Another new income source for PGA Tour players nearing fruition

Overlooked within the torrent of reports and response within the wake of the PGA Tour’s bombshell June 6 announcement that it was forging a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was that Tour management was aiming to make its loyalists entire by giving them an possession stake within the Tour’s forthcoming for-profit arm, PGA Tour Enterprises.   

Jimmy Dunne, a Tour coverage member on the middle of the Tour’s secretive, high-stakes dealings with the Saudis, spelled out among the plan in a piece revealed by ESPN on June 9, noting: “The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on. There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players.”

Last month, in a memo to his players, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan added of the fairness stakes: “…this would be a unique offering in professional sports, as no other league grants its players/members direct equity ownership in the league’s business…[and] the PGA Tour will be stronger with our players more closely aligned with the commercial success of the business.”

Still, particulars concerning the players-as-owners plan have been scant, as some execs have grown more and more agitated by the Tour’s shift towards catering to and lining the pockets of its stars. One such newish income channel that favors the Tour’s A-listers is the Player Impact Program, which pays players enormous sums for, within the easiest phrases, producing buzz. Another is the Tour’s signature-event construction, which the Tour’s middle-class critics contend is unfairly restrictive to players making an attempt to stand up the ranks, given the variety of FedEx Cup factors that signature occasions award relative to run-of-the-mill tournaments. Going to bat for the Tour’s “normal guys” in an interview with Golfweek final month, Lanto Griffin, mentioned, “To have the deck stacked against us — we’re losing points, money, starts, it feels like, who’s making these decisions?”

The players are, Lanto! At least a few of them are, anyway, and way more proactively than they had been even simply a few years in the past. The signature-event idea was cooked up by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, together with 20 or so of their different top-shelf comrades, at their now-landmark Delaware summit in August 2022. That the new schedule most advantages the celebs who convey essentially the most eyeballs to the Tour was no accident and it has not sit properly with among the Tour’s proletariat. Chris Stroud, a 41-year-old one-time Tour winner and former Player Advisory Council member told Golf Channel final week, “The Tour doesn’t care about you if you’re not in the top 30 and I learned that quickly that I needed to take care of myself.”

Seemingly sensing the rising angst, the Tour’s participant administrators — Tiger Woods, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson and Jordan Spieth (plus Adam Scott, who subsequent yr will exchange Hoffman) — dispatched a memo to the membership final week, which touted the “diversity” of the participant administrators’ profession paths and outlined plans for the creation of a “governance committee,” which might guarantee “no major decision can be made in the future without the prior involvement and approval of the player directors.”

The P.D.’s buried the lede, although. The actual information for Tour members itching for extra assured income was on web page 2, which confirmed that plans are afoot for a new income stream for all players. The fifth of the memo’s seven bullets learn: “We will establish a program through which membership has direct ownership in our tour through equity grants. Alongside our governance review, we believe this program will help further align our interests and create substantial economic opportunities for the membership. While we are finalizing the details of the program with management and the independent board members, we are committed to providing ownership opportunities to both current and future PGA Tour members. All investor groups have been incredibly supportive of this program.”

This is a paradigm shift. Historically, Tour players have been unbiased contractors assured not way more than tournaments wherein to compete. Make extra birdies than bogeys and players are handsomely compensated, however the inverse can imply players going residence with nothing — truly lower than nothing while you issue of their journey, lodging and various different prices. Established players do get to take part within the Tour’s beneficiant pension plan — in accordance with golf finance reporter Jared Doerfler, as of Dec. 31, 2021, greater than 100 members had retirement account balances north of $5 million — however till not too long ago common previous paydays have come solely via one major channel: weekend tee occasions.

Now, players will stand to revenue not solely after they play properly but in addition when the Tour itself turns a couple of bucks. A Tour spokesperson didn’t reply to an inquiry about how the possession grants will work, however the memo from Tiger and Co. clearly affirmed that they’re nearing fruition. To players preventing for their livelihoods, missed cuts will nonetheless damage, however having one other income stream ought to assist soothe the sting.

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s govt editor, Bastable is accountable for the editorial course and voice of one of many sport’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — enhancing, writing, ideating, growing, daydreaming of at some point breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely proficient and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey together with his spouse and foursome of children.