In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and cancelations of several tournaments, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is forgoing his salary, several executives are taking pay cuts and all of the tour’s employees are seeing their pay frozen to 2019 levels, a PGA Tour source confirmed to ESPN.
Monahan, who became commissioner in 2017, told the Player Advisory Council of his decision on Tuesday, with executive pay cuts and staff freezes decided on Thursday, according to the source.
The news was first reported by Golfweek.
Monahan’s pay halt will be indefinite. Several executives are taking 25 percent pay cuts, which is also indefinite. Monahan and the executives volunteered these cuts during a board call on Thursday.
According to Golfweek, Monahan’s compensation via the PGA Tour’s latest available tax filing in 2017 was $3.9-million, which included salary, bonuses and incentives.
On March 12, Monahan announced that the tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, was being canceled after just one round. He also announced the cancelation of four upcoming tournaments: the Valspar Championship, WGC-Dell Match Play Championship, Punta Cana Championship and Valero Texas Open.
This week, four more tournaments were canceled: the RBC Heritage, Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Wells Fargo Championship and AT&T Byron Nelson.
The Masters and PGA Championship — which are not run by the PGA Tour — have for now been postponed. That means the earliest that the PGA Tour schedule could resume is late May.