This Is Always How the PIP Was Going to End, Wasn't It?

The Player Impact Program is going out in extremely Player Impact Program fashion. Per a report from the always-credible Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal, Tiger Woods won the program’s $10 Million top prize in a year he completed four rounds exactly twice. Scottie Scheffler, the world’s finest golfer, finished second and had to settle for $8 million.

The PGA TOUR debuted the controversial program, which is done after this year, in 2021 as a way to compensate its biggest players for the attention they bring to the game. It made sense at the time—whispers of a Saudi-backed rival league were growing louder and louder, and the PGA Tour needed to respond with dollars of its own to prevent a mass exodus.

They had to know any golf popularity contest would result in one Mr. Tiger Woods taking home the prize. The problem is, the launch of the program coincided almost directly with the end of Tiger’s run as a full-time professional golfer. He stopped playing, but he kept winning money, and that undermined any legitimacy the program might’ve had.

Yes, Woods won the Player Impact Program again this year, his third victory in the four-year history of the PIP—Rory clipped him in 2023—despite playing just five times the entire year and completing four rounds exactly twice. That’s been the story the last few years. In total, Woods took home $45 million from the PIP across its four-year existence. Over that same stretch he entered just 10 PGA Tour events, meaning he’s earned $4.5 million per start from the PIP alone since 2021.

It sure felt like 2024 in Golf belonged to Scottie Scheffler. He won nine times, including the Masters and the Gold Medal. He held the world No. 1 ranking He was fucking arrested during a major championship he was favored to win, spent a hot sec in a jail cell, made his tee time thanks to a rain delay and promptly shot 66. That ordeal dominated the internet for weeks and gifted us some of the year’s best memes. It still wasn’t enough to unseat Tiger.

It’s no mystery why there’s been so much pushback to this program. There are already so many avenues for a professional golfer to monetize his or her popularity; golfers have long been among the highest earners in the marketing endorsement space, and it’s easier than ever to turn a social media following into income. Why, then should the PGA TOUR be in the business of paying endorsement deals? Especially when so much of the tour’s messaging in response to the emergence of LIV Golf has been about meritocracy. Nothing’s guaranteed on this tour. You earn everything with your play. The PIP ran directly counter to that ethos.

It also produced some head-scratching results—always, but especially this year. Jordan Spieth finishing fourth jumps off the page. This was perhaps his worst ever year on the golf course as he struggled with a wrist injury that eventually required surgery. He finished 67th in the FedEx Cup and posted just three top 10s in 22 starts. You might be thinking: but this is a popularity contest, not a golf tournament, and Spieth is extremely popular. Sure, but using that same logic, shouldn’t Max Homa be on the list over Wyndham Clark? Clark had the better year on-course but surely Homa brings more attention to the sport?

It’s telling the PGA Tour didn’t release the results on its own. The program wasn’t popular with players, and to fans it always seemed like a lot of hand-waving with one clear objective: funnel cash into top players’ hands. It’s gone now, banished to history as a symptom of this money-drunk era in professional golf.

The final standings are as follows:

Tiger Woods - $10 million

Scottie Scheffler - $8 million

Rory McIlroy - $4.5 million

Xander Schauffele - $4.5 million

Jordan Spieth - $4.5 million

Collin Morikawa - $4.5 million

Shane Lowry - $3.5 million

Justin Thomas - $3.5 million

Tommy Fleetwood - $3.5 million

Wyndham Clark - $3.5 million