Tiger Woods continues to make headlines as one of golf’s most iconic figures despite fewer appearances on the PGA Tour over the past few years. On Jaqnuary 6, the PGA Tour announced that the Player Impact Program (PIP) would be shut down. Along with the announcement came an astonishing statistic regarding the 15-time major championship winner’s earnings from the program.
Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods, Hero World Challenge (Image via Getty)
The 82-time PGA Tour winner made a combined $45 million from the program over the past four years. Former Barstool Sports’ ForePlay podcast’s Daniel Rapaport gave fans an insight into the stat.
He wrote (via X @Daniel_Rapaport):
“Tiger Woods made a combined $45 million over 4 years from the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program, which will be shut down after this year. He played a combined 10 PGA Tour events over that period. $4.5 million per start, just from the PIP.”
Woods bagged a cheque worth a whopping $10 million for the 2024 season despite making only five starts. World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler was second on the PIP list with $8 million in earnings.
The PIP program was created to reward players who boost spectator attendance and viewership by generating significant fan engagement. Woods’ $45 million payout over the last four years proves that the program was successful in rewarding players by metrics that are not related to their on course performance.
Rapaport took the opportunity to reply to Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter following the latter’s post on X about Woods earning more than Scheffler. He wrote (via X @Daniel_Rapaport):
“Scottie Scheffler won 9 times, including the Masters and a Gold Medal, got arrested between the first and second round of a major championship, starred in some of the best memes all year, held world No. 1 for the entirety of 2024…and didn’t win the Player Impact Program.”
Here’s a look into the PIP rankings for the PGA Tour’s 2024 season along with the number of starts each player made in the year (via PGA Tour):
- Tiger Woods, $10 million – 5 starts
- Scottie Scheffler, $8 million – 19 starts
- Rory McIlroy, $4.5 million – 19 starts
- Xander Schauffele, $4.5 million – 22 starts
- Jordan Spieth, $4.5 million – 22 starts
- Collin Morikawa, $4.5 million – 22 starts
- Shane Lowry, $3.5 million – 20 starts
- Justin Thomas, $3.5 million – 20 starts
- Tommy Fleetwood, $3.5 million – 19 starts
- Wyndham Clark, $3.5 million – 21 starts
Why has Tiger Woods made only five starts on the PGA Tour?
Tiger Woods has been playing fewer tournaments over the past few years as the result of his injuries and chronic pain. Prior to the start of the PGA Tour’s 2024 season, the former Stanford golfer announced that he intended to play in at least one tournament a month along while prioritizing playing all major championships.
In his five starts last year, he only saw one tournament through to the end. He opened up the season at the Genesis Invitational in February. The 82-time PGA Tour winner withdrew on the second day.
Tiger Woods made the cut at the Augusta Masters in April and finished solo 60th place. He went on to miss the cut at the PGA Championship, US Open, and The Open Championship over the next three months.
Since then, he has undergone another spinal surgery and is currently working to heal his body with physical therapy and rehab.
