A financial reckoning that PGA Tour events have been bracing for will arrive Monday when the circuit officially outlines crucial adjustments to each tournament’s finances.
According to multiple sources, the Tour plans to send a memo to tournament directors that is essentially an addendum to current contracts and will create fees to help fund increasing purses.
First reported last fall, Monday’s memo will outline each event’s increased commitment with signature events required to pay a $1 million fee each year. Full-field events, like this week’s Valero Texas Open, will have a $500,000 fee while fall events will owe $250,000. Fees for opposite-field events will be $100,000 annually.
Those fees will begin in ’25 with tournaments paying half, with the full amounts due beginning in ’26 and beyond.
The memo is also expected to show an eventual requirement of 2 percent of each tournament’s hospitality sales to offset increased purses and other costs as the Tour attempts to ward off challenges from LIV Golf. In ’25 that fee would be 1 percent of sales, go to 1 ½ percent in ’26, and starting in ’27, it would settle at 2 percent of each tournament’s sales.
Purses for this year’s signature events are $20 million, dramatic increases that prompted the Tour to tinker with funding formulas.
One concern among tournament directors is how this new funding stream might impact each event’s charitable donations, but commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters at last month’s Players Championship that the adjustments will be mitigated.
“Our tournament organizations that are rooted in the communities where we play, they’re going to do two things: They’re going to push themselves to generate more revenue so that they can continue to deliver for the charity and their community, and we’re going to continue to invest back in those same organizations to help them do that,” Monahan said. “But I want to be very clear that charity will always be a fundamental element to the PGA Tour. Nothing is changing on that front.”
