Rory McIroy and Tiger Woods to land huge PGA side payment as 10 players face cut
Rory McIlroy is set for a £11.9million windfall after he finished top of the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program for 2023. But the Northern Irishman could potentially double that amount next year after the tour announced plans to half its annual payout to just 10 players instead of 20.
According to the PGA’s Executive Vice President Jason Gore, the program is “designed to reward members who – through objective measurement criteria – are shown to generate the most positive interest in the PGA Tour”.
The payout effectively rewards the PGA’s most influential golfers. With McIlory having been the most vocal advocate of the tour in the face of a serious challenge from LIV Golf, there is little surprise that the Ryder Cup star tops the list once more.
He will bank a cool $15,000,000 for finishing in first place, followed by all-time great Tiger Woods, who finished runner-up despite missing most of the season with an injury. Ankle surgery may have prevented Woods from collecting prize money but his $12,000,000 payment from the Player Impact Program should serve as an acceptable consolation.
Masters champion Jon Rahm is third on the list, followed by Americans Jordan Speith, Scottie Sheffler and Rickie Fowler. Rising European star Viktor Hovland is seventh followed by Justin Thomas who still makes the list despite suffering a nightmare season that saw him miss numerous cuts and tumble down the world rankings.
The bottom five players all receive $2,000,000 dollars each, with US talent Brian Harman occupying the 20th and final spot, even though he won the Open Championship at Hoylake in July.
But a memo from Gore that confirmed the final rankings also stated that from next year the tour will be halving the pot to $50,000,000 and rewarding just the top 10 players. Had that ruling been in place this year, big names like Patrick Cantlay, Justin Rose, Xander Shauffele and Collin Morikawa would have missed out on a payment altogether.
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It is not yet clear how the pot will be distributed between next year’s top 10 ‘impactful’ players but with McIlroy likely to finish top of the pile once more, he could be in for an even bigger payday just for being who he is.
The decision to half the number of players entitled to the bonus payment was agreed by the PGA Tour’s Policy Board in March. McIlory was a member of the board himself until this month and therefore would likely have been involved in the decision-making process.
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