Top PGA Tour Players To Commit To 20-Event Big Money Slate

The PGA Tour made its boldest response yet to the rival Saudi-funded league Wednesday with a plan for the best players to commit to a 20-tournament schedule in which they will compete against one another up to 17 times for average purses of $20 million.

The tour also is doubling the bonus pool of its Player Impact Program to $100 million spread across 20 players, and it’s changing the criteria so it’s geared more toward media exposure.

Players starting out their careers will get $500,000 at the start of the year that will count against their earnings until the number is surpassed.

“This isn’t some sort of renegade group trying to take some sort of power grab of the PGA Tour,” said Rory McIlroy, a player-director on the tour board. “This is, ‘OK, how can we make this tour better for everyone that’s going to play on it now and everyone that’s going to play on the PGA Tour going forward.’”

Of the sweeping changes PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan laid out, the most significant was what came out of a private meeting of 23 top players last week: a new model that assures the best play in the same tournaments more often.

“Those players rallied together to strengthen the tour platform, recognizing that if fans are goin to invest in the PGA Tour, it means a hell of a lot more if they know the players are investing right back,” Monahan said.

The 20-tournament commitment starts in January with the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua and assumes top players are eligible.

Most of the key tournaments already were in place — the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the Memorial; Kapalua and Match Play; the three FedEx Cup playoff events; the four majors and The Players Championship.

Still to be announced are four tournaments that Monahan said would be rotated among existing events during the FedEx Cup season — January to August — although the Scottish Open is under consideration for hosting a $20 million event.

Players also would be required to play three other tournaments during the FedEx Cup season. That would throw out a lifeline to tournaments that otherwise would have a hard time attracting top players.

But for the tour, it was a chance to all but guarantee when and where to find the best players.

“When I tune in to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, I expect to see Tom Brady throw a football. When I tune in to a Formula One race, I expect to see Lewis Hamilton in a car,” McIlroy said. “I think what came out of the meeting last week ... is the fact that we’ve all made a commitment to get together more often to make the product more compelling.”

The changes came quickly. Top players began gathering at the J.P. McManus Pro-Am in Ireland last month and it culminated with a players-only meeting involving 23 top players at the BMW Championship.

Tiger Woods flew to Delaware from his home in Florida for the meeting. Woods and McIlroy are seen as the leaders of change among players, though all accounts indicate the majority of them were behind the changes.