McKINNEY, Texas – On April 24, PGA Tour pros competing in the pro-am at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans couldn’t stop checking their phones. The reason? To tap refresh on their email and see if their notification of how much they had been allocated of $930 million in player equity shares that were divvied up to nearly 200 Tour members, or as one player put it, “Christmas in April,” had arrived.
Commissioner Jay Monahan originally detailed the Tour’s first-of-its-kind equity ownership program in a Feb. 7 memo to players. And it was why players experienced an uncontrollable urge to check their phones during play; it was so egregious that the Tour sent pros a memo reminding them of its phone usage policy.
Everyone wanted to know how much their loyalty was worth. The Telegraph reported Tiger Woods was to receive $100 million in equity and Rory McIlroy $50 million from a tier in which 36 players reportedly split $750 million. When McIlroy was asked at the Zurich Classic how much would make players feel validated for their decision to stay with the PGA Tour, he said, “I think the one thing we’ve learned in golf over the last two years is there’s never enough.”
We talked to a wide array of pros at the CJ Byron Nelson last week to find out how the rollout went and how they feel about being shareholders in the Tour’s new for-profit entity.