Aug 24, 2022
PGA Tour to Offer Golfers More Money, Benefits in Rebuttal to LIV
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- The PGA Tour will expand its schedule of marquee events and pay golfers additional prize money next year as it tries to fend off a threat from a new rival golf league.
The tour’s top players are committing to play in at least 20 tournaments, including four newly elevated events with $46 million more in total purse money, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday in a press conference. A bonus pool that rewards players that are popular with fans will be doubled to $100 million, and players meeting certain criteria will be guaranteed a minimum $500,000 per year in earnings.
“This is an extraordinary and unprecedented commitment, a testament to who these guys are and what they believe in,” Monahan said of players pledging to participate in numerous events.
The PGA Tour is trying to hang on to its best players after LIV Golf, the new tour backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, used enormous prize money to lure away big stars such as Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.
LIV Golf has been wrestling with mixed publicity since two-time major champion Greg Norman in March announced the deep-pocketed project that seeks to upend some of the long-standing traditions of pro golf.
The golfers who defected have been suspended from the PGA Tour, but several of them have filed a lawsuit claiming its policies are “anti-competitive.” Meanwhile, the US Justice Department is investigating the PGA Tour over potential antitrust violations related to the dispute with LIV Golf.
Separately, the PGA Tour is creating a new golf league as part of a collaboration with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports. The two golf stars announced this week that they had co-founded TMRW Sports with former NBC Sports executive Mike McCarley to bring more technology to sports and entertainment events.
The new league, TGL, will start in January 2024 and feature teams of Tour players competing in custom-built venues on Monday nights.
(Updates with announcement of new golf league in seventh and eighth paragraphs.)
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