PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan gave his annual press convention on the Tour Championship this week. In a reasonably drastic change from the previous, the bulletins had been about cash. Fairly some huge cash, the truth is, that may be earned by PGA Tour gamers.
For a lot of the final 54 years, PGA Tour commissioners haven’t talked about cash or purses as a spotlight of their statements to media. They’ve steered the dialog to giving again by way of numerous charitable organizations and talked concerning the high quality of the competitors. And that’s as a result of the Tour has raised a number of billion, with a B, {dollars} for charity.
This yr, partly due to LIV golf, the greenback signal is entrance and heart.
“Our dedication is to develop earnings throughout the membership,” Monahan stated. “There’s little question that earnings on the highest finish of the membership have and can proceed to develop at an accelerated stage.”
Monahan known as the Tour a meritocracy, the form of group the place all gamers have the chance to advance and develop into the most effective on the planet, or a minimum of the most effective they are often.
“If established gamers fail to earn a spot, another person who’s hungry and proficient is correct there to take their place,” Monahan famous.
The proof is in entrance of us this week with two rookies within the area on the Tour Championship: Sahith Theegala and Cameron Younger.
Now on to the precise cash. The PGA Tour had already introduced will increase in purses for a number of tournaments subsequent yr. However wait, there’s extra. Plus there are participant commitments to take part in occasions.
The highest 20 PGA Tour gamers will decide to taking part in in 20 tournaments which embrace:
- FedEx Cup Playoffs, The Genesis Invitational, The Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Memorial, and the WGC Dell Match Play, all of which have $20 million purses.
- The Sentry Match of Champions, with a $15 million purse.
- The Gamers Championship, with a $25 million purse, nonetheless the most important single purse all season on the PGA Tour.
- The Masters, PGA, US Open, and British Open.
- 4 further PGA Tour occasions to be named within the subsequent 45 to 60 days with $20 million purses. These occasions might rotate with totally different tournaments getting the large purses in numerous years.
- And three further tournaments of the participant’s selection.
Gamers who’re within the prime 20 are outlined by the Participant Impression Program, known as PIP, and those that end within the prime 20 sooner or later. And there’s extra money for that. It’s yr by yr so simply because they had been on this yr doesn’t imply they are going to be in subsequent yr. They should sustain.
“We’re doubling the payout from $50 million to $100 million efficient with the 2022 remaining standings, and we’re revising the factors to raised seize consciousness from informal and core followers, eradicating the Q-school and social media metrics,” Monahan introduced.
They’ve additionally doubled the variety of recipients from 10 to twenty.
There’ll, a Tour media official stated, be much less emphasis on Tweets, Tweet storms and such, than there was up to now. As a substitute, gamers can be evaluated on web searches, common consciousness, golf fan consciousness, media mentions, and broadcast publicity.
The latter usually comes because of good play or for some off track good work or charitable work. Media mentions will be pushed by the gamers themselves.
To obtain PIP cash, gamers can be measured utilizing a system known as MARC, which mixes recognition and fan assist given by core followers and informal followers and provides a mixed worth to every participant.
As one of many PGA Tour media official defined, Rickie Fowler is already cherished by each informal followers and core followers, whereas somebody newer to the Tour, like a Max Homa, could also be widespread with core followers as we speak, however could also be widespread with causal followers sooner or later as they get to know him.
If gamers don’t play within the required tournaments, they’ll lose PIP eligibility.
A number of the cash for all of those applications comes from reserves, and a few comes from event sponsors and total Tour sponsors. In line with Monahan, the PGA Tour, as a corporation, is having an excellent yr and may afford to share among the wealth now.
That is totally different from 2020, the pandemic yr.
“While you look again to the early days, to April and Might of 2020, with the uncertainty that everybody was going through and the uncertainty about whether or not we’d have the ability to come again and after we’d have the ability to come again, there have been eventualities clearly that had us utilizing all of our reserves over a comparatively quick time frame to maintain the Tour operational,” Monahan revealed.
“Having these reserves and all of the work, all of the sacrifices that prior generations of gamers made to permit the Tour to construct these reserves, that’s what put us in that place.”
Then, there may be new cash to assist exempt PGA Tour members with the bills of taking part in skilled golf. Those that are Korn Ferry and above can have a assured minimal of $500,000 per participant in the event that they play 15 occasions.
“As you begin a season and you intend for a season, understanding the monies that it’s a must to make investments to compete on the best Tour on the planet on the highest stage, there’s important prices,” Monahan acknowledged. “So, in case you’re not in a position to play for no matter motive, you have got that as a backstop.”
For rookies, the cash will be accessed on day one as a result of Monahan stated the Tour believes it’ll put the rookies in a “higher place to compete as a result of they will spend money on the infrastructure they should succeed.”
The Tour refers to this because the Earnings Assurance Program.
As well as, there’s a missed lower compensation for non-exempt gamers within the 125-150 class. These gamers who enter a PGA Tour occasion and miss the lower can be reimbursed $5000 for each missed lower to assist with journey bills. This doesn’t come out of event purses. They name the Journey Stipend Program.
Extra particulars are positive to be introduced within the weeks to come back.
