Jordan Spieth shares his thoughts on the potential elimination of PGA Tour’s PIP bonus

In Nassau, Bahamas, the PGA Tour’s controversial Player Impact Program was introduced to prevent top players from accepting lucrative contract offers to defect to the Saudi Arabian-funded LIV Golf League.

Jordan Spieth, a PGA Tour policy board member, expressed uncertainty about how successful the PIP can be in achieving that goal and suggested that the program might be eliminated in the future.

“I think that its goal was to help prevent players from accepting high-dollar Saudi offers, LIV offers,” Spieth said. “I think that’s the goal. If you’re going to see numbers that are thrown out at players now, a couple specific players, it doesn’t really do that.”

The PIP, introduced in 2020-21, aims to reward members who generate the most positive influence in the tour. It uses a scoring model based on objective measurements like internet searches, general awareness, social media reach, and other factors to quantify the impact each player has on the tour.

Rory McIlroy dethroned Tiger Woods in the 2023 PIP standings and will receive $15 million of the $100 million pool, as announced by PGA Tour executive vice president and chief player officer Jason Gore in a memo sent to golfers last week.

Other top finishers in the 2023 PIP standings include Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, Viktor Hovland, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, and Max Homa.

The PGA Tour announced a reduction of the PIP bonus pool to $50 million for the top 10 finishers in 2024, reallocating the other $50 million to other player programs, including the FedEx Cup bonus and Comcast Business Tour Top 10.

“I think that it was pretty unanimous, including those of us who have significantly benefited from it, to taper it down and find a way to spread those funds elsewhere to support, ideally, fields, purses, so that you still could benefit from them individually but finding the right sweet spot,” Spieth said.

“And I’m not sure, I know it drops by half next year. I’m not sure what that will look like after that. Hopefully, it won’t need to exist, I think is the best way to put it. I think that makes everybody happy, including those that have benefited from it, because there will be other ways to benefit from performance and just being a big brand for the PGA Tour.”

Some PGA Tour players have criticized the PIP program as nothing more than a popularity contest and a means for star players to get even richer. Veteran player Nate Lashley criticized PIP on Instagram, questioning the effectiveness of allocating $100 million to only 20 players.

“How many golf fans actually know what the PIP on the PGA Tour is?” Lashley wrote. “Would love to hear from golf/PGA fans if they think this $100 million was spent well?”

“There’s 150-200 members of the PGA Tour and they just spent $100 million on 20 players. Seems a little ridiculous. Time for new leadership on the PGA Tour. This is an absolute kick in the face to the rest of the PGA Tour players.”