Andrew “Beef” Johnston says the increasing focus on money in professional golf is “so damaging” for the sport after the PGA Tour awarded bonuses worth tens of millions of pounds to its top stars.
The tour doled out equity packages to its players last month as it continues its bid to stave off the threat of LIV Golf. Several of the tour’s top stars have been lured away by huge offers from the breakaway league since it launched two years ago, and in its attempts to prevent a further exodus, players were awarded stakes in PGA Tour Enterprises.
The equity awards were decided by “career points”, a metric created by the PGA Tour to take into account players’ results and contributions to the competition over the years. Tiger Woods was the big winner, receiving an equity package worth in the region of £80million.
Rory McIlroy was awarded around £40m in equity, with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth also receiving deals in the region of £25m. The equity will vest over a period of eight years and likely grow in value, meaning players will have to remain members of the PGA Tour for the full period if they want to financially benefit from the equity award.
The move hopes to incentivise players to resist the allure of LIV Golf and its huge contracts and prize money pots, but Johnston – a one-time winner on the DP World Tour – believes the financially focused discourse surrounding the sport is bad for the game.
“I’m starting to wonder how the PGA Tour differs from LIV Golf,” he wrote in Today’s Golfer. “I remember when LIV arrived on the scene and Jay Monahan said his Tour prided itself on being a meritocracy with clear paths for the players and them rewarded for their performances.
“Fast forward to today and we’ve got the Player Equity Program handing out huge sums to players because they stayed loyal. $100m for Tiger, $50m for Rory, $30m each for Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.
“Basically, it’s the PGA Tour saying, ‘Here’s a load of money from us for not taking a load of money from them’. It’s madness, man. Everything has just become about rewarding the top end of the game and it’s come about because of the divide. It is so damaging for our sport.”
Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have struggled to attract big viewing figures this season, summed up by The Masters drawing one of its lowest final-round audiences on record. Johnston believes all the talk of money has alienated fans.
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