Tiger Woods adds to Phil Mickelson’s rough section with PGA Tour bonus

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Woods shared an image Wednesday of Mickelson’s Twitter post in December, in which Mickelson thanked “all the crazy (and real fans too) for… helping me win PiP !!”

Woods had only one thing to say to Mickelson, sandwiched between a pair of shrug emojis: Oops.

The player impact program is not necessarily related to a player’s performance on the Tour, which has never been clearer than when Woods topped last year’s list. He was eliminated for most of 2021 after suffering serious injuries in a car crash in February and returned to competitive golf only at the PNC Championship in mid-December, a modest, unofficial event that includes former big winners who partner with family members.

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However, Mickelson participated in 19 tournaments from the 2021 Tour and caused a huge sensation with a victory in the PGA Championship, which made him the oldest man to win a golf major. Although there were no other rankings in the top 10 last year, Mickelson placed a solid 21st in the Masters and caused a stir with another appearance in “The Match”, which he saw paired with Tom Brady against Bryson De Chambo and Aaron Rodgers.

However, no one moves the needle like the Tiger. This is the most important thing in this race.

Instead of collecting the shots taken in four days of the tournament, PIP measures the annual accumulation of positive public interest of a Tour member using five indicators: Internet searches for his name (via Google); unique news articles mentioning his name (Meltwater Mentions); social media coverage and engagement (MVP index); exposing sponsors to TV shows on Saturday and Sunday tournaments (via Nielsen); and a Q-score for player awareness among the general population of the United States.

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Despite his absence from golf courses for most of the year, Woods would generate a huge amount of news articles and internet searches after his crash. In addition, his participation in the PNC Championship with his son Charlie aroused great interest.

To top the PIP list for 2021, Woods received a payout of $ 8 million, followed by Mickelson with $ 6 million. The rest of the top 10 players who shared a $ 40 million pool were as follows (via pgatour.com):

  • 3. Rory McIlroy ($ 3.5 million)
  • 4. Jordan Spiet ($ 3.5 million)
  • 5. Bryson DeChambo ($ 3.5 million)
  • 6. Justin Thomas ($ 3.5 million)
  • 7. Dustin Johnson ($ 3 million)
  • 8. Brooks Koepka ($ 3 million)
  • 9. John Ram ($ 3 million)
  • 10. Beetle Watson ($ 3 million)

PIP was initiated as a means of rewarding the most popular players on the PGA Tour and to provide them with an additional incentive not to be lured by lucrative offers from other golfers. First and foremost among all the potential threats to the PGA Tour is the proposed Saudi-backed venture, unofficially referred to by many as the Super Golf League (SGL).

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Mickelson, who has recently been outspoken in his criticism of what he described as the “disgusting greed of the PGA Tour”, seems to have done enormous damage to SGL and its own image when the comments he provided to a golf journalist in November were last published. . month. In these remarks, he said he was ready to ignore the “terrible record of the Saudi government on human rights” in order to win a lever against the PGA Tour. After Mickelson experienced a huge reaction, both within the Tour and elsewhere, he apologized and said he was taking a break from the race.

All of this took place this year, and it remains to be seen how the saga affects Mickelson’s place on the 2022 PIP list.

Meanwhile, he has another hurdle to deal with – albeit one with a consolation prize of $ 6 million – and another reminder that there are Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour and then everyone else.