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McIlroy, 34, had two worldwide wins in 2023 and scored a team-best four points for the Europeans en route to victory at the Ryder Cup. The Ulsterman continued to be the de facto face of the tour in its battle against LIV Golf, a position he acknowledged made him feel like a “sacrificial lamb” following announcement of the tour’s surprise framework agreement with LIV’s backer, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, in June. The PIP news comes a week after McIlroy resigned his post from the PGA Tour’s policy board and two days after TGL—the tech-inflused golf league he formed with Tiger Woods—announced it was delaying its launch by a year.

The PIP is a bonus pool that was instituted in 2021 to reward players who boosted engagement and publicity for the tour. Ostensibly a response to some of the lucrative deals rumored to be coming from the then-Premier Golf League, the inaugural program somewhat backfired; five of the 10 winners in 2021—Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bubba Watson—ultimately left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. However, improvements to the PIP were announced at this last year’s Tour Championship to broaden its scope. After spreading out $40 million to those on last year’s list, the 2022 and 2023 PIP pools were increased to $100 million in payouts, with 20 players earning rewards.

The tour uses a number of measurements for putting together the list: Internet searches, the number of unique news articles that include a player’s name, duration that a player’s sponsor logos appeared on screen during Saturday and Sunday PGA Tour telecasts, a player’s general awareness score among broad U.S. population, and social media score that considers a player’s reach, conversation and engagement metrics. Along with Google Search, Meltwater and Nielsen measurements, the 2023 list added general population and fan awareness criteria.

Any player eligible for PIP payments must fulfill three additional requirements to be paid in full. They include: 1) Play in a mutually agreed-upon PIP Designated tournament; 2) Participate in a mutually agreed-upon PIP service event; 3) Fulfill the Mandatory Participation Requirement as outlined in the PGA Tour Tournament Regulations handbook. Players will receive PIP payments in two installments. The first 75 percent will be paid with the Sentry (formerly known as the Tournament of Champions) purse payment, and the remaining 25 percent will be paid once a player completes the three obligations.

Woods, who won the first two PIP bonus pools, finished second in this year’s ranking. Woods played just events in 2023 and hasn’t competed since withdrawing from the Masters. Woods, who underwent ankle surgery just weeks after his Augusta National appearance, is scheduled to return at his Hero World Challenge exhibition next week.

Below is the list of PIP winners, along with their bonus for making the list:

1: Rory McIlroy, $15 million

2: Tiger Woods, $12 million

3: Jon Rahm, $9 million

4: Jordan Spieth, $7.5 million

5: Scottie Scheffler, $6 million

6: Rickie Fowler, $5 million

7: Viktor Hovland, $5 million

8: Justin Thomas, $5 million

9: Tommy Fleetwood, $5 million

10: Max Homa, $5 million

11: Xander Schauffele, $3 million

12: Jason Day, $3 million

13: Tony Finau, $3 million

14: Collin Morikawa, $3 million

15: Matt Fitzpatrick, $3 million

16: Wyndham Clark, $2 million

17: Cameron Young, $2 million

18: Justin Rose, $2 million

19: Patrick Cantlay, $2 million

20: Brian Harman, $2 million

Image: Andrew Redington

The post Rory McIlroy wins PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program is undergoing its fourth change in just over two years of existence.

Tucked away in PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s memo to tour membership Wednesday that announced sweeping changes to the designated event series was a note about the tour’s PIP initiative. The PIP bonus pool was instituted in 2021 to reward players who boosted engagement and publicity for the tour. Ostensibly, a response to some of the lucrative deals rumoured to be coming from the then-Premier Golf League, the inaugural program somewhat backfired; five of the 10 winners in 2021—Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bubba Watson—ultimately left the tour for LIV Golf.

However, improvements to the PIP were announced at the 2022 Tour Championship to broaden its scope. After spreading out $40 million to those on 2021’s list, the 2022 PIP pool initially increased to $50 million, only to double to $100 million in payouts. The list also went from 10 players to 20. Perhaps the most consequential alteration was what making the PIP list did for a player going forward, giving those on the list entry into the tour’s designated events.

But on Wednesday, a tour memo announced that, starting in 2024, the program’s bonus pool will be reduced to $50 million, distributed once more only to the top 10 players. Moreover, there is no language in the memo that highlights entry into designated events based off the PIP ranking.

