Player advisory chairman Adam Scott: Equity system will ‘reward’ players

 

[February 14, 2024]  Adam Scott ran for the PGA Tour's Player Advisory Council chairman because he was interested in how the tour's competitions would evolve in the era of signature events and massive prize pools.

"I felt like I had a perspective that I could share and be helpful at the board level with how that goes," the veteran from Australia said Tuesday. "Little did I know that I would get involved in some business deals and other things like that, but that was my motivation for going on the board. I felt like I could be a positive contributor in that sense."

Indeed, Scott wound up joining the policy board as a player director at a pivotal time, after the PGA Tour entered a surprise framework agreement to merge interests with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund -- without player knowledge.

More recently, and as negotiations with the PIF continue, the PGA Tour brought on Strategic Sports Group as an investment partner. The consortium of U.S.-based sports owners has injected an initial $1.5 billion, which can total up to $3 billion in the future, allowing a new for-profit wing called PGA Tour Enterprises to grant equity to players.

Scott said Tuesday ahead of this week's Genesis Invitational that details are still being finalized, but he's sure players will come to value the ability to earn equity in the tour they've spent years playing on.

"I'm aware of the details as much as it's been shared with the entire membership, which is fairly broad outline and still some things to be worked out," Scott said. "But I think it is a good thing for players on the PGA Tour going forward that they are sharing in the success of the tour and certainly aligning their interests with the PGA Tour. And going forward, hopefully that is a great reward for players who spend their life out here playing."

A memo that was sent to players last week reportedly broke the initial grants into four groups:

--$750 million of aggregate equity divided among 36 players based on career performance, performance over the past five years and results of the Player Impact Program;

--$75 million of aggregate equity divided among 64 players based on three-year performance;

--$30 million of aggregate equity divided among 57 players who have earned fully exempt tour status; and

--$75 million of aggregate equity divided among 36 players who were "instrumental to building the modern PGA Tour, based on career performance."

Scott was asked whether players he speaks with view the equity plan as "an important asset" for the tour's longevity.

"I think in time they'll understand," Scott said. "Like we just said, I mean, not all the details are there, so recently not being a player on the board and sitting in a big group of members, when things like this happen, I think sometimes little notice is taken until it's all finalized. So I hope once all the details are ironed out and the equity program is put into place, guys will be very excited and obviously be pushing for good things to happen at the PGA Tour."

Scott won a vote to become PAC chairman in February 2023, replacing Charley Hoffman. That also locked Scott into a three-year term (2024-26) as a player director on the policy board, which includes heavy hitters like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay.

That term began in January, so Scott, 43, is still feeling out how much time it will require of him. The answer could be a lot.

"I have to give a lot of credit to the players who have been on (the board)," Scott said. "I've been only on a month, but I know the players who were on there the last six months, the last year have given a lot of time.

"Yeah, I think we have to be aware that we have another job and to play high level golf, you need to put a lot into that. And that includes time for the brain to rest and recover as well. I think everyone involved at the PGA Tour and including SSG are grateful to the guys who have put in so much time and are hoping that it won't require as much time going forward."

--Field Level Media

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