Article highlights:
- Tiger Woods didn’t play on the PGA Tour in 2021 after a car accident
- The PGA Tour launched a $ 40 million Player Impact Program (PIP) this year
- Sports Illustrated projects that will see Woods earn $ 7.97 million in PIP cash
Golf fans have seen Tiger Woods take off amazing shots from tees, bunkers and roughs. However, his greatest accomplishment in 2021 came off his sofa when the winner of 15 major championships was given a staggering payday for doing nothing.
And that’s not an exaggeration. Woods literally did nothing, but Sports Illustrated plans the PGA Tour to write him a check for $ 7.97 million. If that seems like a strange amount, the whole story is strange.
Tiger Woods places a putt on the 13th green during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on November 14, 2020. | Augusta National via Getty Images
Woods has not participated in a PGA tournament since the Masters postponed by the pandemic in November 2020. It is the result of a solitary car accident in February in which Woods, aged 45, sustained multiple injuries. He was back on the golf course recently, but only on crutches or to watch his son play.
In such circumstances, Woods obviously didn’t deserve any prize money this season. Given he has pocketed more than $ 120 million from his 82 wins since leaving Stanford in August 1996, this shouldn’t pose any hardship, especially after lucrative advertising deals.
However, Woods appears to be standing in line to cash a check for $ 7.97 million for his efforts this year. To put the amount in perspective, Jon Rahm led the PGA Tour for the season just ended with prize money of $ 7,705,933 for 22 events. Patrick Cantlay finished second for $ 7,638,805 for 24 events.
According to Sports Illustrated, Woods will clean up the PGA Tour’s newly created Player Impact Program (PIP), which awards $ 40 million to the top 10 performers on the Impact Score, a rating that measures player visibility in the social media and the internet. With 6.5 million followers on Twitter and another 2.7 million on Instagram, Woods started the second nine on a Sunday afternoon with a three-shot lead.
Golfweek was the first to report on the existence of PIP in the spring. The decisive impact score results from:
- Popularity on Google searches
- Nielsen Brand Exposure Rating from TV coverage of the weekend tournament
- Q-Rating, which measures awareness and popularity values
- MVP index that measures engagement in social media and digital channels
- Meltwater mentions social media monitoring
The terms and conditions only require that a PGA Tour participant has participated in five tournaments in at least one of the past five years. Current PGA Tour Champions players are also eligible.
Sports Illustrated started with the top 50 players on the official golf world rankings, plus Woods and Rickie Fowler, all of whom were compared to Bryson DeChambeau, the subject of satiating media coverage, on Google Trends to measure search interest since last season. Twitter and Instagram followers were easy to get rid of, as was Google News traffic.
While that doesn’t cover all PIP categories and doesn’t take into account how each category is weighted, it’s still a pretty good starting point. The magazine’s results show Woods as the overwhelming winner, which should be embarrassing for the PGA Tour.
The embarrassment may extend to executives. Commissioner Jay Monahan previously said the PGA Tour will not release the results. That didn’t stop the magazine from making an educated guess as to which 10 players will receive the bonuses.
Of course, Woods comes first, followed by Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, each of whom have a healthy following on Twitter and Instagram. Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson round out the top 5.
The next five on the list are DeChambeau, Fowler (popular and often on the news despite disappointing results on the line), Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Rahm.
There’s also a reason to ask Woods to return the money until his most notable moment of the year doesn’t involve his SUV crashing.
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