SPORTS EXTRA / RYDER CUP : It Won’t Pay Players to Revisit Issue : Golf: Compensation for participating in event shouldn’t be distraction during Ryder Cup.

The Ryder Cup play-for-pay issue should never have happened. Your typical golf controversies are about casual water, loose impediments and really bad clothing . . . nothing as crass as money.

But there it was anyway, nearly overshadowing the PGA Championship--it took a Tiger Woods-Sergio Garcia showdown to save it--bringing everybody and everything down a few levels. And it should never have happened.

* The PGA of America should never have let it become an issue.

* The PGA Tour should never have allowed its players to become involved in such a public relations disaster.

* The players should never have debated the issue in public.

Of course, it was a terrific debate.

The best thing about it is, it’s over now.

So what’s the latest on the pay debate that threatened to become the focus of what’s probably the most important Ryder Cup in 20 years, since continental Europe joined the fray?

Well, nothing, really, except that the PGA of America has promised to look into the issue of compensating the U.S. players and that some plan will be in place by the end of the year.

That’s what Jim Awtrey, the PGA of America’s chief executive officer, said at Medinah Country Club at the PGA Championship. It was enough to stop the bickering then, and it’s probably going to be enough to keep it from starting up again during the Ryder Cup.

At issue is the projected $63-million payday the PGA is going to have, courtesy of the Ryder Cup--and maybe as much as $17 million profit. It is expected to be the biggest money-making event in the history of golf.

The players, who receive a $5,000 stipend to cover Ryder Cup expenses, naturally and correctly decided that if it’s such a huge deal, they needed to have a bigger voice in the distribution of the revenue. The problem was in the way they went about it.

Instead of working behind the scenes with the PGA Tour and lobbying the PGA of America, which runs the Ryder Cup, to increase the players’ say, the players went public.

David Duval hinted that players might not want to participate if the rules weren’t changed. He never used the word “boycott,” but that’s what he was talking about.

Tom Lehman and Fred Couples were among those who said a boycott never would happen.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Couples, who was not chosen as a captain’s pick. “All of them are going to play. No one is ever not going to play in the Ryder Cup.”

Still, the U.S. players came off as greedy and spoiled. Whether that remains an accurate description isn’t altogether clear, although the players have said all they ever really wanted was for a larger share of the money they help generate to go to charity.

But there were other comments that sort of complicated the issue. Duval said the Ryder Cup was not such a huge deal, even though he never has played one. Tiger Woods characterized the Ryder Cup as an exhibition. Mark O’Meara said the players should be paid more and do whatever they wanted with the money. By the way, a portion of the money O’Meara took home for charity from the Presidents Cup was donated to his son’s school.

Chances are, when the first ball is hit at the Ryder Cup, none of this is going to matter any more. Let’s hope so, anyway.