The PGA Tour is asking its players to consider their potential futures within the professional golf organization amid a contentious relationship with upstart LIV Golf.
The tour has created a document that details projected earnings for a group of players — some of the world’s best — if they started their careers in 2022.
- It estimates a 4% year-over-year growth in comprehensive earnings, per Golf Digest.
- The document also factors in investments in the PGA Tour’s three bonus programs: the FedEx Cup, Comcast Business Tour Top 10, and Player Impact Program.
Using seven categories — including official and unofficial prize money — the projected earnings feature four-time major championship winner Rory McIlroy, who would have made $373 million in total compensation from the PGA Tour if his career started in the 2022-23 season.
McIlroy — who began his pro career in 2007 — has earned $65.7 million in career earnings.
The PGA Tour’s projected earnings haven’t kept some of the world’s top players from defecting from the tour. Earlier this week, 28-year-old Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith reportedly accepted a $100 million offer to join LIV Golf, per The Telegraph.
Smith will join fan favorites Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka on the Saudi-backed series.
Access Denied
On Tuesday, a U.S. District judge denied a temporary restraining order that would have allowed three LIV competitors to play in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin Thursday: Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, and Matt Jones.
