Despite not playing golf on the PGA Tour in 2021, Tiger Woods stood atop the inaugural Player Impact Program, which measures a player's popularity using a variety of metrics. Essentially, the Tour wants to reward its stars for being stars, and the biggest star it has ever had finishing first -- despite not hitting a shot -- should be no surprise at all.
Phil Mickelson, who tweeted in December that he had captured the $8 million first-place prize, actually finished second. Mickelson has been at the forefront of the tussle between the PGA Tour and emerging rival leagues, notably the Super Golf League, a Saudi Arabia-backed league for which Mickelson apparently helped write the operating agreement. After speaking out about the Tour's obnoxious greed as well as the "scary motherf---ers" helping fund the SGL, Lefty lost most of his corporate sponsors but did earn $6 million for getting second.
Here's a look at the entire top 10.
1. Tiger Woods: $8M
2. Phil Mickelson: $6M
3. Rory McIlroy: $3.5M
4. Jordan Spieth: $3.5M
5. Bryson DeChambeau: $3.5M
6. Justin Thomas: $3.5M
7. Dustin Johnson: $3M
8. Brooks Koepka: $3M
9. Jon Rahm: $3M
10. Bubba Watson: $3M
Woods was injured in a serious car accident in February 2021. He was already out of action following back surgery held just prior to that and has yet to return to the Tour, though he did recently play the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie. While not an official PGA Tour event, that effort and recent appearances across the golf landscape put Woods in the news quite a bit over the final month of the year. Perhaps he would have taken first place regardless of those appearances, but they certainly couldn't have hurt him, especially his endearing public time with Charlie that had everyone transfixed.
If you were going to draw up a way to reward stars for being stars by giving them $40 million, this is what your list would look like. These are the players that bring in the lion's share of revenue for the Tour by captivating fans and being attractive to television networks who pay the Tour for the rights to broadcast its league. It allows these players to have stability akin to other athletes who have guaranteed contracts in sports that are not a meritocracy like golf. McIlroy would otherwise guaranteed no money by the PGA Tour in 2022 if he doesn't perform well enough to earn it, but through this program, he's most likely going to earn several million no matter how he plays. That's a nice assurance for elite players.
The PIP will increase this year to $50 million.
🤷♂️ whoops 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/SkMTGerVOB
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 2, 2022
Some details on the scoring.
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) March 2, 2022
Bubba winning the MVP index for social reach snuck him into the top 10. Tiger leads in 3 of 5 categories. pic.twitter.com/MWEZAyaaCi