So if I'm getting this right: if Pro X signs for $100M, he gets that money, but he has to "win" $100M in LIV events before he can earn more via tourney payouts. Is that correct?
Pretty sweet deal still.
Like I said above, it's like a book advance. You get paid X amount (say, $10,000) and that's guaranteed money in your pocket. But then you don't get any MORE money until the book sells enough for the company to recoup its costs, including your initial $10,000. THEN you start making royalties on sales after that. So the publisher is taking a bit of a risk giving you the $10,000 right off the top without selling anything. They have confidence (not always borne out of course) that they'll sell enough of your books to make money despite giving you that advance.
Sounds like LIV is operating the same way, but, uh, with much bigger dollars. You get an "advance" (or guarantee) of $100 million, and no matter how well or poorly you play, you're guaranteed that money. But then you win a tournament and get $4 million for first prize, and that comes "out of" your $100 million that's guaranteed. You won't see another dime beyond $100 million unless you play well enough to win $100 million on the LIV tour. Which would be winning 25 tournaments at $4m apiece (obviously there are lower prize amounts for lower finishes but that's the principle). Even at the inflated dollar figures for these LIV events, it'll take a guy like Cam Smith a long time to win $100 million, and then be able to collect more money from LIV.
Clearly for guys getting these huge guarantees, it's going to take a TON of great play over a long period of time to "win" enough money to cover their $100 million guarantee. So there's not a ton of incentive to really go for it. Cam's got his $100 million and that's more than he'd ever have made on the PGA Tour probably, so he doesn't have crazy incentives to really grind, other than the fact that he's a hell of a competitor.
But there are lesser guys on the LIV tour for whom the prize money DOES matter. The guys maybe getting guaranteed only like $10 million... if they can win a couple of LIV events, and relatively quickly cover their guarantee, all of a sudden they can start making a lot more money than that guarantee. So they won't view these events as glorified exhibitions. The money will actually matter to them because instead of it coming off their huge guarantee, for them they'll actually be earning more money.
Hope that all makes sense.
It's a weird system, but not terribly dissimilar from the publishing world.