Tiger Woods winning a golf competition in 2022 would have been a remarkable thought at the start of the year, but he’ll have to settle for a big win off the course. Woods has finished first in the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program for the second consecutive year, this time coming in just ahead of his friend and business partner, Rory McIlroy, according to the Associated Press.
Woods took first last year even though he didn’t play a single competitive round of golf on the PGA Tour. That first-place finish was worth $10 million; this one was significantly more, however, as the overall purse for the PIP was raised from $40 million in 2021 to $100 million in 2022, according to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan earlier this year at the Tour Championship. Woods only played nine total rounds in 2022, but each one of them received significant attention from everyone in the golf world, which is broadly the way one ranks highly in the annual PIP. He played four at the Masters, three at the PGA Championship and two at the Open Championship at St. Andrews.
The Tour has upped its prize money across the board this year and into 2023. Not only did it take the PIP fund from $40 million to $100 million, but it also expanded the pool of recipients from 10 to 20, raised several PGA Tour purses to $20 million and continues to invest in the FedEx Cup prize fund (it moved from $15 million a year ago to $18 million this year).
Woods was a lock to win this prize again from the moment he taunted Phil Mickelson on Twitter after Mickelson bragged that he had won the 2021 prize when in fact he had not.
According to the AP, McIlroy received $12 million for coming in second place, which puts his annual PGA Tour earnings at right around $40 million. This is significant because it’s nearly twice as much as the most he’s ever earned before. His previous career-high earnings came back in 2019 when he won the FedEx Cup and $15 million first prize to go with another $8 million in the regular season.
As was pointed out in the AP, there were two rubrics used this year to determine the PIP.
Two lists were in play — the original PIP plan that used such metrics as social media engagement, brand exposure, Q-rating, Internet searches and awareness, and the new criteria that leans more on media mentions and broadcast exposure than social media.
The PIP also was expanded to 20 players instead of 10, and using both lists for 2022, some 23 players are expected to receive bonus money from the $100 million program.
This influx of money was built to combat LIV Golf and the players who have left the PGA Tour for significant raises from moving from the Tour to LIV. Interestingly, one of LIV’s participants actually had one of the best takes about Tiger and the PIP I’ve seen. Pat Perez spoke about it at the Genesis Invitational way back in February when he was still part of the PGA Tour.
“It’s kind of a joke, but like I said, the PIP program’s kind of a joke,” said Perez. “Give Tiger the 40 [million] and say we owe you another zero. They owe Tiger $400, $500 million easily. There should be no program. Here you go, here’s 50, thanks for being incredible, here’s the money we owe you because you brought in hundreds of millions of dollars to us. Guys like me, to be able to make, you know, a couple million dollars a year is unbelievable and it’s only because of him. It’s only because of him, you know. So like I said, I’m in line with Tiger. But if Phil is pushing for more money towards our tour and fighting for it, that’d be great, but he seems to be so on the Saudi side that it’s hard to believe that he’s actually fighting for that.”
Mickelson finished second to Tiger in last year’s PIP.
The top 20 players in the PIP this year will be expected to play the Tour’s new elevated schedule in 2023, which includes 13 non-majors with massive prize money and, ostensibly, all the top players in the world. McIlroy and Woods were vital to creating the unity for this to come about during a meeting in Delaware during the FedEx Cup Playoffs earlier this year.