On Monday, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley pushed back on that notion, saying, “I don’t really get that. I think the goal here was that the charity dollars hadn’t been raised in 25, 26 years and that’s what we started out doing.”
Bradley, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele have said all their money will go to charity. Scheffler was specifically pressed on whether all his money would go to charity.
“My wife and I, we like to do a lot of stuff in our local community, and I’ve never been one to announce what we do,” Scheffler said. “I don’t like to give charitable dollars for some kind of recognition. We have something planned for the money that we’ll be receiving. I think it’s a really cool thing that the PGA of America has empowered us to do.
“I have a deep passion for the city of Dallas, I have a deep passion for the organizations that we support at home, and I’m excited to be able to take this money and be able to do some good in our local community.”
(Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
