Tiger Woods ($100m), Rory McIlroy ($50m), Other Stars Will Reportedly Receive Equity Grants In New PGA Tour Entity

Back in January, we learned that the Strategic Sports Group's multi-billion dollar investment in the PGA Tour would include significant carveouts for players to receive equity in the new for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises. Now we're starting to learn just how much some of the top player's loyalty to Ponte Vedra Beach might be worth. 

According to a report from The Telegraph's James Corrigan, the top tier of the 193 players who will receive a total of $930 million in equity grants have been notified as to what their initial equity will be worth. Tiger Woods will receive $100 million in equity, with Rory McIlroy next at $50 million, followed by Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas both getting $30 million. 

It's important to note that these are not lump-sum payments. Fifty percent of the shares will vest after four years, with another 25% vesting after six years and the final 25% after eight years. Players must be in good standing on the PGA Tour to receive their shares, meaning players who received equity but then depart for LIV Golf will forfeit their stake. It's assumed that any players who might return to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf—after a hypothetical deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment fund, which was hinted at last June but has not come to fruition—would not be eligible for equity shares.

The move is designed to bring players closer into the fold with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of American sports owners and billionaires that agreed to pump up to $3 billion into the PGA Tour. The thought process is that since players will have skin in the game, they'll be further incentivized to grow the bottom line of the tour, as that would see the value of their shares increase. 

There are four classifications of players who will receive equity grants. From the initial announcement of the SGS-PGA Tour deal:

• Group 1 consists of $750 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 36 players based on career performance, last 5-year performance, and Player Impact Program Results (Think: Woods, McIlroy, Spieth)
• Group 2 consists of $75 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 64 players based on last 3-year performance (Think: Zalatoris, Hovland, Theegala)
• Group 3 consists of $30 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 57 players that have earned certain fully-exempt PGA Tour status categories (Think: Corey Conners, Keith Mitchell, Brendon Todd)
• Group 4 consists of $75 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 36 players who were instrumental to building the modern PGA Tour, based on career performance (Think: Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els)

These numbers, of course, pale in comparison to what a Thomas/Spieth could have gotten from LIV Golf and what lesser accomplished players received from LIV Golf. Jon Rahm signed for more than $300m and Tyrrell Hatton, who was world No. 16 when he left the PGA Tour for LIV, reportedly fetched in the $65 million range. 

When asked at this week's Zurich Classic what dollar figure might be enough to placate the game's top players, Rory McIlroy gave a tongue-in-cheek response: "I think the one thing we've learned in golf over the last two years is there's never enough."