PGA TOUR Players about to face a Reckoning

This week, the PGA TOUR will announce which players are eligible for its new equity program. This announcement could be followed by a wave of defections to LIV Golf.

Sean Zak of Golf.com does a great job of explaining the ins and outs of the equity program here. In short, the TOUR, with the help of investors Strategic Sports Group (SSG), will award varying amounts of equity to 193 members. Top players will receive more than lower-ranked ones, which could create jealousy among some players. However, unlike a one-time bonus, the value of this equity increases or decreases with the PGA TOUR's growth. This incentivizes players to promote the TOUR's success – essentially, they're being asked to invest in its future.

What’s different here, of course, is that this is an equity program and not just a one-time bonus. The value of the equity shares will increase — or decrease — based on the longevity and growth of the PGA TOUR. Players receiving a share are now incentivized to promote growth in the TOUR. Put another way, players are being asked to put their money where their collective mouths have been.

While the exact distribution for top players like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler remains unknown, as do the allocations for lesser-known players and "legacy members" like Jack Nicklaus, one thing is clear: the TOUR's future now partially rests with its members, a move loyalists have long advocated for.

Unfortunately we have all learned exactly how personal financial growth has taken precedence for the majority of pro golfers. It has not seemed that the majority of players have cared for anything more than “spending more time with family” and “doing what’s right for their future.” Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that on paper. Why else does anyone in the world seek employment?

That’s what makes this shift toward “an invested common goal” so precarious. Aside from a handful of the most outspoken, do we actually know if players give a damn about the longevity and growth of the PGA TOUR? Is it possible to want that while simultaneously showing outward distrust in TOUR leadership? Simply put, yes. It is possible for two things to be true, as has become a favorite response on Golf Twitter.

What we are all about to see is not just what players’ loyalty is worth to the PGA TOUR, but what that loyalty is worth to the players themselves. This has always been a two-way street in terms of what both sides need to feel satiated. Any players who receive their notice from Commissioner Jay Monahan and choose to defect to LIV will make their true intentions crystal clear. The opposite is also true for those in the middle of the pack who choose to remain on the PGAT roster.

Players are being handed the keys to the castle, so to speak. We will all be watching to see what happens next.