Report: Tiger Woods to Get $100M PGA Tour Equity Payout; Rory McIlroy Could Get $50M

Julia StumbaughApril 24, 2024

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Tiger Woods will receive “up to $100 million,” while Rory McIlroy could get $50 million as equity payments from the PGA Tour after neither golfer joined Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf, James Corrigan reported for The Telegraph.

The payments are part of $750 million in equity the PGA Tour plans to split between 36 superstars based on their career performances, Corrigan said.

The money comes from the $1.5 billion the PGA Tour received in January from a group of American investors including the Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC and Pittsburgh Penguins, according to Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times.

The PGA Tour said in a February memo that $930 million in total equity will be distributed to 193 members, per ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.

Woods and McIlroy will receive the news regarding their equity payments in Wednesday emails that Corrigan described as “ultra-personal messages” from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

Equity payments to the top 36 players will be distributed based on their performances, both over their careers and the last five years, according to Schlabach.

The equity distribution will also take into account players’ ranking in the Player Impact Program, the PGA Tour’s incentive program that rewards golfers for viewership and media engagement on television and social media, Schlabach added.

These grants will be different for each player. Because Woods has tied Sam Snead for the most tournament titles in PGA Tour history with 82 wins, he could receive double what any other player makes, Corrigan reported.

Phil Mickelson and his 45 PGA Tour titles likely would have ranked second based on these rankings, if not for the six-time major champion’s decision to sign with LIV Golf in 2022, Corrigan noted.

Mickelson’s active role in leading Tour players to defect to the Saudi league, which Vanity Fair’s Alan Shipnuck reported involved actively recruiting other players to join him, somewhat ironically later led to the PGA Tour’s new grant program.

The January launch of PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit venture that allowed outside investors like Fenway to pour billions into the sport, was part of the merger agreement made between the Tour and LIV Golf in 2023. The framework of this agreement stated that the PGA Tour would create a commercial subsidiary to “manage commercial investments and assets for all tours,” Reuters reported last July.

The PGA Tour confirmed when launching PGA Tour Enterprises that the new for-profit body allowed for future investment from the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that funds LIV golf.

Monahan said in February that players could receive recurring equity payments in the future, per Schlabach.

For now, the 34 top players under Woods and McIlroy will share $75 million in equity. The next 64 players will share $75 million based on their performance over the last three years; 57 golfers holding fully exempt PGA Tour status will split $30 million; and 36 golfers who were “instrumental in building the modern PGA Tour” will divide $75 million in equity, Schlabach reported.