If you suddenly see more tweets and posts from your favorite golfers popping up in your timeline, then the PGA Tour’s plan is working. The Tour is trying to harness the power of its best advertising tool, the players, by rewarding them for bringing attention to the game.
The goal of what the Tour is calling the Player Impact Program is to encourage players to drive engagement with fans and sponsors. Those that do so successfully will earn a portion of the Tour’s special $40 million bonus pool.
Only 10 players will reap the rewards of their efforts, with whoever “moves the needle” the most earning a cool $8 million. To earn a portion of the pool, players will have to rank among the top 10 according to the following metrics, according to an official PGA Tour document obtained by Golfweek:
· Their position on the season-ending FedEx Cup points list.
· Their popularity in Google search.
· The Nielsen Brand Exposure rating, which places a value on the exposure a player delivers to sponsors through the minutes they are featured on broadcasts.
· Their 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.
· Their Meltwater Mentions, or the frequency with which a player generates coverage across a range of media platforms.
While the FedEx points were included as a metric, it is not expected to hold nearly as much weight as the others.
It is not going to be too hard to figure out who will take home the money. What the PGA Tour has essentially set up is a popularity contest to reward its best players, but the Tour is not doing so because it wants to make the rich a little richer.
No, the PGA Tour is trying to keep the better player from jumping ship and signing with the Premier Golf League (scheduled to launch in 2022). The PGL has been trying to lure players away from the PGA with the promise of guaranteed money.
While the PGL’s efforts have been largely unsuccessful, the Tour does not want to take any chances.
So, what does this mean for people looking to place a bet on who will win the next tournament? It means you may not be thinking about a player because he has a great chance of winning the tournament.
Photo Credit: Google Creative Common Licenses, Wikimedia
