If PGA Tour Champions players were upset when their pension allocation was reduced last year, they're downright furious now that the Tour has eliminated it altogether.
"It went from $10 million to $8 million and now it's zero," said three-time Champions Tour winner Billy Andrade, 62. "You've got all these millions flowing everywhere for Championship Series, this series, that series, for all these leagues this guy [Tour CEO Brian Rolapp] is creating, and then they're taking this money that has been designated to these Champions players. These are the players who helped make the Tour what it is today and helped create the jobs that executives and current players enjoy ... It's actually criminal."
Andrade wasn't alone. Several players wondered if
the Tour's pension plan had just received a haircut. The answer to that would be a hard "no."
"They're playing for $20 million almost every week [on the PGA Tour] and they can't afford $10 million for our pension? It's a bad look, in my opinion, and I think most of the guys out here feel that way," said David Toms, the 2001 PGA Championship winner who's an ex-PGA Tour policy board member and currently serves on the PGA Tour Champions Player Advisory Council.
"It's absolutely terrible what they did to us Champions Tour players," said Scott McCarron. "To just take it away and not have a way to get it back, I think is terrible. I'm really upset with the leadership of the PGA Tour, [Commissioner] Jay Monahan and Brian Rolapp in particular."
Some would argue that playing for $69 million in prize money this season is a pretty good retirement plan for players who receive a second competitive career beginning at age 50. Still, the pension program dates to 1985, when senior tour players relied more heavily on retirement benefits. It began with a $250,000 allocation and has always been approved on a year-to-year basis.
The program was suspended in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, although some of that money was redistributed through two Charles Schwab Series events at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, each with a $3 million purse.
PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady delivered the latest news at the circuit's first player meeting of the season. He said the long-term goal is for the Champions Tour to stand on its own financially rather than rely on funding from the PGA Tour.
"We've gotten to the point where we are making money for the organization, and if we can do better, we can reinvest in ourselves," Brady said. "It may take a while, but the financial performance of this tour is as good as it has ever been."
Brady continued: "While you never want to take anything away from the players, they also understand. They get it. I told the guys, it's my job to raise prize money over time, and we've slowly started to do that. For a long time, we were just happy to renew sponsors."
Brady said the Champions Tour's brand has gained momentum and that his team is focused not only on renewing existing sponsorships or signing new ones, but on doing so at higher levels. New tournaments such as the Portugal Invitational and the Sony Championship Open in Hawaii, which is scheduled to debut in 2027, have committed to $3 million purses. That figure is matched by only two other regular-season events, along with the season-ending championships and the five senior majors. The purse for most other tournaments is between $1.8 million and $2.2 million.
"To me, that raises the bar for everyone else," Brady said.
Champions Tour golfers previously earned retirement credits by finishing among the top 48 in an event. Players also had to compete in at least 12 tournaments during a season to qualify. It could amount to a pretty penny for supporting the 50-and-older circuit. For years, the PGA Tour subsidized the Champions Tour, but the circuit has gradually moved toward financial self-sufficiency.
"The PGA Tour is a business. The powers that be are trying to run it like a business," said Paul Goydos, a former PGA Tour Champions policy board member. "The books are what they are. You can't run deficit spending. Is it disappointing? Yes. It's not good, but it's understandable."
A recurring theme cited by nearly every player was the PGA Tour's transition from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit enterprise backed by private equity investors. Strategic Sports Group invested $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises and expects a return on that investment. Players believe that financial reality has contributed to the decision to eliminate the retirement program.
"That was the reason," McCarron said. "We've got to figure out a way to be profitable so we can fund ourselves."
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour Champions players slam pension elimination: 'It's actually criminal'
