The PGA Tour's elite, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, are set to reap the bulk of the rewards from the $930 million in initial equity payouts resulting from the Strategic Sports Group's multi-billion dollar investment in professional golf.

On Wednesday — ahead of the 2024 WM Phoenix Open — PGA Tour players received a memo detailing how the newly formed, SSG-backed commercial division, PGA Tour Enterprises, will begin allocating the initial $1.5 investment. SSG,  a cohort of American sports owners, agreed to infuse $1.5 billion into the Tour, with another $1.5 billion potentially on the way.

Amid competition with the Public Investment Fund, which operates LIV Golf, tour loyalists will earn equity in PGA Tour Enterprises via grants that will vest over time. The grants will be determined based on status, accomplishments, and future participation on the links.

Per the memo, the $930 million in aggregate equity will be divided across four groups:

  • Group 1: $750 million to 36 players based on career performance, results over the last five years, and standing in the Player Impact Program.
  • Group 2: $75 million to 64 players based on results over the last three years
  • Group 3: $30 million to 57 players with fully-exempt PGA Tour status (aka past winners, basically)
  • Group 4: $75 million to 36 players who played a pivotal role in forming the modern Tour

Multiple-major champions such as Woods, McIlroy, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, and Collin Morikawa will fall into Group 1.

Another $600 million will be dispersed in the form of recurring grants.

“The recurring player equity grants are incremental to the initial grants, are in the aggregate amount of $600 million, and are planned to be awarded in the amounts of $100 million each year starting with the 2025 PGA Tour season and continuing through the 2030 PGA Tour Season (at a minimum),” stated the memo. “It is important to note that all PGA Tour members are eligible to receive recurring grants—regardless of whether or not they received an initial grant. These recurring grants will reward future top performers and will be based on last 3-year performance, last year performance and Player Impact Program results. Like the initial grants, the recurring grants will require minimum participation and/or service requirements commensurate with the value to the grant.”

Exciting stuff, I know! Golf! Sports! Recurring grants!

Ideally, the SSG partnership provides the PGA Tour with much-needed financial security and leverage in negotiations with PIF, which have hit a bit of a snag, per Golf Digest. In the wake of the SSG deal, players like Spieth, Scheffler, and Thomas – and Tiger, privately, per Golf Digest — are aligned in their desire to see unification, but disagreed with McIlroy's revised stance on welcoming LIV defectors back without penalty.

“There should be a pathway back for them,” Scheffler said in Phoenix. “But they definitely shouldn’t be able to come back without any contribution to the tour.”

“There’s a handful of players on LIV that would make the tour a better place, but I’m definitely not in the agreement that they should just be able to come back that easily,” said Thomas.

While the PGA Tour gets drenched in beer at TPC Scottsdale this weekend for “Greatest Show on Grass”, LIV Golf is crashing Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas.