Tiger teases Phil after topping $40m PIP money grab

Is there anything the man can’t do? Tiger Woods hasn’t played an official PGA Tour golf tournament since the 2020 Masters and yet the former World No.1 has won the PGA Tour’s first-ever Player Impact Program.

The Tour announced that the 15-time major champion has secured the $8 million first prize out of a pool of $40 million on offer for the top-10 ‘most popular’ players across several metrics including social media.

Tiger and Charlie Woods celebrate at the 2021 PNC Championship (Credit: PGA Tour)

And who did Woods hold out of the top spot? None other than Phil Mickelson, who had previously declared a somewhat tongue-in-cheek victory on December 29th last year.

“I’d like to thank all the crazies (and real supporters too) for helping me win the PiP!!” tweeted Mickelson.

“To get the 2nd half of the money I have to add an event I haven’t played in a while. See you in Kapalua.”

Friends and foes for more than 20 years, Woods wasted no time in pointing out Mickelson’s premature celebrations, retweeting the 51-year-old’s original post and adding the words “whoops” along with two shrugging emojis.

Still, Mickelson won’t be too unhappy with his second placing given the $6 million cheque on offer is more than he won all year on both the PGA and Champions Tour last year.

Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas earned $3.5 million each for third to sixth place while Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and, surprisingly, Bubba Watson all take home a cool $3 million for 7th to 10th place.

While Woods hasn’t been seen on the PGA Tour, he dominated the golfing headlines late last year when he returned to play the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie. The pair finished in second place behind Team Daly and no doubt earned several extra PIP millions in the process.