'Skullduggery': Past legends not happy after being left out of PGA Tour equity grants

USA Today

01-07-2025

When PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan touted its new player equity program as the first in professional sports, designed to 'more deeply align' the interests of the Tour and its players, World Golf Hall of Fame member Nick Faldo remarked to Monahan, 'Jay, I hope you are going to look after us wee old farts,' he recalled. 'He said, 'Once we have the deal done with (private equity investor Strategic Sports Group), we'll work on it.' '
Fellow English great Tony Jacklin wondered what it meant for him. At the time of the announcement in February 2024, Jacklin read with great interest that the initial player equity grants as part of a new for-profit company, PGA Tour Enterprises, would distribute approximately $930 million to 193 players via four categories, starting with the game's stars.
'They're slinging money around like it's confetti,' Jacklin said.
A total of 36 'past legends' will get equity
While the lion's share of the grants – $750 million – will be deposited into the accounts of the top 36 players, one of those categories has been designed to grant "players who were instrumental to building the modern PGA Tour based on career performance. Dubbed 'past legends,' it's meant to be a thank you of sorts to the trailblazers: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson are believed to be among the 36 players sharing in $75 million based on the 'Career Points' formula. Those grants will only be awarded to trailblazers still alive. Jacklin assumed that being a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, two-time major winner and Ryder Cup legend would be enough to qualify for an equity grant — but it turns out that he missed the cut and he wasn't alone.
Jacklin resented the way the Tour handled informing him – both the utter lack of transparency in disclosing the career points formula as well as those who qualified and those who didn't. Jacklin has known Monahan for more than 25 years, dating to his days working for EMC, a technology company that sponsored the World Cup of Golf and an event on the senior circuit and for whom Jacklin served as an EMC ambassador. When Jacklin complained to Nicklaus at the 2024 Memorial Tournament, Nicklaus said, 'If I were you, I would call him.'
But the 80-year-old Englishman, who won six times on the Tour, elected not to bother Monahan given that he already had hired a lawyer to draft a letter to the Tour on his behalf.
'Which cost me 250 bucks, by the way,' Jacklin noted. 'I didn't get the courtesy of a reply. I just thought it was a despicable way of dealing with things.'
Nick Faldo wrongly assumed he'd be on the list
Faldo, 67, pressed on for answers. He texted Monahan on Jan. 23 and circled back a week later. During a phone interview with Golfweek, Faldo re-read one of the texts. 'Asking about this equity thing, I assume I am on the list,' he wrote.
'Assumptions is the screwup of life, isn't it?' Faldo told Golfweek.
When he didn't hear back, Faldo left Monahan two voice mails. Someone in the Commissioner's office called on his behalf and promised Faldo they'd schedule a call with the commish. That never happened. Finally, at least a month later, he received a letter from Monahan with the Tour's lawyer copied. 'I was disappointed that Jay couldn't man up and call me personally,' Faldo said. 'The letter basically said I haven't played enough and won enough. I guess we were the wrong era.'
How did several Hall of Famers get left out of a category meant to honor the very players that paved the way for the Tour title reach such heights? Jacklin, for one, argued that his generation deserved better. He said he attended all the player meetings leading up to the Tour's split from the PGA of America in 1968 and felt his accomplishments during a pivotal time in the Tour's formation in the late 1960s and early 1970s were ignored.
'Anybody that knows about business knows that the first five years or so are the most vital. They were the best years of my life in terms of my play,' Jacklin said. 'And to think, I was flying the flag for the PGA Tour before the guys who made these decisions were even born. I feel let down. It's deflating just to talk about it. I sit here watching the world go by and it's almost like they consider you a waste of time.'
Jacklin cited Tiger Woods being handed $50 million in Player Impact Program money, bumping the purses from a majority of less than $10 million to a series of eight $20-million signature events (most with no cut) and the Commissioner earning a salary (with bonuses) of $23 million a year as examples of the Tour's outlandish spending spree since the formation of LIV Golf.
'It's just crazy,' said Jacklin, whose point total likely was impacted by his decision to split time and support the European Tour (now DP World Tour, of which the PGA Tour owns 40 percent). 'And you've got guys like Allen Geiberger, myself included, we've got nothing and we've got no consideration, either.'
Faldo's omission is the most striking given that he won six majors. But a closer examination of his stats reveals he made only 306 Tour starts. His decision to surrender his Tour card during a fight over the 'Home Circuit release,' which allowed Europeans to play anywhere in the world without special permission from the commissioner as long as they met the minimum of 15 starts on Tour, damaged his chances. Faldo made no more than nine Tour starts in any season between 1987-1994 and that cost him from being in the 36 based on the criteria. [Two-time Masters winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member Bernhard Langer had only three Tour wins during 327 Tour starts, is believed to have missed out on equity shares for much the same reason as neither his European Tour nor PGA Tour Champions success merited any credit in the "Career Points" calculation.]
