ORLANDO — It’s a sign of the PGA Tour’s evolution that Tiger Woods isn’t even playing at Bay Hill this week but still earned more money than he has accumulated in 17 career starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, including eight wins.
His performances at the API were worth $7,656,559. On Wednesday, the Tour gifted him $8 million as the winner of the inaugural Player Impact Program, a hocus-pocus plan that bonuses those who most impact fan engagement, regardless of how they perform inside the ropes. Woods didn’t hit a single shot on the PGA Tour in 2021, but received prize money equivalent to winning a half-dozen tournaments.
It’s a little jarring that the free-money era in professional golf has been made official at Bay Hill, which usually represents a bulwark week on the PGA Tour schedule. It has always been a citadel of the old school values Palmer prized, not least of which was respect—for opponents, for peers, for fans, for cardigans and for protocol, like not wearing hats indoors.