According to the memo, the other $50 million is being reallocated to the FedEx Cup bonus program and the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 standings.

The tour uses five measurements for putting together the PIP list: Internet searches; the number of unique news articles that include a player’s name; duration that a player’s sponsor logos appeared on screen during Saturday and Sunday PGA Tour telecasts; a player’s general awareness score among broad U.S. population; and social media score that considers a player’s reach, conversation and engagement metrics. Along with Google Search, Meltwater and Nielsen measurements, the 2023 list is adding general population and fan awareness criteria.

Tiger Woods has won both iterations of the PIP, beating Phil Mickelson in its inaugural year and besting Rory McIlroy in 2022.

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The PIP bonus pool was instituted in 2021 to reward players who boosted engagement and publicity for the tour. Ostensibly a response to some of the lucrative deals rumored to be coming from the then-Premier Golf League, the inaugural programme somewhat backfired: five of the 10 winners in 2021 — Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bubba Watson — ultimately left the tour for LIV Golf.

However, tweaks to the PIP were announced at this year’s Tour Championship to broaden its scope. After spreading out $40 million to those on last year’s list, the 2022 PIP pool has increased to $100 million in payouts. The list has also doubled from 10 players to 20. Perhaps the most consequential alteration is what making the PIP list does for a player going forward. In 2023, the tour is moving to a new schedule, one that features 12 elevated events, in addition the majors and the Players Championship, and a commitment from the game’s “top players” to compete in at least 20 tournaments. A “top player” will now be defined by the tour as an individual who finishes in the top 20 in the PIP, meaning making the list grants invites into the tour’s biggest events featuring the biggest purses.

Below is the list of PIP winners, along with their bonus for making the list.
1. Tiger Woods $15,000,000
2. Rory McIlroy $12,000,000
3. Jordan Spieth $9,000,000
4. Justin Thomas $7,500,000
5. Jon Rahm $6,000,000
6. Scottie Scheffler $5,500,000
7. Xander Schauffele $5,000,000
8. Matt Fitzpatrick $5,000,000
9. Will Zalatoris $5,000,000
10. Tony Finau $5,000,000
11. Collin Morikawa $3,000,000
12. Shane Lowry $3,000,000
13. Kevin Kisner $3,000,000
14. Max Homa $3,000,000
15. Billy Horschel $3,000,000
16. Rickie Fowler $2,000,000
17. Adam Scott $2,000,000
18. Jason Day $2,000,000
19. Patrick Cantlay $2,000,000
20. Viktor Hovland $2,000,000

The tour used five measurements for putting together the list: Internet searches, the number of unique news articles that include a player’s name, duration that a player’s sponsor logos appeared on screen during Saturday and Sunday PGA Tour broadcasts, a player’s general awareness score among broad US population, and social media score that considers a player’s reach, conversation and engagement metrics. Along with Google Search, Meltwater and Nielsen measurements, the 2023 list is adding general population and fan awareness criteria.

Incorporating the changes to the formula for 2023, the PIP ranking was also run using the new measurement criteria. Three other players appeared in the top 20 with the modified criteria — Hideki Matsuyama, Cameron Young and Sam Burns. Each also will receive a $2 million payment and he eligible for PIP events.

Any player eligible for PIP payments must fulfill three additional requirements to be paid in full. They include:

• 1) Play in a mutually agreed-upon PIP Designated Tournament
• 2) Participate in a mutually agreed-upon PIP Service Event;
• 3) Fulfill the Mandatory Participation Requirement as outlined in the PGA Tour Tournament Regulations handbook

Players will receive PIP payments in two installments. The first 25 per cent will be paid with the Sentry Tournament of Champions purse payment, and the remaining 75 per cent will be paid once a player completes the three obligations.

Woods played just nine rounds in 2022, although his return at the Masters and possible goodbye to St Andrews at the Open were among the stories of the year. Woods was also instrumental in leading a group of players that enacted sweeping reforms to the tour in response to the ongoing threat from LIV Golf.

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The post Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth headline 23 winners from $100 million Player Impact Programme bonus pool appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
PGA Tour players and officials discussed a number of topics regarding the tour’s future in a mandatory players meeting on Tuesday ahead of the Honda Classic at PGA National.

