Westwood speaks out about Ryder Cup cash row

Lee Westwood has issued a timely reminder of what makes him want to play in the Ryder Cup next month - not money, but pride and honour.

Westwood was speaking in Chicago, where the United States PGA championship begins on Thursday, as American players, some unhappy with the distribution of cup profits, met with their captain Ben Crenshaw and with officials.

The controversial issue of whether players should be paid to appear in the match - and therefore given the chance to make their own donations to charity - was expected to be aired.

A possible future boycott has been speculated upon, but Westwood said: "I grew up watching Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam and people like that and the last thing on their mind (playing in the Ryder Cup) looked to be money.

"You know they were there for the honour of representing their country and their continent.

"That's the way I was brought up that the Ryder Cup should be played - I just don't think money should come into it at all.

"Players have bonus-related things and if it's a good Ryder Cup it might encourage a few more people to come and watch another time and that in turn puts people through the gates and more money into our pockets.

"Also there's this world championship event in two weeks. The qualification is making the Ryder Cup team and it's 25,000 dollars (£15,625) for last spot, so it's almost like they're paying you to play in the Ryder Cup.

"I think we play for money 51 weeks of the year, so one week playing for pride and honour is not too much to ask."

The only assurance Westwood would like to have is that profits go to the right causes.

"In Europe I'd like to see it go the Golf Foundation or something like that to benefit junior golf and maybe inner city programmes where they are trying to introduce kids to play.

"I'm all for people making money at the Ryder Cup as long as it goes to a good cause. I think money being donated to a charity of each player's choosing is fine.

"I can see the point of people like Bernhard Langer, Seve and Thomas Bjorn that when the match is in Europe the British PGA get most of the money and not the Danish PGA or German Federation.

"I'd like to see that change because they've put an awful lot into the Ryder Cup and those federations deserve some support."

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods went to the American players' meeting saying that unless the distribution of cup profits changed a boycott of the match in the future "could happen".

"I would like us to receive an amount of money and do whatever we see fit with it," he said. "Personally I would donate it all to charity, but it should be up to other players' discretion."

The profit at Brookline in Boston next month is expected to be in the region of 23 million dollars (£14million) and Woods believes the amount players should receive is "200, 300, 400, 500,000 or whatever."