With $23 million in earnings, PGA Tour’s Jay Monahan ranks high among powerful sports commissioners | Golf news and tourist information

An examination of the PGA Tour’s 2023 tax return has revealed that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan earned more than $23 million that year, including bonuses and deferred compensation.

As first reported by Sportico, which received the tour’s tax return upon request, Monahan had a base salary of $1,887,096, with bonuses and incentives of $12.1 million, retirement benefits of $2.5 million and long-term incentives of $6.7 million. As noted on Sportico’s tour, the last two figures are deferred earnings and their value could change in the future.

In comparison, Monahan’s total earnings were $18.4 million in 2022.

The 2023 tax return covers the six months before and after the tour announced in the summer that it had signed a framework agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which operates the rival LIV Golf League. The agreement, reached in private meetings, came as a surprise to PGA Tour players, and Monahan received heavy criticism from some for the way he handled the situation. Monahan later took more than a month of leave due to what he later described as “mental and physical” challenges.

Seventeen months later, the PGA Tour and PIF still have not reached an agreement as they continue to negotiate.

Monahan runs a multi-billion dollar entity. The tax filing revealed that PGA Tour Inc., which has nonprofit status, had $1.82 billion in earned revenue in 2023 and $2.52 billion in sales of non-inventory assets, for a total of $4 .33 billion.

Monahan’s earnings compare favorably with those of other professional sports commissioners, whose compensation is often estimated because they do not have to publicly disclose their earnings. Although the NFL’s Roger Goodell is far apart from other leaders, with reported earnings of $63.9 million in 2021, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred earns around $25 million, including bonuses, while that Adam Silver of the NBA and Gary Bettman of the NHL receive $10 million each.

In golf, the LPGA’s 2022 tax return reported that commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan earned $985,494.