Player advisory chairman Adam Scott: Equity system will ‘reward’ players
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Adam Scott of Australia playing his shot from the 13th tee during the second round of the Phoenix Open on Feb 9
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – Adam Scott ran for the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council (PAC) 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. 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,” the veteran from Australia said on Feb 13.
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 (PIF) – without player knowledge.
More recently, and as negotiations with the PIF continue, the PGA Tour brought on Strategic Sports Group (SSG) as an investment partner. The consortium of United States-based sports owners has injected an initial US$1.5 billion (S$2.02 billion), which can total up to US$3 billion in the future, allowing a new for-profit wing called PGA Tour Enterprises to grant equity to players.
Scott said on Feb 13 ahead of this week’s Genesis Invitational that details were still being finalised, but he was sure players would come to value the ability to earn equity in the tour they have spent years playing on.
“I’m aware of the details as much as it’s been shared with the entire membership, which is a fairly broad outline and still some things to be worked out,” Scott said.
“But 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:
– US$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 Programme;
– US$75 million of aggregate equity divided among 64 players based on three-year performance;
– US$30 million of aggregate equity divided among 57 players who have earned fully exempt tour status; and
– US$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 spoke with view the equity plan as “an important asset” for the tour’s longevity.
“In time, they’ll understand. 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, sometimes little notice is taken until it’s all finalised,” Scott said.
“So I hope once all the details are ironed out and the equity programme is put into place, guys will be very excited and obviously be pushing for good things to happen on 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). I’ve been on only a month, but I know the players who were there the last six months, the last year have given a lot of time,” Scott said.
“Yeah, 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.” REUTERS
