PGA Tour Pushes Back Against LIV, Adds More Lucrative Events and 20-Start Minimum for Top Players

Starting in 2023, 12 events with increased purses and an enhanced Player Impact Program will be implemented in an attempt to keep top players on the PGA Tour.

ATLANTA – The PGA Tour will see significant increases in compensation for players starting in 2023, with more elevated events, an increase to $100 million in the Player Impact Program, and a guaranteed minimum against earnings for all exempt players.

In what was clearly the biggest push back against the LIV Golf League, which launched in June and is guaranteeing significant sums to its members, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced a series of changes that will see 12 elevated events starting in 2023—eight of them previously announced—with most purses in the $20 to $25 million range and the requirement that the top players compete in at least 20 events.

“Our top players are making a commitment to play in all 12 elevated events and they will also add at least three additional PGA Tour events to their schedule,’’ Monahan said Wednesday at a news conference in advance of the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.

“Our top players are firmly behind the Tour. We’ll be all but guaranteed to see the best players competing against each other in 20 events throughout the season. It’s an extraordinary commitment and testament to what they believe in.’’

When the Tour goes to a calendar-year schedule starting in 2024, this essentially means that the top players will be competing in at least 20 of the 35 main events that run from January through August.

And Monahan made it clear there will not be a simple path back to the PGA Tour for LIV players who have left the PGA Tour.

All who have played in LIV events have been suspended indefinitely and Monahan said those suspensions would not automatically cease if someone changed their mind.

“They've joined the LIV Golf Series and they've made that commitment,’’ Monahan said. “For most of them, they've made multiyear commitments.

“As I've been clear throughout, every player has a choice, and I respect their choice, but they've made it. We've made ours. We're going to continue to focus on the things that we control and get stronger and stronger. I think they understand that.’’

Monahan said that the four major championships as well as the Players Championship will be part of the 20-event commitment and the determination of players will start with the Player Impact Program, which will increase to 20 players and pay $100 million, with $15 million going to the winner. Tiger Woods won the initial PIP last year and $8 million, but going forward players will be required to play a minimum number of tournaments to be eligible for the PIP.

Woods was part of a players-only meeting last week at the BMW Championship led by himself and Rory McIlroy in which many of the ideas announced Wednesday were discussed.

“It’s not like we did this as a renegade group,’’ McIlroy said. “We kept in touch with Jay and hoped we could get something done quickly. And that culminated with the announcement made today. Today was a great step in the right direction.’’

The 12 elevated events are the three FedEx Cup playoff events—FedEx St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship and the Tour Championship; the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial Tournament, WGC-Dell Match Play Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions plus four additional events to be announced before the end of the year.

There is some expectation that those four events could rotate in the future, thus spreading the wealth of the top players to places beyond the traditional elevated tournaments.

The majors and the Players get a player to 17 events and then there are three more events a player is expected to play.

Not all of the events will be no-cut events, and the avenue into these tournaments will be through the PIP and other means that have not been announced.

“Anyone has a chance to play their way into these elevated events,’’ McIlroy said. “Anyone has a chance to be part of the Player Impact Program.’’

Among the highlights of the news conference and a memo that Monahan sent to PGA Tour players:

• Top players will commit to at least a 20-event PGA Tour schedule, assuming they qualify for the events. Of the 12 elevated events, most are $20 million purses, with the Sentry Tournament of Champions $15 million and the Players Championship $25 million. Four additional elevated events with purses of at least $20 million will be announced within 45 to 60 days. Those tournaments are expected to rotate each year, and one already under consideration is the Genesis Scottish Open.

• To reach the 20-tournament minimum, the Tour will count the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, British Open and Players Championship along with three additional FedEx Cup events of a player’s choosing.

• For the 2022-23 season, a “top player’’ will be defined as those who finish in the top 20 under the current Player Impact Program and players who finished in the top 20 under the revised PIP criteria, which will include two separate awareness scores that will eliminate the social media component. (This suggests that Woods would qualify under this scenario, although many of these tournaments will still have sponsor exemption categories.)

• The PIP is being expanded to reward 20 players, up from 10 for 2022 and 2023. The total bonus pool is being raised to $100 million, with the winner receiving $15 million. Players will receive their PIP bonus at the end of the season after competing in the 13 elevated events and three-non elevated events.

• The launch of the “Earnings Assurance Program’’ guarantees $500,000 to every player who makes it to the PGA Tour via the Korn Ferry Tour and above (approximately 215-220 players). Rookies and returning members will receive the money up front and be expected to compete in a minimum of 15 events.

• There will also be a travel stipend program from non-exempt members who finish outside of the top 125. A player who misses a cut from that category will get $5,000 and it will not impact tournament purses.

Monahan said the PGA Tour’s 501c-6 non-exempt status would not change and a monetary commitment to all exempt PGA Tour players of $500,000 would not impact their status as independent contractors.

The $500,000 is an advance against purse earnings but Monahan said those who do not earn that much will not be required to pay it back. While it is not a stipend, it does assure that every player will make at least $500,000 whether through earnings or through the Earnings Assurance Program.

A good example of that this year would have been Brandt Snedeker, who was fully exempt but earned just $352,198. He would then get the difference up to $500,000.

It has been a tumultuous year for the PGA Tour, which has seen a number of past major winners and members defect for LIV Golf, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson. LIV has played three events with five more scheduled, including next week’s event outside of Boston.

Mickelson referred to the Tour’s “obnoxious greed’’ in a February Golf Digest interview which eventually caused him to take a four-month break from golf while many players recoiled and changed their minds about LIV Golf—only to then sign on as the league was about the launch.

A Hall of Famer with 45 PGA Tour victories, including six major championships, Mickelson is a lifetime member of the PGA Tour who believes he should still be able to compete in Tour events. In an interview with author Alan Shipnuck that was also published in February, Mickelson acknowledged some of the shortcomings of LIV due to its Saudi backing through the Public Investment Fund.

And yet, he admitted then that using LIV as “leverage’’ to enhance the PGA Tour was worth it. In some ways, Mickelson’s vision has now paid off.

“As much as I probably don’t want to give Phil any sort of credit at all, yeah, there were certain points that he was trying to make,’’ McIlroy said. “But there’s a way to go about them. There’s a way to collaborate. You get all the top players in the world together and you get them on the same page. You then go to the Tour and suggest ideas and you work together. This was pure collaboration.

“As I said, this isn’t some sort of renegade group trying to take some sort of power grab of the PGA Tour. This is 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.

“We some of (Mickelson’s) ideas, did they have merit? Of course they did. But he just didn’t approach it the right way.’’

LIV Golf officials released a statement Wednesday afternoon: "LIV Golf is clearly the best thing that's ever happened to help the careers of professional golfers."

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