Monahan Tipped His PIP Hand with 'Brooksy' Ban

It’s been said there are no coincidences in life, and this has never been more accurate than what occurred this week on the PGA TOUR.

On Tuesday, PGA commish Jay Monahan announced a ban on fans in the gallery shouting “Brooksy!” at Bryson DeChambeau, stating the behavior was “disrespectful and qualifies as harassing behavior” under the TOUR’s fan conduct policy. This is, of course, true, and the offenders have grown exponentially over the last few weeks.

In that same press conference, Monahan also revealed that the “winners” of the season-long Player Impact Program (PIP), which was essentially a popularity contest tracked via social media engagement, would not be made public. Considering the immense prize pool of $40 million to be dispersed to who the TOUR deems to be the most popular players, news of the secrecy was not received well on Golf Twitter.

At first, I separated each news item into its own silo of eye-rolls. However, I now realize that these tidbits shared in the same press conference was far from coincidental.

Fan behavior has always been a hot topic during times of high stress and heated competition. Numerous examples of dangerous happenings exist when the physical boundaries that separate fans from players get blurred. The worst include Monica Seles being stabbed on a tennis court, the infamous Malice at the Palace during an NBA game, and multiple others where physical harm was suffered by fans and/or competitors.

To say that Bryson DeChambeau is a lightning rod in golf is an understatement. Much of his own doing, Bryson encapsulates qualities that beg for attention, and not always positive. His views on social or cultural issues are only overshadowed by those of the game itself, as he has doubled-down on his quest to hack golf through science and brawn. Some will say it’s working while others wonder about the shards of broken glass in his wake.

Still, no athlete or competitor should have to endure a dangerous situation while doing their job. No employee of any kind — anywhere — should. Say what you will regarding his highly visible public persona and accepting what “comes with the territory,” it is likely a matter of time before some moron in the gallery crosses the line. Are we willing to wait for that to happen before change is made?

Enter the Player Impact Program.

Threatened by the likes of the Premier Golf League and a Saudi-backed Super Golf League, Monahan’s hand was forced into action to keep his most prized racehorses. Introducing the PIP was a desperate attempt to sweeten the pot for the TOUR’s most popular players lest they be swept away with multi-million-dollar ransoms. The marketing and attention paid was immense upon its debut, and social media erupted. Who would be chosen, and by which metrics?

Tuesday’s announcement, however, cleared all that up rather quickly: Monahan had his winners picked long before, and the PIP was a sham all along.

What happened here was the equivalent of a disgruntled employee tossing their resume around, receiving a lucrative offer, and then scheduling a meeting with their current manager in the hopes of a counteroffer. Monahan took the bait — what other choice did he have, really? — and suddenly there was an extra $40 million “up for grabs.”

In many ways this was a brilliant move: promise a bonus to pre-chosen players who then decide to stick around while prompting other players to boost their social media engagement non-the-wiser. That was, until, Monahan tipped his hand with the “Brooksy” Ban.

Obviously this is conjecture; however, is it such a stretch to assume that Bryson was one of those targeted by the PGL or SQL? What’s to say that a phone call to Monahan to put an end to a super-specific type of fan unruliness “or else” didn’t occur?

We, of course, will never know for sure. However, as has also been said many times: just follow the money.