Tiger Woods (Not Phil Mickelson) Wins First Player Impact Program, $8 Million First Prize

Phil Mickelson, despite announcing in December that he had won the PIP, finished second with a $6 million payday.

Tiger Woods has won the PGA Tour’s first Player Impact Program (PIP), a system put in place in 2021 to reward players for their social and fan engagement regardless of how they perform on the course.

Woods beat Phil Mickelson to claim the $8 million first prize, with the top 10 players getting payments from the $40 million fund, the PGA Tour confirmed. Woods took to social media Wednesday to rub it in a little:

🤷‍♂️ whoops 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/SkMTGerVOB

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 2, 2022

Woods, 46, played in just one tournament in 2021, the PNC Championship, a 36-hole exhibition in December with his son, Charlie. He suffered significant injuries in a one-vehicle crash on Feb. 23, 2021 and his return to competitive golf is still uncertain.

Mickelson, who last year won the PGA Championship to become, at 50, the oldest major champion in history, claimed in a December social media post that he had won the top prize — although the PGA Tour said at the time that the results were not yet tabulated.

According to the PGA Tour, to be eligible for a payment as part of the program, a player must agree to “perform one mutually agreed upon service’’ for the Tour and also attend one designated tournament as agreed upon. Mickelson said that he was playing the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January as part of the requirement.

The final results were presented to the board of the PGA Tour at a Tuesday meeting.

The Tour declined comment but did release the final standings, which saw Woods followed by Mickelson ($6 million), Rory McIlroy, Jordan Speith, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson ($3.5 million each), Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Bubba Watson ($3 million each).

The program was established last year by the Tour, in part, as a reaction to the threat posed by potential rival leagues. The idea is to reward players for the value they bring through fan engagement as measured by several metrics.

The total PIP fund will increase to $50 million in 2022.