Rory McIlroy is set to receive equity in the PGA Tour worth in the region of £40million as a reward for staying loyal amid and resisting the advances of LIV Golf.
PGA Tour members will receive an email from commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday confirming the results of the organisation's first equity award scheme, and McIlroy is expected to be among the big winners.
The scheme is part of a £1.2billion investment from Strategic Sports Group (SSG), which went into business with the tour in January, creating a new for-profit entity – PGA Tour Enterprises – which has become a new vehicle for the tour's commercial efforts.
The move hopes to incentivise players to remain PGA Tour members amid the threat of LIV Golf, which snapped up several big names including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson when it launched in 2022, with Jon Rahm among the players to sign up for the Saudi Arabia-funded breakaway league since.
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Tiger Woods is sure to be the big winner from the equity scheme, which is decided primarily by a metric called career points, which reflects a player's success on tour over the years. With 82 PGA Tour wins, Woods could receive equity worth up to £80m.
McIlroy will be next in line thanks to his three FedEx Cup titles and is expected to receive a package in the region of £40m, according to The Telegraph. The likes of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are expected to receive equity worth around £25m each, but the PGA Tour intends to keep the exact details of the equity awards confidential.
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The players cannot cash out immediately, with the shares vesting over an eight-year period, for which they must remain members. The first 50 per cent will vest after four years, followed by 25 per cent every two years. The terms mean players cannot quit the tour and join LIV Golf before the shares have vested if they want to receive their equity.
McIlroy, Woods et al are set to be among 36 players in Group 1 – reserved for the leading active players on tour –who will receive equity from a £600m pot. Group 2 will be made up of 64 players including rising talents and solid but unspectacular performers, and they will share £60m.
Group 3 will see the bottom-ranking 57 players who qualify for the scheme share £24m. A fourth category has also included for players considered living legends who have retired, such as Jack Nicklaus. The 36-strong group will share £60m and players must be alive to qualify, with the shares unable to be paid to their estates.
The share awards are a far cry from the value the players could have achieved if they signed up for LIV, which has attempted to lure McIlroy with an offer in excess of half a billion pounds. However, SSG – a consortium that includes Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group – believes the value of the tour will continue to grow, despite concerning TV viewing figures, meaning the value of players' equity could increase significantly over time.