The PGA Tour’s Great Resignation
A few years ago, we received a phone call from a manager in the financial services space who was concerned about the diminishing morale of his team. Despite what he considered to be a “robust” employee recognition program, colleagues increasingly felt undervalued, unappreciated, and even, at certain times, invisible.
Using the tools of active inquiry, I dove right in: “What more can you tell me about your employee recognition program?”
“Oh, folks love it,” he said earnestly. “We give the top performer a water bottle at the end of every month.”
He wasn’t joking.
Fans of professional golf have, by now, heard about the upstart LIV Golf League, which kicked off its first competitive round in London a couple of weeks ago. The new league has made headlines for two prominent reasons: the enormous signing bonuses (sometimes in the 9-figure range) offered for players to defect from golf’s preeminent professional tour, the PGA, and because LIV is financed through the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.
Several marquee names have made the switch in recent weeks and, reportedly, more defections are imminent. In addition to the hefty paycheck, LIV offers players a few key perks: fewer tournaments a year, no missed cuts (golfers who are eliminated halfway through a tournament for not scoring high enough), and a modified format in which players can earn money for both individual and team performance. Let’s be honest though, if a third league popped up with the same perks but not the hefty paycheck, it’s unlikely many players would make the switch. Money was, and still is, likely the key motivating factor.
Professional golf is an odd business, and the exodus of players from golf’s legacy tour to LIV can be likened, in some ways, to the Great Resignation. Sure, a number of Americans left career positions in search of more meaningful work, but many left their job in search of better pay and/or treatment from their employer.
A $1 million winner’s check is hardly the same thing as a water bottle for the PGA’s top performer of the week, but most players earn far less. Golf is notoriously expensive, especially at the elite level. Tour members pay well over $100,000 every year to maintain their status at the top: coaching, caddie fees, travel, living expenses, etc.
Professional golfers are merely contractors with little job security, and money is only doled out to those who win or finish high enough up the leader board. Sure, there are sponsorships available, but that money dries up fast with no guarantee of any future money earned. Consider that in a PGA tournament, a missed cut means that half of the competitors receive no pay at all. Unless you’re at the very, very top, the economics of pro golf are poor.
To compound matters, the PGA’s response to LIV’s rise can only be described as vindictive, petulant, and oblivious. Players who already moved to LIV have been indefinitely suspended from PGA events (important caveat for golf enthusiasts, that does not include Major tournaments). Players considering a future move were threatened with further not-yet-defined disciplinary action. And all associated with LIV were lambasted by PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan for disloyalty. It was ugly.
There is undoubtedly a lot to unpack with the ethics and finances of LIV Golf, content that extends well beyond the scope of this newsletter. But in the broader professional context of employers struggling to understand the departures of top talent, let’s at least acknowledge we shouldn’t attack colleagues for being ungrateful about their water bottle.
As we've learned from the Great Resignation, further reflection is required.
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Co-authored by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans was published by the Hachette Book Group under the PublicAffairs imprint on September 21, 2021. Now available to order!
