You're right. I entirely forgot about those manufactured (in an innocent way) events... when most of the pro's had to pay their own way to have a chance to enter. The participants were usually the same group of guys... who tended to be past their prime.
Even golf fans (other than the snobbish writers) don't give two craps about the FedEx Cup.
Frankly, I give a damn about rewarding wins, especially in major championships. The events in L.A., Fort Worth, Detroit, etc. raise a ton of money for local charities, while rewarding the players. I believe the PGA Tour has helped contribute to donating over $2 billion to charitable ventures, mostly local since its founding.
But this is a new development from early in the year:
Exclusive: PGA Tour to create $40 million bonus pool for stars like Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau
The PGA Tour has created a lucrative bonus structure that will reward golf’s biggest stars regardless of how they perform on the course, Golfweek has learned. The new system is designed to compensate players who are judged to drive fan and sponsor engagement, like Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau and Rickie Fowler.
A PGA Tour spokesperson confirmed to Golfweek that the Player Impact Program began January 1 to “recognize and reward players who positively move the needle.” At the end of the year, a pool of $40 million will be distributed among 10 players, with the player deemed most valuable receiving $8 million.
The 10 beneficiaries will be determined based on their “Impact Score,” a number generated from six separate metrics that are designed to quantify that individual’s added value. According to a document the PGA Tour distributed to players, the contents of which were shared with Golfweek, the metrics on which players will be ranked against their peers include:
(1) Their position on the season-ending FedEx Cup points list.
*Update: While FedEx Cup rank was included among criterion in the document players received, the tour tells Golfweek that it will not be used as a metric to determine bonus payments.
(2) Their popularity in Google Search
(3) Their Nielsen Brand Exposure rating, which places a value on the exposure a player delivers to sponsors though the minutes they are featured on broadcasts.
(4) Their Q Rating, which measures the familiarity and appeal of a player’s brand.
(5) Their MVP Index rating, which calibrates the value of the engagement a player drives across social and digital channels.
(6) Their Meltwater Mentions, or the frequency with which a player generates coverage across a range of media platforms.
The Tour will employ an algorithm to turn the values from each metric into Impact Scores for every player and a ranking of those Scores then determines the bonus amount due.
https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2021/04/20/pga-tour-bonus-pool-top-players-tiger-woods-bryson-dechambeau/In other words, if players get lots of social media cred (Rickie Fowler, Bryson, obviously Tigger), they win a huge pot of honey from this pool.