The PGA Tour filed the 990 form for 2024 and has made it publicly available for the first time. As fans scroll through pages of data, they have found that Tiger Woods, who hasn’t played on the Tour consistently, remains the single highest-paid individual.

Surprisingly enough, Woods has received $29.2 million in compensation for his last year’s work on the Tour.

It should be noted that Woods is not just a golfer on the Tour anymore. Due to his extensive fame and expertise, he holds sizeable power in the structure. This includes the dual role of Player Director as well as the Vice Chairman of PGA Tour Enterprise. These roles were accepted by him, reportedly, in 2023-24, respectively.

The form shows that his almost $30 M salary has two components. $18.3 M comes into his account as reportable compensation, and the rest, $10.9 M, has been labelled as “other income.” In nonprofit reporting terms, this split is rather significant. The latter often includes board-related benefits that Woods might be enjoying. It can also have deferred compensation arrangements, as well as allowances tied to his governing responsibilities. All this is in addition to the traditional salary components.

But if one wants to understand why this compensation exists in the first place, they’ll have to look at the restructuring that the Tour had last year. In January, as part of several changes, the PGA Tour Enterprise (PGAT) was created as a for-profit entity. Its main task was to house the Tour’s entire commercial operations: from media rights to sponsorships and more. Remember the $3 B investment by the Strategic Sports Group (SSG)? This is where it went.

Further down, you’ll notice that more than 25% of the Tour’s assets were shifted into this new entity. At the same time, the nonprofit PGA Tour retained 93% ownership of the PGA Tour Enterprises LLC. In simpler terms, with the shift in revenue, new organizational positions emerged that needed the eyes of an expert.

That’s exactly how Tiger Woods came into this picture.

There’s another reason why this number might look large. The pay is massive due to a strategic reason. Woods famously turned down a LIV Golf offer, which was somewhere in the range of $700-$800M. Later, when SSG made an initial investment, $1 B in equity was distributed among 193 players. Woods received the single largest grant of $100M, vesting over eight years. Naturally, this was nothing but a retention mechanism. A hope and request that Woods would remain institutionally invested with the Tour during its troubled times with LIV and the PIF.

Now, as the Vice Chairman of the 13-member PGA Tour Enterprise Board, Woods sits just beneath the CEO, Brian Rolapp. He has also been given the chairman position of the Future Competition Committee, an added workload that made him pass on the 2025 Ryder Cup captaincy.

With all this in mind, Tiger Woods’ salary might make sense. But if one reflects, the number gets larger.

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Tiger Woods – the largest power holder?

Who do you think holds the most power in the PGA Tour? If your answer is CEO Brian Rolapp, you are not too far off. Ideally, he should. But as he joined just this year, his compensation is not included on the list, while his predecessor’s is.

Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s ex-commissioner, received $19.2 M as salary last year. Ron Price (now retired), the COO, took home $13.2 M. Further, there are 375 employees on the Tour in 2024. As per the filings, they received a total compensation of $104.18 M. That’s an average of more than $277k per employee. In retrospect, Woods earned more than a quarter of the entire payroll. That’s 105 times the average employee salary!

But what should also be noted is that while Tiger Woods received $100 M in equity last year, it is vested over eight years following a specific structure. 50% vests after 4 years, 75% after 6, and 100% after 8 years. The schedule means that this equity will only have a real cash value if and when PGA Tour Enterprises is sold or merged. The likelihood of that remains doubtful with the LIV-PGA Tour merger standing at a halt.

If Woods leaves or quits, or the structure changes before any such payout, he loses the invested portion. This is like a golden handcuff. It financially ties Tiger to the PGA Tour long-term.