PGA Tour Golfers Have Mixed Reactions to Player Equity Program

One part of the agreement between the PGA Tour and Strategic Sports Group (SSG) to form PGA Tour Enterprises was awarding so-called loyalty bonuses to PGA Tour players who didn’t make the jump to LIV Golf over the past two years.

Last week, some dollar figures for the top players (including $100 million to Tiger Woods, $50 million to Rory McIlroy, and $30 million each to Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas) were revealed as part of the PGA Tour’s Player Equity Program. 

Despite those numbers being leaked, the PGA Tour said that players aren’t allowed to disclose the specific amount of money they were awarded.

As part of its recent $3 billion fundraising round, the PGA Tour will start issuing equity payouts to its top players today, according to @jcorrigangolf.

Top Projected Payouts
• Tiger Woods: $100 million
• Rory McIlroy: $50 million
• Jordan Spieth: $30 million
• Justin… pic.twitter.com/luMfhumXMD

— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) April 24, 2024

Spieth, who is on the board of directors for PGA Tour enterprises, said at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson tournament this week that he’s heard from plenty of golfers this week with a range of opinions on the payouts.

Spieth said:

“I had a couple of players call me and say, wow, I didn’t know, they were excited about what their grants [are]. They were excited it was more than they thought it was. I had conversations all the way back to even maybe just into the new year with some guys who missed out on it that would’ve made it other years. I heard both sides. I’ve not heard people upset with the process as much as maybe just, in general, the idea of if they missed out on [receiving any grants], and there were obviously guys excited about it, too.” 

The formula for who receives what is quite complicated.

There are four groups of players involved. The first, which accounted for $750 million of the $930 million available, consisted of 36 players using a formula that includes how many years they have been competing, the number of wins, wins in big events, and how many times they qualified for the Tour Championship.

The middle two groups consisted of 121 players, and the final group was made up of 36 “past legends” who were deemed instrumental in building the PGA Tour into what it is today.

Cover Image via SBNation