According to a player in attendance, commissioner Jay Monahan spent roughly the first 10 minutes discussing the rumoured Saudi-backed golf league. In addition to reiterating the position that anyone who signs with the league would not be welcomed back to the tour, Monahan continued to portray the upstart circuit as being focused just about money.

“He basically was talking like it’s not going to happen, and that it’s time to move on and stop talking about it,” the source said.

After Monahan spoke, other senior tour officials were made available for a question-and-answer session. Topics discussed included potential changes to the fall schedule, which could be put in place for 2023.

One proposal, initially laid out at last week’s Player Advisory Council meeting in Los Angeles, would feature a series of events played internationally that would include the top 50 finishers in the prior season’s FedEx Cup. Simultaneously, players outside the top 50 would be able to play in a separate group of tournaments, but these events would not count toward the following year’s FedEx Cup points race.

Driving the conversation regarding a restructured fall schedule is the desire among top players to have a more defined offseason. The source said that the rank-and-file players generally agreed that golfers need a more extended break, and that separating any fall events from counting toward the FedEx Cup would allow players greater flexibility with setting their schedules.

“After Patrick Cantlay won the FedEx Cup, he and Xander Schauffele went to Napa just for fun—not to play in the tour event there,” the source said. “Those are not good optics. Guys should want to play in tour events.”

A common theme throughout the meeting was players expressing their desire for more transparency as far as the tour’s financials and dealings. Players were told that purses will continue to rise—the Players Championship will likely rise from $20 million to $25 million by 2025—and that they should expect major championships to keep pace with the Players’ purse increases.

The upcoming Netflix documentary series was also brought up, with a number of players expressing concern over who and what will be shown. Players were told that they would not be recorded without their consent and that the tour plans to send a memo to players laying out guidelines for how the show will proceed.

Tour officials also told players that the results of the controversial Player Impact Program are close to being finalised.

One topic that was not discussed was the statement from Phil Mickelson in which he apologised for his Saudi golf league comments published last Thursday. The statement was released during the meeting. A question about it was asked to officials, but they had not seen Mickelson’s statement and thus did not comment. The source said that once the question was asked, players immediately took to social media to read the six-paragraph statement.

The post Pros, officials discuss PGA Tour’s future in players meeting appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
Someone was always going to be Unlucky No. 11. The PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program—devised to reward the players who bring the most attention to the game—pays each of the top-10 finishers at least $3 million. The first man out, however? Zero dollars and zero cents.

As Golf Digest reported last week, World No. 2 and top-ranked American Collin Morikawa will all but certainly finish 11th in the inaugural ranking, which (unsurprisingly) resulted with Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods taking the top two spots. Morikawa, 24, who will make his 2022 debut at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions, appears to be rather salty about it all.

Shortly after the news became public, Morikawa tweeted that his favourite number used to be 5, “but maybe I’ll make it 11 now. (Klay Thompson) is #11 and he’s set for a big comeback in 2022, so here’s to all No. 11’s next year.”

My favorite number is 5, but maybe I’ll make it 11 now. @KlayThompson is #11 and he’s set for a big comeback in 2022, so here’s to all No.11’s next year ?? https://t.co/TS7Pf1NdDv

— Collin Morikawa (@collin_morikawa) December 29, 2021

Shortly thereafter, the two-time major champion changed both his Twitter and Instagram bios to include “Co11in,” which actually works incredibly well given the unique double-L spelling of his first name.

Collin Morikawa is salty af about finishing 11th in the PIP and it is goddamn delicious. #Co11in pic.twitter.com/FB0WBU4XYv

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) January 5, 2022

“When you’re the first person out and you have $3 million out there, I don’t think anybody’s going to be happy about that,” Morikawa told Golf Digest on Wednesday. “I’m not sure of any other sports league that does something like this. You can tell me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any other professional sports include a player impact program where just the top 10 people are getting paid on the side. Is it weird? Absolutely. Are guys that miss out going to complain? Probably.”

The good news for Morikawa is—well, there’s just a ton of good news. He has a chance to become World No. 1 this week, he just got engaged to his longtime girlfriend and he’s made more than $15 million in less than three years on the PGA Tour. We still love the bitterness, however.