'Well, hang on a minute, I was world No. 1 for a couple of years, I was PGA Player of the Year in 1990. I was kind of one of the big guys in the late 1980s, early 1990s,' Faldo said. 'I'd like to think my contributions to the Tour were significant enough. Plus, I did 18 years of TV and I don't think I ever said a bad word about the Tour and I supported Jay through LIV. If the Tour thinks I brought no value there's not a lot I can do, simple as that.'
List of 36 has remained a PGA Tour state secret
Why has the Tour refused to publicize the names of the 36 players who received equity shares in the veterans/legends category and treated it with the secrecy of the Skull and Bones Society? When reached for comment for this story, a Tour spokesman said, 'For legal reasons, PGA Tour, PGA Tour Enterprises and the plan participants cannot release or disclose additional information regarding the initial grants, including the initial grants made to PGA Tour members.'
Nobody – not even the players who are qualified – know for sure who is in and who is out because recipients were forced to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements. 'If I get quoted,' Paul Azinger said, 'they might take it away.'
'It's skullduggery,' Jacklin said. 'That is a good word for it.'
Padraig Harrington, a three-time major winner who confirmed he didn't qualify either, was kinder, calling it 'clever.'
'Who the heck is in there?' wondered six-time major winner Lee Trevino, who confirmed he must be somewhere in the top 10.
Nicklaus, Player, Watson, Trevino, Davis Love III and Fred Couples are up north of 120 points, Harrington estimated. When told that Steve Elkington is rumored to have made it, Trevino asked, 'How did he get in?'
That's a good question but the Tour is believed to be treating his two wins at the Players Championship at the same value as his one major, the 1995 PGA Championship, which surely had something to do with it despite the fact the 62-year-old Elkington, who made 565 career starts, isn't a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Padraig Harrington thinks he cracked the equity code
Harrington studied accounting in college and always has had a fascination with numbers. He used to figure out whether skipping an event would help his world ranking and his chances of getting in a major and liked to determine his tee time before they were announced.
Knowing he had played too much in Europe, Harrington, who is sitting on 349 career Tour starts, accepted he wasn't going to enjoy the spoils of equity ownership despite his Hall of Fame stature, but he wanted to crack the code and figured out to the best of his knowledge that majors and the Players earned five points, Tour Championship appearances and World Golf Championship wins three, regular Tour events two and a point for each year of membership on Tour. To get to the bottom of it, he sought out Love III, a veteran player director on the board typically well-versed on the ins and outs of Tour politics.
'When I got back from injury, guys were telling me, 'Watch out for Padraig! He's looking for you.' I was like, 'Why?' One of my buddies said, 'He wants to know how the points work,' ' recalled Love, a 21-time Tour winner, which includes one major, two Players and 791 career Tour starts. 'We sat down and he was spot on.' Before long, players were seeking out Harrington to solve the mystery of whether they could expect to receive shares or not. By Harrington's math, 55 points was the break-even point to make the top 36 and he projected Jeff Sluman, Fred Funk and Lee Janzen on the bubble. He said he could only guess if any or all three of them made it. [The Tour declined to comment due to regulatory reasons.]
Arguably, the most surprising name of the bunch that Golfweek was able to confirm had received an equity grant was 67-year-old John Cook, who had a better-than-most career with 11 Tour titles in 796 starts and another 10 wins on PGA Tour Champions but never claimed a regular tour major. Even he was flabbergasted when he got a call that he had made the cut.
'I don't know how,' said Cook, who calculated his points but didn't know how that stacked up. 'Honestly, I must have been the last guy in.'
Australian David Graham, a World Golf Hall of Fame member and winner of the 1979 PGA Championship and 1981 U.S. Open among his eight Tour titles, was likely among the last guys out. He racked up 304 cuts in 410 career starts and played at least 15 events a year from 1972-1988 — as many as 31 in a season. At least he received a call from PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady to inform him that he didn't make it. Still, Graham remains none too happy with the process and lack of transparency.
'You're telling me with my record that's not good enough?' said Graham, who last month received another milestone recognition as the 2026 honoree for the Memorial by the Captain's Club. 'Give me the math and tell me where I stand. To count the Players as a major is ridiculous.'
Adam Scott said others were unhappy with results
Adam Scott, one of the player directors on the Tour policy member, conceded that Faldo, Graham and Jacklin aren't the only players who have expressed their disappointment at missing out on equity shares. Scott offered the most thorough explanation on why the Players was credited with the same value as one of the four majors despite being generally accepted as a notch below the big four.
'The majors are not the Tour's products. I'm not saying it is a good argument but we're dealing with the Tour here,' he said. 'The equity thing is also about the future as well. Although I wouldn't call it a retention tool, it is something for the future. The idea was for someone like Ludvig Aberg to come in and be able to earn that going forward.
'Although it was meant to be a sign of respect for what that 36 group has done for the Tour, there's always going to be a 37th, no matter how you make it. I've heard from a lot of people that don't like it. There are some current players who haven't won on Tour let alone majors but they got equity and it's right place at the right time. I don't think that makes David or anyone else feel any better.'
It was painted across his face and evident in his body language that Scott felt conflicted that one of his heroes had been left out.
