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Forbes Richest Athletes // New Tournament Purses Break Records for Next Season
The injection of cash into the professional game has caused many heads to turn. Recently, Forbes published an updated list of the world’s richest athletes, of which Phil Mickelson sat atop, followed by several of his peers who have made the switch over to the rival LIV Tour.
What they all had in common was huge signing bonuses, and a fantastic career behind them.
Forbes has released an article today outlining some of the financial details within the PGA Tour itself. In the interest of remaining impartial, it is important to analyze lyse where the money for the new PGA TOUR schedule for the 2022-23 season is to come from, with a whole host of updated tournament purses and new ideas to keep the Tour fresh, and to keep its participants incentivized.
PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan pocketed almost $9 million in 2019. Had he been a player he would have ranked second on the money list. Greg Norman has said he repeatedly asked for independent audits over the years and has failed to obtain any such records, evidencing a lack of financial transparency.
Today’s article in Forbes explains that LIV was able to take advantage of some of the stale business approaches occurring within the PGA Tour. Forbes asserts that LIV Golf is ‘Here to stay’ due to a PGA Tour failure to deliver for its customers, as well as over paying their executives and as mentioned, a lack of financial disclosure.
Which is why LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has every reason to take some credit for the PGA Tour’s decision to increase its 2022/23 purses to a record $429 million.
The decision was almost made under duress, as the PGA Tour had to do something to stay relevant and plug the leak of players defecting over to the rival Tour, in search of a less hectic schedule and more guaranteed paydays.
For LIV, the final piece of the puzzle would be to acquire a media deal, akin to the agreements the PGA Tour has with CBS, NBC and ESPN+, to broadcast their events going forward.
If LIV Golf were able to get the wheels in motion on a media deal, they would cement their place on our screens as well as all over our minds.
