Am I the only person close to appalled to learn that the winner of the PGA Tour’s much-hyped FedEx Cup playoffs won’t get to pocket the $10 million winner’s check when he walks off the green at the World Golf Championships next month? The money, instead, will go into a “retirement fund” which the golfer can’t touch until between the ages of 45 and 60, depending on how many tournaments they play during this time.
Huh?
I learned this little detail from WorldGolf.com’s Chris Baldwin, who reports it today in his first dispatch from the Westchester Country Club, host of the first FedEx Cup event, The Barclays.
Who are these pro golfers, teenagers? This reminds me of when I was young and I used to get $100 every year from an uncle in the form of a bond that I couldn’t touch until I was something like 25 or 30. Thanks a lot, Uncle Smitty.
A retirement fund?
Does the PGA Tour really think most of these players need a retirement fund? Outside of Brandt Snedeker - who, let’s face it, is probably happy to be anywhere - and a few others, many of the players competing in these new playoffs are already millionaires.
(Actually, my bad, Snedeker has won $2.6 million this year. I’m betting he knows that he shouldn’t spend all of that in one go. He’s no John Daly, after all.)
The PGA Tour is going to look pretty stupid telling Tiger Woods - should he win - that he needs to put his $10 million check into such a fund. He’s 31, worth around $1 billion and probably couldn’t spend all of his money if he tried.
It doesn’t make sense to me why the PGA Tour would be touting its FedEx Cup as the biggest paycheck in professional sports knowing full well that the winner is going to be pocketing any money outright. Should some no-name luck out and actually win this thing, by far the largest paycheck he’ll ever get in his career, the Tour is going to tell him he’ll have to wait 15 years to enjoy it?
And what of the players, like K.J. Choi, who would give the money away to charity?
I suspect the PGA Tour is going to come under some fire for this FedEx Cup in general, but this little caveat on the winner’s check is something so profoundly stupid that it threatens to turn the whole event into joke.
I for one would love to see a PGA Tour official asked about this and explain the reasoning behind this retirement fund idea. What big brain over there came up with it?
Here’s hoping Chris Baldwin, in his continuing live coverage of The Barclays, gets some answers for us.
WorldGolf.com's Jeff White is based in Berlin, Germany, and writes on all matters of golf and travel, with a particular emphasis on the European golf scene, keeping you informed about what's happening on and off the golf course.
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