'I'm partial to David. He's a legend from my country. It's a tough spot,' he said. 'What I know is, and again it doesn't make David feel any better, but there's no way I'm pleasing everyone, and I don't get the final say. We included about 70 more people than the original proposal. When the Tour and the bankers and all the people dreaming up this structure for equity came to us, the players said this is not enough. We pushed hard. From the player director side of things, we pushed as hard as we could to include as many as we could and that's how I sleep at night.'
Player equity is a retention tool, not past reward
But Scott pointed out that while the board felt it was important to include those who came before them and paved the way, player equity was conceived as a carrot for the new breed of 20-somethings such as Ludvig Aberg, Nick Dunlap and Aldrich Potgieter to chase — and a potentially lucrative reason not to take guaranteed money to go to LIV.
'I was asked 'Should Jack Nicklaus get the most?'' Scott said. 'I don't think anything the PGA Tour is doing right now is about spending too much time looking in the (rear-view) mirror. It's about building a Tour for the future. Grants to the Legends category was correct and I just don't know how far you can go in giving grants to players of 20 years ago, for example, when it is more about now and looking forward.'
The beef is largely coming from players of 35-plus years. One more player with a legitimate beef is Dave Stockton, a two-time major winner and victorious Ryder Cup captain who won 10 times on Tour. He couldn't recall who he spoke to at the Tour – 'someone in the know,' he said – but he originally was told he made the cut for equity shares only to receive a call later informing him that he was among the first players out.
Stockton's exclusion is even more infuriating to him because he won the 1967 Haig & Haig Scotch Invitational Foursomes with Laurie Hammer at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California. But somewhere along the line the Tour took away credit for it being an official victory. 'I like the sound of 11 wins more than 10, especially since (the foursomes format) it's no different than today's Zurich Classic,' Stockton said of the team event that has counted as an official Tour title since 2017. He wondered if one more victory would've gotten him across the threshold and into the 36.
'But I'm not losing any sleep over it," he said. "You're either appreciated or you're not.'
Attending events carries points in equity system
Much like Tour eligibility criteria, someone is always going to wind up on the outside looking in and disappointed. Where does the Tour draw the line? No matter if the cut off had been 36 or expanded to 48 players, those who didn't make the cut were going to have hard feelings. Yet even the legends who will be rewarded have their gripes. That's because the initial grants vest on an eight-year timeline, which both players and their agents complained of being twice the typical length. There are also multiple checkpoints: 50 percent of the grant value will vest after four years, with an extra 25 percent vesting after six years and the final 25 percent vesting after eight years, as long as players follow the rules. [It also starts being taxable income at the fourth year.]
According to Love, those who don't satisfy the 15-start minimum must perform a minimum of five service events per year, providing an extra incentive for him to keep playing. But if his body doesn't hold up, for a little skin at the table, he and the rest of the 36 are required to do as many as 40 sponsor activities to be fully vested.
According to one source, male participation at the 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony in June was going to be light until members who are also in line to earn equity shares were informed the day before that their attendance at the ceremony would count as two points toward meeting their quota for the year. Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange and Mark O'Meara, who are all believed to be inside the 36, suddenly had their schedules free up and were late additions at the Pinehurst ceremony. As such, sponsors have been given a list of legends who need to "provide services" and can be used for sponsorship activation. A common complaint among some of the 36 players, who have been asked to jump through these additional hoops, is best summed up by one player trying to play by the rules: 'Haven't we already done all this shit!'
Speaking at a sponsor function during the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa late last year, 89-year-old Gary Player delivered a resounding verdict that was recorded and went viral.
'The first payment we're gonna get is when I'm 91. Will I be alive? I hope so,' he said. 'Jack Nicklaus, I don't know whether he will be. The second payment is when you're 98.'
And of the likes of Jacklin, Graham and Stockton being left out – he also mentioned Larry Nelson but Golfweek confirmed with him during a phone interview that Player was mistaken and Nelson is among the 36 to receive equity – Player added, 'Can you imagine how they feel just being discarded like that?'
More recently, Player elaborated on his previous comments to Golfweek. 'I spoke from the heart to stand up for the many great players who helped build the game into what it is today,' he said. 'Legends like David Graham, Tony Jacklin and many others played pivotal roles in growing the game globally. Their contributions, both on and off the course, shaped generations and opened doors for the players of today. While I understand this program is focused on rewarding loyalty during a complex moment in professional golf, I do believe it's important that we don't forget those who paved the way long before this current era.'
While Player said he respected the leadership of the PGA Tour and the challenges being navigated, he added, 'My hope is simply that as decisions are made about the future, we continue to honor the past. Golf is a game of tradition, and those traditions were built by many hands.'
Will new CEO Brian Rolapp add legacy wrinkles?
Perhaps recently named Tour CEO Brian Rolapp will make a better effort to honor the likes of Jacklin, Graham and Geiberger and others who can use a helping hand and not just ensure that the rich get richer. Faldo resorted to his brand of dry English humor to try to ease his disappointment that longevity and loyalty were of foremost importance in rewarding one final Tour payday.
'It sounds like it's participation prizes over winning, doesn't it?' Faldo said. 'My goodness, it does seem to be the way it's going.'