Jason Day has slipped to 114 in the world rankings and managed just two top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2022.
But the veteran Australian still rates among the top-20 players who “generate the most positive interest” in the tour and earnt a $3m payday, nearly three times his on-course earnings this year as a result.
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Day and fellow Aussie Adam Scott both picked up the cheques as part of the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program (PIP), which handed out a mammoth $150m in rewards to players based on a series of data measurements.
Tiger Woods was No.1 for the second straight year, the 82-time Tour winner earning the top impact bonus of $22m despite teeing it up just three times in 2022.
World No.1 Rory McIlroy, who won the FedExCup for an unprecedented third time and over the weekend captured the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, finished second.
The second-year PIP program paid the top 20 finishers, double what it did in its first year, rewarding members who drive the most internet searches, gain TV exposure for sponsors and generate a strong social media presence.
Despite wining a breakthrough major championship at the British Open, as well as The Players Championship and being No.3 in the world, Aussie Cameron Smith was ineligible after making his own big-money move to Greg Norman’s LIV Golf.
Day, 35, hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since 2018 and his best finish in 2022 was tied for third at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. He also missed seven cuts in the 21 events he contested.
Scott, the world No.34, also didn’t win in 2022 but had seven top-10 finishes.
In Australia to finish his year at the PGA and then the Australian Open, Scott said it has been a “frustrating” time but was adamant there were more wins in his future.
“Things haven’t gone exactly my way and when that’s not happening at a competitive level, that’s frustrating,” he said.
“This year I’ve certainly made some good moves in turning it around and I’m feeling good about where my own game’s going, so I’m generally reinvigorated to kind of finish off what I set out to do in my career.”
