Tiger Woods set to miss out on millions as PGA Tour overhaul popularity contest
Tiger Woods looks set to miss out on millions of dollars in 2024 after the PGA Tour revealed the 2024 PIP will have a $50m reduction.
If there's one thing we can guarantee with Tiger Woods, it's that for the rest of his life his paycheques will be constant.
Just one source for those, of course, is the PGA Tour.
Woods is an 82-time winner on the circuit and still at the age of 47 he's well and truly golf's needle mover.
That's despite having a surgically repaired right leg and a back that could give at any moment.
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Every single time he makes a swing he is taking a risk, Woods has said.
If you're reading this article, you'll likely know Woods and his chum Rory McIlroy have taken centre stage in the war of attrition and litigation with the LIV Golf League.
Just one of the ways the PGA Tour has moved to combat the threat of their rival and prevent their best players from bolting was the introduction of the Player Impact Program [PIP] in 2021.
The PIP has already changed a number of times despite being in operation for two years.
In the inaugural year, $40m in bonus cash was handed out to the top-10 players who brought the most positive attention to the sport.
Woods scooped the winner's cheque of $8m in the 2021 PIP, mocking his old rival Phil Mickelson in the process.
A year later when he took the crown for a second time he scooped $15m after the PGA Tour increased the PIP to $100m for the top 20 players.
That was part of a raft of changes and the introduction of elevated events to further try and persuade players from defecting to the breakaway tour.
But now, it's going back down to $50m according to the memo PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent to players revealing more changes in 2024 that will see fields in some elevated events reduced to 70-78 players and the removal of the 36-hole cut.
Monahan wrote:
The PIP has been a source of controversy.
The PGA Tour have defended it, outlining how there is a number of criteria used to determine the rankings.
Those include internet searches, unique news articles, social media scoring and how long players' logo appear on screen during broadcasts.
Critics say it is a shift away from meritocracy. The PIP has been called a slush fund and a Tiger Tax.
Given that nobody in golf does, or ever has, attracted more eyes than Woods, we can safely assume that he will be the PIP winner in 2023.
Next page: Olympic legend rips Tiger Woods
Ben joined the GolfMagic team in September 2021, initially as a content executive.
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