The 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club resulted in a blowout 16.5-11.5 victory for the Europeans, as the United States failed to snap its 30-year winless drought on European soil. However, the final result of the historic event was far from the most noteworthy takeaway that week from outside Rome, Italy.
During the morning session on Saturday at the Ryder Cup, a report from Sky Sports surfaced that 2021 FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay elected not to wear a team hat throughout the event to protest players not getting paid by the PGA of America to play in the Ryder Cup. While Cantlay and the rest of the U.S. squad laughed and denied that the team room was "fractured" — and even used it as a rallying cry on Saturday afternoon — multiple reports have since stated there was some truth to the matter.
The latest to speak on the topic was 43-year-old veteran Lucas Glover, who won back-to-back PGA Tour events late in the season to throw his hat into the mix for the United States' captain's picks. Glover wound up being snubbed from the team in favor of players like Rickie Fowler and Sam Burns, leaving the former U.S. Open winner watching from afar like the rest of us.
In a recent chat with Taylor Zarzour on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio's "The Players Show," Glover added fuel to the fire by stating an on-site source at the Ryder Cup told him there was a "splintered" U.S. team room over pay-for-play issues.
“It broke my heart the week after to hear about how splintered the room was and the things about money and different things,” Glover told Zarzour. “That’s not at all what the Ryder Cup stands for. And I’m not just going on what I’ve read and been told — I’ve talked to some people that were there in the fight, and it breaks my heart to hear that because that’s not what it’s about. That’s not what it stands for and it’s not why I want to play on that team.”
Glover emphasized that his source was someone "in the fight" at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.
“I’m not just going on what I’ve been read and what I’ve been told,” Glover said. “I’ve talked to some people that were there, in the fight, and it breaks my heart to hear that. Because that’s not what it’s about, that’s not what it stands for, and it’s not why I want to play on that team.”
Glover pieced together his best season in over a decade, recording two wins and three additional top-5s to finish 16th in the United States Ryder Cup standings. The six-time PGA Tour winner wasn't among U.S. captain Zach Johnson's final selections but expressed his desire to be there.
“It’s easy to say three weeks after, two weeks after, and unfortunately they lost, but yeah, I would have liked to have been there,” he told SiriusXM. “And I think I could have brought some different things to the table.”
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