World Golf Tour Players Compete

Since the establishment of LIV Golf in June 2022, major professional golf tours around the world have been pouring out player-friendly systems. As each tour competitiveness is determined by the performance of the players, fierce competition is underway to bring out talented professional golfers.

Players-friendly systems in the U.S. PGA Tour include distribution of shares in the enterprise of the PGA Tour, special subsidies for rookie players, compensation for failure to make cut, PIP bonus and PGA Tour University. The DP World Tour offers 150,000 U.S. dollars in grants to players who participate in more than 15 competitions. The Korea PGA Tour, the Japan Golf Tour (JGTO), and the Asian Tour offer tickets to top-tier tour programs such as PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf.

The biggest reason why the PGA Tour and DP World Tour continue to introduce player-friendly systems is to reduce the outflow of players to LIV Golf. As Jon Rahm (Spain), Cameron Smith (Australia), Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson (USA) moved to LIV Golf one after another, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are providing various benefits to protect existing players.

With the total prize money of 25 million U.S. dollars, LIV Golf, which will be played at 54 holes without missing the cut, has invested huge amounts of money to recruit top rankers. It is known that it paid down payment ranging from tens to hundreds of billions of won to several players including Rahm and Smith.

The PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have put extra effort into increasing the total purse money for this season and creating new alternatives, as even the last-place winner receives 60 million won (60,000 U.S. dollars) in prize money in LIV Golf. The PGA Tour has set up eight special events with total purse money of 20 million dollars. In addition, various systems such as subsidies were created to make the player pay more money than before.

Recently, golf fans are most interested in the distribution of shares of Enterprise, a newly created for-profit corporation by the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour announced in February that it will distribute $930 million worth of shares of PGA Tour Enterprise, a for-profit corporation established with $3 billion invested by the investment consortium SSG, to 193 players next year. While it announced that it will be divided into four groups and distributed differently, 36 players in the first group will share $750 million worth of stocks, which is 80% of the total stocks. Each player in the first group will receive shares worth about $20.83 million (about 28.08 billion won). U.S. media Sports Illustrated (SI) recently reported that Lim Sung-jae, Kim Joo-hyung and Kim Si-woo will be included in the first group along with Scottie Scheffler (USA), the world's No. 1 player in men's golf.

There is also a PIP bonus that pays 100 million U.S. dollars in a differential manner depending on the ranking by calculating the amount of Google searches, the degree of exposure to global media, and the frequency of SNS comments. Tiger Woods of the U.S. and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland have topped the list, receiving huge bonuses.

A number of programs for rookie and mid- to low-ranking players have also been introduced. The PGA Tour has provided 500,000 U.S. dollars in special grants since last year to help rookie players not feel burdened with expenses. In addition, it has hired a player consultant exclusively responsible for rookie players to help them quickly adjust to the new environment.

For players who failed to make it to the top 125 in the FedEx Cup last season, the PGA Tour will pay 5,000 U.S. dollars to those who fail to make it to the cut.

A player who is active on the PGA Tour said, "A variety of systems have been created since two years ago to catch both top and bottom players," adding, "The most responsive is the $500,000 grant made for rookie players. There are many rookie players who have been showing good performances on the PGA Tour recently, and I think they have played a big role in reducing the economic burden."

The DP World Tour has been running a $150,000 (about 200 million won) tour support fund since last year. The satisfaction of the players is huge as the DP World Tour requires them to travel around the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States.

"Unlike the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour is expensive as almost every competition is held in other countries," said a player whose main stage is the DP World Tour. "We spent nearly 100 million won on transportation last year," he said. "If you play more than 15 competitions in a season, you get 150,000 dollars, which is the best system for players."

The competition between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has created benefits for the KPGA tour as well. The KPGA Tour, which has strategic partnership with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, has been granting the top spot in the DP World Tour and direct tickets to the final round of the PGA Tour qualifying school competition since last year.

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