The post Collin Morikawa appears to be rather salty about finishing 11th in the Player Impact Program appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

From air hockey table reviews to important polls on Mexican fast food to even a photo of the split pants he unknowingly was practising his putting in, there’s a lot of good stuff there. (Actually, the Mexican fast-food is particularly funny because the only prior Loop post we can find about Nitties involves him crediting burriots for a great round.) But the Korn Ferry Tour winner saved his best for Thursday.

Nitties put together a hilarious video on what long road trips are like that features him singing/wailing along to the likes of everyone from Whitney Houston to George Strait. Check it out:

Long road trips be like.. ????@AmericanIdol @Beyonce pic.twitter.com/UtdBfAl4M8

— James Nitties (@JamesNitties23) May 27, 2021

Move over, Brooks and Bryson. Seriously, give this guy all the PIP money right now.

At the very least, give him more follows on Twitter. How does he only have 6,500 followers right now? That’s a travesty.

The post Give this past PGA Tour player all the PIP bonus money for his hilarious road trip singing video appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
There are many more questions than answers right now on the subject of what the PGA Tour is calling its Player Impact Program, which will be known going forward as the PIP.

It’s worth noting that the tour did not publicly announce the program, which will pay out $40 million to 10 players deemed to do the most to boost publicity and engagement for the tour. The news instead was broken by Golfweek and then confirmed by tour officials.

And so the first question: Where is the tour getting the $40 million? At the moment, there’s no corporate sponsor and there’s not likely to be one, if only because Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the tour dating to 2007, would probably lose his mind if PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan stood up and proudly announced a new multi-million-dollar corporate partnership in order to pay 10 players millions of dollars.

As it is, one wonders how FedEx, whose contract with the tour runs through 2027, is going to react to a new program that rewards players for being popular. Flawed as the FedEx Cup playoff system is, the hundreds of millions the company has invested has gotten the top players to keep playing through the end of the summer after the major championships are over. That was the whole point when then-commissioner Tim Finchem convinced FedEx to sign on in the first place. FedEx and the PGA Tour are now so closely entwined that the FedEx logo is embedded in the floor of the lobby inside the tour’s new multi-million-dollar headquarters.

It’s worth noting that the tour laid off about 50 employees last summer in the midst of the pandemic. Now apparently it has $40 million to spend on 10 of its wealthiest players. It’s also worth noting that the tour recently stated it would not move the Tour Championship out of Atlanta in the wake of the Georgia legislature passing a blatantly racist voting-rights bill because leaving the area would harm local charities. Why couldn’t the tour take a chunk of that $40 million, give it to the charities it benefits in the Atlanta region and move the tournament someplace else, as Major League Baseball did when it announced it was moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta soon after the bill was made law?

There lies the next question: Why spend $40 million this way? Aren’t there so many other things the money could can be used for other than handing out millions to a small group of men who are already multi-millionaires? The tour constantly cites its charitable giving—which is considerable—but could certainly use all or some of that $40 million to give more to charity. There’s no such thing as enough when it comes to charities, especially nowadays in the wake of the pandemic.

The tour could also use some of the money to increase purses at some of its lower-profile tournaments, many having been impacted by the World Golf Championship events and the playoffs. Right now, there are four major championships, three playoff events, four WGCs and the Players Championship that stars are expected to play. That’s 12 tournaments, meaning a top player only needs to play three more times to meet his minimum of 15 events per year. The PIP does nothing to encourage the tour’s stars to play in more tournaments, or tournaments that could use their needle-moving power.

It seems obvious the PIP is a reaction to the threat of the proposed Premier Golf League, which was first publicly discussed a year ago. The PGL model calls for 18 events in a season for huge money (reportedly $240 million) each year. But despite the financial enticements, a handful of top-ranked players, notable Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka among them, said they weren’t interested, stymieing the tour’s launch.

The very idea of the PGL clearly scared the tour, and the PIP appears to be a direct response to that concept: If we give top players millions for doing nothing on top of the millions they are already making, they won’t be tempted by the PGL. It’s an overreaction to something that doesn’t even exist at the moment.

That said, it’s worth considering who might be among the 10 players in line this year to receive the $40 million in bonuses the tour is going to hand out.

