As humans, it’s kind of hard to predict what’s going to be popular. I mean, who would’ve guessed that watching grown men hit a 1.68-inch-diameter ball into a hole would capture the world’s imagination? But here we are asking ourselves, What is the PGA Tour? Anyway, these are the 10 numbers you should know.
1916
The year the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America was founded. By 1929, an organization under that umbrella began managing the tour for professional golfers. This latter entity would eventually come to be known as the PGA Tour.
1968
The year the PGA Tour was formally spun off from the PGA of America and began operating as a separate organization responsible for administering professional golf tours. The decision to split stemmed from a dispute over revenue sharing, with professional golfers demanding a larger percentage of revenue relative to that which was being directed toward growing golf as a club and leisure activity.
1.522 billion
The projected revenue in US dollars of the PGA Tour in 2022, of which 55 percent—or $838 million—was slated to go to the players.
700 million
An estimate in US dollars of the annual revenue the PGA Tour—headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a suburb of Jacksonville—receives from domestic media rights deals. The figure doesn’t include revenue from deals pertaining to digital media rights or international media rights.
121 million
The amount in US dollars earned by the PGA Tour’s all-time leader in career earnings—none other than Tiger Woods. (Woods’ overall earnings including non-golf activities are in the range of $1.7 billion.)
501(c)6
The nonprofit tax code designation of the PGA Tour. Officially, it is considered a business league, and, despite executive compensation well into the millions ($27.5 million in 2019), qualifies for rather impressive tax breaks from the Internal Revenue Service.
2021
The year LIV Golf was founded. Financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and headed by former golfer Greg Norman, the professional golf tour began play in 2022 and positioned itself as a viable rival to the PGA Tour. LIV—the Roman numeral for 54, the number of holes played in LIV events—was able to lure several high-profile golfers away from the PGA Tour with its extremely generous payouts. (The winner of its first event took home $4 million, compared to the $2.7 million earned by the winners of the most prestigious events on the PGA Tour.)
The entire phenomenon was not without controversy given Saudi Arabia’s history of human rights violations and the tendency of authoritarian regimes to deflect attention away from such realities by resorting to so-called sportswashing. But in 2023, mere morals and ethics took a back seat to money when the PGA Tour and LIV announced a possible merger.
4
The number of major championships in men’s golf, none of which are run by the PGA Tour. The United States Golf Association (USGA)—the governing body for the game of golf in America—runs the US Open, the Augusta National Golf Club stages The Masters, the R&A organizes The (British) Open, and the PGA of America directly administers the PGA Championship.
What this means is that while defectors to LIV Golf can be prevented from participating in the many tournaments the PGA Tour administers, such defectors are still able to participate in these four key events. (If a merger is executed, this will become a moot point.)
1
The number of movies that teach proper golf etiquette, regardless of which tour you choose to play on. That movie, of course, is Caddyshack. Have a look.
2
Actually, let’s go ahead and add a second movie to the list. You don’t know golf unless you’ve watched Happy Gilmore.
So what is the PGA Tour? A highly-profitable nonprofit organization that, thanks to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, could rake in even more.
