PGA Tour announces new incentives in bid to keep top players

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PGA Tour announces new incentives in bid to keep top players

Published: 28 Aug. 2022, 15:39

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan speaks during a press conference prior to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club on Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia. [PGA TOUR]

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, left, shakes hands with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan after a press conference at East Lake Golf Club prior to the start of the Tour Championship golf tournament on Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia. [AP/YONHAP]

The PGA Tour purse will increase next year with new incentives for golfers as Saudi-backed LIV Golf tries to lure away more top players.

The PGA Tour announced Wednesday that it will implement new incentives that will keep top players in at least 20 PGA Tour events per year, including 12 elevated tournaments that will have average purses of $20 million according to PGA commissioner Jay Monahan.

Monahan announced in June that the PGA Tour will greatly enhance purses of eight events in 2023 — the Sentry Tournament of Champions from $8.2 million in 2022 to $15 million, The Genesis Invitational from $12 million in 2022 to $20 million, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard from $12 million in 2022 to $20 million, The Players Championship from $20 million to $25, the WGC - Dell Technologies Match Play from $12 million to $20, the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday from $12 million to $20 million, the FedEx St. Jude Championship from $15 million to $20 million and the BMW Championship from $15 million to $20 million.

There will be four more events that are yet to be announced that will have purses of at least $20 million.

Top golfers will make an unprecedented commitment to play all 12 of these events, meaning that they will play the four majors and The Players Championship, and then three other PGA TOUR events of their choice.

In addition, there will be an expanded Player Impact Program (PIP) that incentivizes the most popular golfers.

The PIP initiative was first created last year to financially reward the most popular players but it backfired, with five of the 10 winners in 2021 — Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bubba Watson — leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf.

Last year a total of $40 million was spread among the 10 players on the list. It was announced that this year's PIP would be $50 million but on Wednesday Monahan announced that the amount had been doubled to $100 million.

The PGA Tour also guarantees a league-minimum salary of $500,000 per player for fully exempt members by launching an Earnings Assurance Program. These players must participate in 15 events while rookies and returning members will receive the money at the start of the season.

The PGA Tour will also subsidize non-exempt members who were ranked 126th to 150th in the FedEx Cup points standings and below with travel and tournament-related expenses and will also pay $5,000 for every missed cut.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]