Presumably, Tiger Woods is No. 1 on the list (presumably because the tour hasn’t made any ranking public) even though he is recovering from his horrific car accident. Woods is regularly mentioned on social-media platforms that the tour proposes to use to measure “impact” and he still receives more attention than anyone who is actually playing golf right now.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Years ago, when Woods was the No. 1 player in the world by leaps and bounds, Tommy Roy, NBC’s longtime golf executive producer, told me that a survey the network had done asked viewers this question: “Would you rather watch any other player hitting a shot or watch Tiger Woods leaning on his bag waiting for his turn to play?” According to Roy, 45 percent of viewers said they’d rather watch Woods talk club selection with then-caddie Steve Williams.

Woods is 45 now and no one knows if he will ever play in a PGA Tour event again, but there are still legions of fans who would rather read one of his tweets than watch Stewart Cink win at Hilton Head—all due respect to Cink, whose comeback story is truly inspiring.

Now, guess who probably should be No. 2 on the list, if popularity is the measure? How about Charlie Woods. OK, he’s not eligible (yet) but think about the interest his presence at the PNC Challenge last December created among the media, TV, print, digital, social and otherwise. Of course, I’m kidding that Charlie should be paid for the engagement he helped bring the tour, but I bring him up to make the point that paying competitive athletes (or their children) based on popularity is ludicrous.

You know who else is clearly in the top 10, perhaps the top five? Rickie Fowler, currently ranked 109th in the world and 128th on the FedEx points list. Remember, this isn’t about playing well, it’s about being popular. Fowler hasn’t been seen in a late group on Sunday in a long time, but he’s still on TV selling product non-stop and has a strong social-media presence. Plus, he’s a genuinely nice guy. Everyone loves Rickie, regardless of his struggles inside the ropes.

Bryson DeChambeau, aka Popeye, the sailor man, will certainly make the list in part because he won the U.S. Open last September, but at least as much because he now looks like a young Arnold Schwarznegger and can compete with the long drive guys for length.

Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson (yes, at almost 51) Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka are likely to crack the list. Adam Scott? Perhaps given his appeal among men and women. Patrick Reed? Not so much unless it is during a Ryder Cup week and American fans are chanting, “USA,” every time he holes a putt. Then we love you Patrick. Next week, not so much.

What about Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama? If this was Japan, he would be No. 1 by a massive margin. But it’s not. Collin Morikawa, the PGA champion and the best young player in golf? Maybe, maybe not. He’s just a superb player, an extremely bright guy and personable as they come. But he’s not big on social media.

The larger point isn’t so much who will or will not be on the list. It’s the question again of why spend $40 million to make a bunch of very rich guys richer? To get them to sign more autographs or go on social media more often? Seriously? It’s flailing at an opponent who doesn’t even exist at the moment. It is just about the worst idea since New Coke. With luck, it will go away just about as quickly.

The post The $40 million question surrounding the PGA Tour’s new bonus program appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Coleman Bentley
On Tuesday, the PGA Tour announced its new Player Impact Program. A $40-million-dollar piggybank, the PIP will financially reward players who are judged to have driven the most fan and sponsor engagement (read: are the funniest on Twitter) over the course of a single season. After the end of the Tour Championship each fall, the $40 million will be distributed amongst the top 10 players based on FedEx Cup Rank, Google search popularity, Nielsen Brand exposure, and a variety of other factors, with the top TikTok star taking home a whopping $8-million windfall.

With that kind of money on the line, you better bet the games have already begun. First, 140 280-character wunderkid Max Homa came at the competition and, as the kids say, did not miss.

Basically me to all the PGA Tour guys who will be upping their activity on this soul sucker of an app pic.twitter.com/RkoaHsgNKB

— max homa (@maxhoma23) April 20, 2021

RELATED: PGA Tour implements $40 million bonus pool rewarding high-profile tour pros

Then Harry Higgs threatened to take his shirt off. Tour officials have yet to confirm if OnlyFans contributes to your PIP ranking.

?? https://t.co/lm9PUwilMr pic.twitter.com/LV2NZw7h0v

— Harry Higgs (@harryhiggs1991) April 21, 2021

Even the BryanBros saw an opportunity to reinvest their long-stagnant trick-shot capital.

