Popularity, brand appeal and social media presence: PGA Tour's £28m bonus structure to reward top golfers

The PGA Tour has sought finally to kill off golf’s own 'Super League' plan once and for all, by handing over millions of dollars in bonuses to the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy that are not reliant on their performances inside the ropes.

The US circuit - which last year took a stake in the European Tour in response to the threat of the Premier Golf League - has put aside a yearly pot of $40m-plus (£28m-plus) to reward the players who in the Tour’s words “positively move the needle”.

The Player Impact Program, which began on Jan 1, will feature 10 recipients in all, with the golfer topping the “Impact Score” list receiving $8m (£5.7m). GolfWeek, the American magazine, has seen the Tour document circulated to the pros and reports that there will be at least six metrics used in the standings.

These include: the player’s position on the season-ending FedEx Cup points list, his popularity in Google Search and a number of rating measurements judging the minutes he appears on broadcasts, the appeal of their “brand”, their social media presence and the amount of coverage on media platforms.

The ratings, which can apparently distinguish between the positive and negative coverage a player generates, have weird and wacky names such as “Nielsen Brand Exposure", "MVP Index" and “Meltwater Mentions. They have already taken their place alongside more traditional stats such as “driving average”, “greens hit in regulation” and “putts per round”.

The Tour document highlights how the Impact Scores would have worked out in 2019. Tiger Woods, who won the Masters that year, predictably topped the list, with Rory McIlroy in second and Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler completing the top five. England’s Justin Rose, who spent time as world No 1 in ’19, was ninth on that list.

Rose welcomed the scheme, but warned that there will inevitably be objections from the rank and file, who will feel that this will simply mean more money for the heavyweights who, as well as their mammoth sponsorships, already command huge appearance fees outside of the US.

“There’s lots of ways that that money could also be used in different ways to support the Tour, so there’s going to be a lot of people with different opinions and it’ll be interesting to see what the reaction is like,” Rose said. “There's obviously been concepts [developed] around the world that want to focus on the best players being together more often, right?

“And I think with media dollars being so astronomical these days and four, five, six guys always being the ones that are being used to promote the tournament, this is just a way of trying to sort of incentivise them and help them out - not that they need much helping out. But a rising tide lifts all ships.”

Woods, of course, has not played in 2021 after a car crash, but Koepka still believes the 15-time major winner should head this year’s list regardless. “Tiger should be No 1 on that list no matter what,” Koepka said. “He’s the entire reason we’re able to play for so much money, the entire reason this sport is as popular as it is, and the reason most of us are playing. Not even close.”

Whatever else, this surely means curtains for the PGL, the proposed F1-type circuit that, backed with Saudi Arabia finance, would have guaranteed the world’s top players tens of millions up front.

Despite being swiftly rejected by elite players such as McIlroy and Spaniard Jon Rahm, the Raine Group has been nothing but persistent and late last summer the private equity firm came in with what European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley described as “a very compelling offer to take the Tour to another level but in a different direction”.

However, Jay Monahan, Pelley's counterpart on the PGA Tour, was quick to react, purchasing a slice of the European circuit’s media arm for approximately £60m. A “strategic alliance” was duly announced, with the door seemingly slammed on the PGL. The overwhelming view will be that this extraordinary sweetener to the star names will serve as the impenetrable bolt.

One insider told Telegraph Sport: “It is the talk of the range and the PGL is now seen as dead in the water. Ian Poulter has been excited because of the 1.5 million views he got for the post during the Players when he tweeted about the four Europeans at 29 over. He thinks that will hurl him up the standings! But nobody is exactly sure how they will decide who are the biggest influencers. It’ll probably just be the usual suspects.”