Justin Rose supports $40m PGA Tour bonus scheme

Justin Rose has said that the PGA Tour’s all-new Player Impact Program can be “a good thing for everybody” but admits he is unsure about the response the scheme would receive.

It was revealed on Tuesday that the PGA Tour has launched a bonus cash pool that will reward the game’s top players for driving fan and sponsor engagement.

The scheme, called the Player Impact Program, will see $40million distributed amongst ten players each year in recognition of the “value they add to the overall product” and not just their on-course results.

The player who leads the standings at the end of the year will receive an eye-watering $8million bonus.

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“There are concepts around the world that want to focus on the best players being together more often, right?” said ten-time PGA Tour winner Justin Rose ahead of partnering with Henrik Stenson at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

“I think with media dollars being so astronomical these days and obviously four, five, six guys always being the ones that are being used to promote the tournaments, I guess it’s just a way of trying to sort of incentivize them and help them out.

“Obviously, there’s lots of ways that that money could also be used in different ways to support the tour, so there’s going to be lots of people with different opinions.”

Golf fans responded to the news in their droves following the report, an overwhelming majority of the opinions negative towards the new ringfenced cash pool.

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The list of metrics by which players will be ranked, include their position on the season-ending FedEx Cup points list as well as their popularity in Google Search and their Nielsen Brand Exposure rating, which places a value on the exposure a player delivers to sponsors though the minutes they are featured on broadcasts.

Also taken into account will be players’ Q Rating, which measures the familiarity and appeal of a player’s brand; their MVP Index rating, which calibrates the value of the engagement a player drives across social and digital channels; and their Meltwater Mentions, or the frequency with which a player generates coverage across a range of media platforms.

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