1. Tiger - $8 Million
2. Phil - $6 Million
Rory, Spieth, Bryson, JT - $3.5 Million each
DJ, Brooksie, Rahm, Bubba - $3 Million each

https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/33405341/tiger-woods-wins-pga-tour-inaugural-player-impact-program-which-measures-popularity

🤷‍♂️ whoops 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/SkMTGerVOB

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 2, 2022

What is the point of this? Incentivizing players to "grow the game?" I think I'm with Cantlay on this one (he's quoted in the article), and I'm not a big fan of his. Tiger could've won this sitting on his ass doing nothing...and that's exactly what happened. The rest of the "winners" were already popular as hell to begin with as well.

This was a concession back at the early stages of the SGL talks or criticisms that Phil alludes to about the PGA 'owning' their digital content and players not being fairly compensated, etc. Many speculated the Brooks/Bryson stuff was mostly fluff to play into this.

I'm not sure if I land fully one side or the other but I think I lean more towards Cantlay's position on it.

Meh, all those guys have won majors, hell most of them multiple majors...so until Cantlay can beat these guys when it matters, I don't really care about his stance on "earning the money on the course."

Hundreds of guys have made a pretty damn good living thanks to the purses that Tiger brought to the table over the past 25 years...so yea, I don't really have a problem with how this turned out.

Ervin Burrell said:

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What is the point of this? Incentivizing players to "grow the game?" I think I'm with Cantlay on this one (he's quoted in the article), and I'm not a big fan of his. Tiger could've won this sitting on his ass doing nothing...and that's exactly what happened. The rest of the "winners" were already popular as hell to begin with as well.

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Popular players wanted more money for being popular. It was the PGAs early attempt to hold off the start-up leagues.

powerbelly said:

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Ervin Burrell said:

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What is the point of this? Incentivizing players to "grow the game?" I think I'm with Cantlay on this one (he's quoted in the article), and I'm not a big fan of his. Tiger could've won this sitting on his ass doing nothing...and that's exactly what happened. The rest of the "winners" were already popular as hell to begin with as well.

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Popular players wanted more money for being popular. It was the PGAs early attempt to hold off the start-up leagues.

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In addition, I suspect the PGA wanted their players to be more engaged from a social media standpoint and this was designed to encourage that. Right or wrong (and I think mostly wrong), social media provides the tangible and almost instantaneous feedback that companies crave.

Tiger is going to win this every year until the day he dies

Guess ol Lefty losing sponsors means he's going to have to sell more Mickelson coffee.

Kinda sad to think that the thing that kept Tiger at the top was an accident that almost ended his career.

I don't have a problem with this.

Times have changed, and there is big money being made from social media. Paying that out to the most popular players is an acknowledgement that the players are the ones driving revenue. They ARE the product. Win a tournament, you get paid. Make yourself an internet icon, get paid.

Is that so unreasonable?

I really don't think social media has as much to do with this as they want us to believe. No laying up posted that Jordan spieth tweeted 25 times and made 1 Instagram post all year. Social media is a small piece of this pie.

It's rigged. Max Homa shoulda been paid, Joel Dahman had some flair going. Harry Higgs too

bbry81 said:

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I really don't think social media has as much to do with this as they want us to believe. No laying up posted that Jordan spieth tweeted 25 times and made 1 Instagram post all year. Social media is a small piece of this pie.

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How many times did the PGA Tour use his name, likeness, and image on their own platforms? How many views did those generate? How much money did that generate from sponsors who want their name to appear anywhere near his face?

There is way more to social media than just the players tweets and posts.

FirefightAg said:

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It's rigged. Max Homa shoulda been paid, Joel Dahman had some flair going. Harry Higgs too

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Obi Wan Ginobili said:

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bbry81 said:

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I really don't think social media has as much to do with this as they want us to believe. No laying up posted that Jordan spieth tweeted 25 times and made 1 Instagram post all year. Social media is a small piece of this pie.

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How many times did the PGA Tour use his name, likeness, and image on their own platforms? How many views did those generate? How much money did that generate from sponsors who want their name to appear anywhere near his face?

There is way more to social media than just the players tweets and posts.

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Maybe it was an error on the media and how they interpreted it when the news came out about it initially, but it didn't sound like it was just going to be a popularity contest. They made it sound like they would incentivize players who actively engaged in ways to promote the sport and grow the game's popularity. Just because someone like Jordan Spieth is popular and the videos/promos the PGA uses of him may generate eyeballs but he personally was basically nonexistent didn't seem like the initial spirit of the idea.

I'm fine if that's the way it is but it wasn't exactly how it was initially sold.

Even if it is a popularity contest, I'm fine with it.

The tour uses the big names (read also, popular) to make money, and they know there is a growing sentiment (albeit a quiet one outside of Phil and Bryson) that players should own their own rights. Keep in mind, PGA tour players are contractors, not employees. I'm honestly shocked they've been able to get away with the setup for as long as they have.

This is just a way to reward the dudes who are helping the PGA Tour print money, without it being a slap in the face to the good players who don't really draw eyes to the TV/Laptop

I had no idea this was going on. Pretty ridiculous. I'm disappointed in the PGA.

Maybe the only thing in sports I don't want to know is how much any athlete makes. In the end every dollar the teams/tour or players makes comes from fans. Don't make me hate your sport. Give them the money, I don't need to hear about it.