PGA To Award Promotional Bonus to Players
Image Courtesy of Fox News
By Chris Carey
Golf is not typically a sexy game. When one thinks of golf, it is easy to picture grumpy old men at the country club playing a round before spending the afternoon drinking away their problems. However, with the emergence of superstar golf athletes such as Tiger Woods, as well as the work of organizations such as The First Tee, golf continues to expand its base of fans and players.
In late April, the PGA Tour announced a new “Player Impact Program” which would offer a bonus pool of $40 million yearly to the players on the PGA Tour who generate the most fan interest, publicity, and excitement in the game.
Met with some confusion, many questions, and even strong dislike, the program is the latest in a long series of efforts by the PGA Tour to drive up not only viewership and engagement with fans, but interest in the game itself.
The controversy surrounding the decisions comes from a number of different areas of concern. As Golf Digest reports, the PGA Tour declined to make this new promotional payout program public, only confirming the reports initially broken by GolfWeek.
Additionally, the Player Impact Program, or PIP, comes after the year long economic downturn as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a downturn that the PGA Tour was unable to escape, having laid off about 50 of its employees over the past year.
Also controversial is the question of where the money itself came from. If the PGA had the $40 million on hand, why then would the organization feel the need to lay off the personnel in 2020? Furthermore, the likelihood of a corporate sponsorship is slim seeing as FedEx, through the FedEx Cup, has been the primary sponsor of the PGA in prior years with a contract that extends all the way through 2027.
Finally, there is the concern from players and fans alike that when Tour Players who are already exceptionally wealthy, such as Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and more, receive even more funds, it will disproportionately favor them over possibly more exciting personalities in the game who might not have made it as big with company sponsorships and tournament-win lucrativity.
As far as the system itself, Golf Digest explains the process of determining the payout system, which happens according to the following determinations:
“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, and Meltwater mentions, or the frequency with which a player is mentioned across a range of media channels.”
Some players hope that this system will be helpful in driving up content creation and fan engagement.
Major-winner and Olympic gold medalist Justin Rose said, “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.”
Others are more skeptical; one PGA winner said, “There’s a little bit of envy … 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.”
As the program enters its first year, fans and pros alike will be watching to see how the program ultimately succeeds or flops.