Needless to say, we eagerly await Phil’s retort. We’re sure he’s oiling up the calves and throwing another log on the Phireside as we speak. As for the rest of the PGA Tour? They better find their thing and fast. Juggling, ventriloquism, cultivating the physique of Godzilla. Whatever it takes. The PIP Tour is here to stay.

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By Joel Beall
The PGA Tour has created a $40 million bonus pool for players who boost publicity and engagement. The news, first reported by Golfweek, was confirmed by the PGA Tour.

Called the “Player Impact Program,” the pool appears to be a response to some of the incentives of the Premier Golf League, a proposed tour that would compete with the PGA Tour for top players. While the PGL has hit several snags in its attempt to go from paper to reality—such as Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm turning down offers and a proposed venture with the European Tour falling apart when the Euro Tour instead choose an alliance with the PGA Tour—its foundation exposed loopholes in the PGA Tour’s framework. Chiefly, that the rival circuit promised golf’s elite bigger paydays than available on the PGA Tour. And even though McIlroy has reiterated he wanted no part of the PGL, he also hedged his bets.

“For me, I’m out. My position is I’m against it until there may come a day where I can’t be against. If everyone else goes, I might not have a choice,” McIlroy said at the 2020 WGC-Mexico Championship. “But at this point, I don’t like what [the PGL is] proposing.”

The Player Impact Program, which a tour spokesperson told Golf Digest has been in ideation stages since late 2019, compensates individuals outside weekly tournament purses, rewarding them for drawing eyes and attention to the tour product.

The $40 million will be distributed to just 10 players. These players will be chosen through an “impact score,” a number fueled by several factors including popularity in Google search, Q Rating, Nielsen Brand Rating (a metric that judges how a player delivers to sponsors based on their exposure), Meltwater Mentions (the frequency of player coverage across a number of media platforms) and MVP Index (value of engagement on social and digital channels). The player who is considered the most valuable will receive $8 million at the end of the year, with the program having begun in January.

Some of the players expected to benefit are McIlroy, Jordan Spieth (whose father, Shawn, founded the company that created MVP Index), Bryson DeChambeau, and—despite being sidelined with injury this season—Tiger Woods.

As an extension of the Player Impact Program, the tour told Golf Digest it has created a new business unit—Player Partnerships within the Player Relations Department—focused on the entire PGA Tour membership. Led by Senior Vice President Dan Glod, the Player Partnerships group will work in collaboration with all players and their respective management teams to help maximize off-the-course business opportunities.

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By Daniel Rapaport
There are 244 players listed in the current FedEx Cup points standings. The PGA Tour’s new $40 million bonus pool for high-profile players, dubbed the Player Impact Program, will impact only 10 of them. It is, in theory, a way to reward the biggest movers of the proverbial needle without taking anything away from the “other” 234 players in the tour ecosystem.

“It doesn’t really matter to me,” said one top-50 player of the program, details of which were first reported on Tuesday by Golfweek. “Good for the big guys, doesn’t matter to the little guys. Maybe if I win a major, I’ll have a chance.”

This, essentially, is the best reaction the tour could hope for. But the highly unusual formula to determine the players who will receive the money, and the unprecedented nature of the tour paying members for what is only tangentially related to their on-course results, drew mixed reactions from players across the Q-score and Meltwater Mention spectrum.

Those terms, by the way? Get used to them. They’re part of an algorithm the tour will use to rank players on their “Impact Score.” The goal, a PGA Tour spokesman told Golf Digest, is to “recognize and reward players who positively move the needle.”

The five criteria to identify these players are as follows:

• Popularity on Google search
• Nielsen Brand Exposure rating, which measures the value a player delivers to sponsors via his total time featured on broadcasts
• Q-rating, a metric of the familiarity and appeal of player’s brand
• MVP rating, a measure of how much engagement a player’s social media and digital channels drive
• Meltwater mentions, or the frequency with which a player is mentioned across a range of media channels.

Noticeably absent from the criteria is any direct measure of on-course success. The initial report mentioned FedEx Cup standing would be incorporated into the calculations, but the PGA Tour confirmed it was not actually part of the formula.

A program of this kind had been in discussion for multiple years, and the Player Advisory Council always understood the value in rewarding the tour’s highest-profile players.

