Tiger Woods Gets $10 Million in PIP Hijack

It’s a program that started in the 2020-2021 season to offset the potential talent drain a competitor may cause.

It did little to stop those who wanted to leave, such as Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Sergio Garcia.

At the same time, it gave a few greenbacks to those needy players like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, and others who didn’t need the money and may or may not have deserved the money but were gracious enough to take it without much fanfare.

But either the PGA Tour or its new overseers from the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) recognized that paying millions of dollars to players using criteria based on Nielsen brand exposure, Google search data, media mentions, MARC general population awareness, and MARC golf fan awareness made little sense. Thus, the program has run its course, but not before slipping a wad of cash into Wood's pocket.

The system was always rigged for Woods to see a hefty payday with program rules like a player needing to play in at least five Tour events in the last five seasons.

Name the other player besides Woods to whom this would apply.

In total, the former World No. 1 pocketed 45 million in the four years of the program, not bad for playing in 13 events the last four years (2020-2024), five missed cuts, three WD’s, and his best finish, a T38 at the Masters Tournament, played in November of 2020.

“The program was designed to reward players that have the largest impact on the PGA Tour business – tickets, sponsorships, media consumption, and fan engagement – and drive interest in the PGA TOUR and the game of golf, “the PGA Tour said in a story on its web site.

In 2023, Jason Gore, PGA Tour executive Vice President and Chief Player Officer, said in a memo announcing the PIP payouts for that year that “The scoring model for the Program is intended to be as objective as possible with the goal of quantifying the impact each player has on the PGA Tour.”

Now the Tour launches The Player Equity Program, which replaces PIP, and allows all Tour members to be eligible for recurring equity grants.  Which is just another way to get more money in players hands, like stock buybacks for shareholders, but at least now it will be mostly based on how a player performed inside the ropes. 

Which means no more obnoxious paydays to players that are to old or incapable to playing at the highest level.