Anyone that thinks the top players on the PGA Tour aren't taking money and gifts from tournament sponsors to show up and play at their events needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Not so much Tier 1 tournaments, such as Riviera, Bay Hill, Memorial, etc., but tier 2 and below. We're not talking title sponsored players who are obligated to play in these events either, but non-title sponsored players.
Take the Rocket Mortgate Classic, for example. Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Bryson DeChambeau (before he left for LIV) were all Rocket Mortgage sponsored players. Thus, as part of their contract obligation, they were required to show up to a tournament they probably didn't really want to play all that bad given where it was held and where it fell on the calendar. Unfortunately for Rocket Mortgage (Quicken Loans), the three of them alone aren't enough to attract significant enough interest in the event from locals in and around the Detroit area (myself included) and potential corporate suite sponsors, so they paid any number of non-Rocket Mortgage sponsored golfers to commit to playing their event, e.g. Cantlay, Finau, Hideki, Scott, Homa, Zalatoris, etc. That's the only way these secondary tournaments can make it, as it at least gives the appearance to prospective fans and corporate suite holders that they are fielding a legitimate, high-level professional golf tournament. To think otherwise is being disingnueous and for as much as I and others don't care for Bubba Watson the player/person, he speaks the truth regarding the Tours dirty underbelly that's been in existence for years, if not decades.