“I had no issue with it,” Billy Horschel, a PAC member, told Golf Digest. “When you look at it, there’s maybe 10 to 30 guys that really push the tour and bring in the money, have a transcendent personality, get a lot of attention. They’re the reason we play for as much as we do. We don’t reward mediocrity.”

The actual implementation of the program is widely seen as a response to the Premier Golf League, a potential rival to the PGA Tour that garnered significant attention in early 2020 with the promise of offering a guaranteed-money structure to entice away top players. But the upstart venture, which was backed by Saudi Arabian financiers, lost steam when several stars—led by current PAC chairman Rory McIlroy, the first marquee player to publicly denounce the PGL—pledged loyalty to the PGA Tour.

“There’s a little bit of envy [among the rank and file membership],” said one multiple-time PGA Tour winner about the program, which has been in place since January. “That it’s not fair, that it’s using $40 million not to better our game or our sport or the tour, that they’re just giving $40 million to the top 10 players to prevent them from playing in another league, which is the absolute worst reason to do it. If you want to give it to them because they deserve it that’s one thing. To do it to prevent them from making an irrational decision, I feel like is the wrong reason to do it.”

Multiple players competing in this week’s Zurich Classic were asked their opinion of the program.

“I think you do want to incentivize the top players to create content,” said Justin Rose, who reportedly would have been inside the top 10 had the program been in place in 2019. “It’s very easy for the top players to say no because it doesn’t serve them. So if you are looking at content creation—that’s where it’s coming down to these days. So if it serves the fan and if it serves the game of golf, and it gives the guys a much better reason to say yes to something, then it’s probably a good thing for everybody. Hopefully that’s the way it’s intended.”

Surely, the tour would like more of its stars to be more active on social media and engage with fans more frequently. Players like Max Homa and Joel Dahmen have built outsized interest based largely on their digital followings. But the notion of being constantly online, of providing more access into their personal lives, does not sit right with more private players.

“I can speak for both of us,” said World No. 5 Xander Schauffele, referring to himself and Zurich partner/World No. 10 Patrick Cantlay. “We’re maybe a bit old school when it comes to that. I’m not on my account. I don’t even think … my brother helps run my account. Pat doesn’t even have Instagram on his phone. Neither do I anymore, so we’re hard to reach on there.”

There’s also the tricky business of trying to determine what qualifies as positive engagement and what doesn’t. It’s believed that the tour will have a mechanism for filtering out negative exposure, which would seem to fly in the face of the adage that any press is good press.

“I hope this doesn’t cause players to try to force themselves to be popular either unnaturally, or in a negative light to get their ‘rating’ up so they get more money,” said Harris English, winner earlier this year at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

For players farther down the FedEx Cup list, the program gives off a rich-getting-richer vibe.

“I understand why the tour is trying to pay the top stars more and keep them happy,” said Parker McLachlin, who sits at No. 244—dead last—in the FedEx Cup standings. “That said, the program seemed to hit a few wrong notes in my mind. Looking at the Korn Ferry Tour and seeing guys out there who are top 50 on that tour and barely breaking even with expenses, and then watching current KFT player Will Zalatoris finish second at the Masters, I feel like it should be the right time to raise the minimum purses on that tour to $1 million.

“It would take a fourth of the money the tour is spending on its stars and allow its future stars to not starve on the way to stardom.”

It remains to be seen whether the program will incentivize players to change their behaviors or priorities. Much of that burden, it would seem, will fall on their agents or representatives in charge of cultivating a brand.

“I feel at this point that I would be better spending my time on trying to make birdies and getting my game in shape rather than figuring out what to do to try and impact on that side,” said Henrik Stenson.

And while there are certainly some players whose Q-scores outpace their golf scores, there seems to be a general sense that an age-old tour-ism once again applies: winning takes care of everything.

“It’s not gonna change anything that I do,” Horschel said. “If I break in, it’ll barely be in top 10 and I’m gonna have to do that with playing great for a period of time. I’m not going to enhance my social-media presence by doing more or less. If I play well, then that can happen. But I have to do it with play. That’s how [the top guys] have done it. That’s why they have the presence and the following they do. Because they’re great players.”

Additional reporting by Brian Wacker

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