ATLANTA – On Wednesday, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced several significant changes to the PGA Tour, which will continue to compensate the best golfers in the world quite handsomely.
For fans, the best news is that the top players have committed to play more often in the same events.
“I think if you’re trying to sell a product to TV and to sponsors and to try to get as many eyeballs on professional golf as possible, you need to at least let people know what they’re tuning in for,” Rory McIlroy said. “When I tune into a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game I expect to see Tom Brady throw a football. When I tune into a Formula 1 race I expect to see Lewis Hamilton in a car. Sometimes what’s happened on the PGA Tour is we all act independently and we sort of have our own schedules, and that means that we never really get together all that often.”
McIlroy added: “I think having the top players in the world playing together more often and competing against each other more often is what everyone wants. It’s what the players want. It’s what the fans want, most importantly.
“And I think once we solve for that, a lot of the rest of the stuff sort of takes care of itself.”
Here’s what we learned from Monahan’s press conference and the changes that will be implemented to the Tour going forward.
Top players will commit to at least a 20-event PGA Tour schedule (assuming they qualify)
“To me, it’s the headline,” Monahan said.
This is a coup for the Tour and its tournaments, which often didn’t know until Friday at 5 p.m. ET if top players would play the following week. It all but ensures that the best players will play against each other more often.
“This is an extraordinary and unprecedented commitment, a testament to who these guys are and what they believe in,” Monahan added.
The 20-event commitment, which begins in the upcoming 2022-23 season, includes the following:
-
12 Elevated Events
- FedExCup Playoffs
- FedEx St. Jude Championship – $20 million
- BMW Championship – $20 million
- TOUR Championship/FedExCup Bonus Pool – $75 million
- The Genesis Invitational – $20 million
- Arnold Palmer Invitational – $20 million
- The Memorial Tournament – $20 million
- WGC-Dell Match Play Championship – $20 million
- Sentry Tournament of Champions – $15 million
- Four additional elevated events with purses of at least $20 million each are to be determined
- The Players Championship – $25 million
- The four majors
- Three additional FedEx Cup events (of the player’s choosing)
- For the 2022-23 season, a “top player” will be defined as: Players who finish in the top 20 under the current Player Impact Program and players who finish in the top 20 under the revised PIP criteria
- FedExCup Playoffs
Expansion of the Player Impact Program
The PIP is here to stay and it’s growing.
Instead of rewarding the top 10, the bonus money will be given to the top 20 in the standings this year and next. Also, the bonus pool, which had previously been announced to be $50 million has doubled to $100 million for this year and next. With the cash infusion, the PIP winner now will receive $15 million.
The Tour also announced that the PIP criteria will be adjusted to remove the Q-Score and social media criteria and expand “awareness criteria” to capture the awareness from casual and core fan bases.
In addition, for 2022, any player on the revised criteria list who is not on the current criteria list will receive a payout equal to 20th position (most likely two or three players). Players will receive their PIP bonus at the end of the season after competing in the 13 elevated events and three non-elevated events, as outlined above.
Launch of earnings assurance program and travel stipend program
For the first time, the PGA Tour will guarantee a league minimum of $500,000 per player to full-exempt members (Korn Ferry Tour category and above). Rookies and returning members will receive money upfront. Players must participate in 15 events. This new policy replaces the Tour’s short-lived “Play 15” program, which gave $50,000 to any player who participated in at least 15 events in a season.
Monahan estimated the cost of the program over the course of the season to be roughly $2 to $3 million.
“We believe it meets the challenging dynamic of how players manage and invest in their careers, and it’s comparable to how other leagues approach their athlete compensation,” Monahan said.
Playing on Tour can be a financial boon to some but it is also expensive to pay for a caddie, travel and other expenses each week. When a player misses a cut, he’s out of pocket several thousand dollars.
Non-exempt members (126-50 category and below) will receive $5,000 for every missed cut to subsidize travel and tournament-related expenses. These stipends will not impact tournament purses.
This should take some of the financial pressure off Monday Qualifiers and the like and players who want a shot at the big time but don’t have the financial means to afford weeks of missed cuts.
PGA Tour experiencing 'strongest year in history'
LIV Golf has forced the Tour to make some changes to fend off a new competitor, but apparently, it hasn’t been too bad for business — at least not yet.
When asked how the Tour is planning to fund the cash infusion to tournament purses and other expenses to reward and identify the top players, Monahan said, “The Tour is having its strongest year in history of the PGA Tour and is performing well ahead of budget.
“Secondly, as you’ve heard me talk about before, the Tour through the years has been very prudent in managing its finances and building reserves and being in a position to be able to invest in programs that are going to help the Tour grow. That’s what they’re there for, and that’s what we’ll continue to use them for.
“I would say additionally our partners, our sponsors, and all of our partners who want to get behind and are getting behind the direction that we’re going in, want to be a part of the continued growth and evolution of the Tour. They recognize that with the changes we’re talking about today, the changes that we’ve made prior to today, and the direction we’re heading in, we’re going to
be creating more value.
“When you create more value, you’re going to get more income coming into the business.
Those are the three primary things that really help us to make this move.” today and will help us grow as we go forward.
The LIV ban stands
Monahan was asked not once but twice if he would lift a suspension and welcome back a LIV golfer.
“No,” he said. “They’ve joined the LIV Golf Series and they’ve made that commitment. For most of them, they’ve made multi-year commitments. As I’ve been clear throughout, every player has a choice, and I respect their choice, but they’ve made it. We’ve made ours. We’re going to continue to focus on the things that we control and get stronger and stronger. I think they understand that.”
When the subject came around again, Monahan didn’t budge in his stance — or provide much more detail on how a player could return to the Tour’s good graces.
“As it relates to any of the scenarios for LIV players and coming back, I’ll remind you that we’re in a lawsuit,” he said. “They’ve sued us. I think talking about any hypotheticals at this point doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
