How Much Could The PGA Tour Players Earn This Year

As we edge closer to the season-ending 2023 Tour Championship, in his latest View From The Fairway, Derek Clements analyses how much the PGA Tour players could win this year and asks how much is too much?

IF money makes the world go around, you can be pretty sure that the planet’s best golfers have no plans to stop the globe from spinning anytime soon.

The prize fund for 2023 FedEx Cup is a staggering $75m. That is the same amount as last year, but there is a crucial difference - 12 months ago, the money was split between 125 players, this time it will be divided between just 70 golfers. And instead of having to play a total of four playoff events, this year the winner will only have played in three, culminating in the Tour Championship, after which all the goodies are handed out.

Last year, that prize was worth a cool $18m to Rory McIlroy. The winner will collect the same sum this time.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

And the runner-up gets $6.5m, with the man in third place pocketing $5m, all the way down to just $500,000 for the man who finishes in 30th place at East Lake.

There’s more. Of course there is. The top 10 players in the standings before the St Jude Classic shared $20m via the Comcast Bonus. Jon Rahm collected $4m.

After the Wyndham Championship, a cheque for $1m was deposited into Tyrrell Hatton’s bank account after he won the season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge, finishing a cumulative 23 under par across 26 designated challenge holes played throughout the season.

And every player who took part in at least 15 tournaments will also be handed $50,000. Just for turning up!

Then there is the Player Impact Programme. This is all about the profiles of players and the way they interact on social media - or, rather, the way that the public interacts with them. It was launched in 2021 and was won by Tiger Woods and he won it again last year, earning $15m for the privilege. You will recall that Woods played little or no golf in either of those years as he continued his rehab from the road accident that nearly caused his leg to be amputated.

Woods finished 45th at the Genesis Invitational and then limped through two rounds at The Masters In April before withdrawing and has played no competitive golf since. Do you want to place a bet right now on who will be collecting the top Player Impact Program prize? You can’t blame Woods - he is a man who has moved the needle throughout his storied career, and continues to do so.

And it has been announced that the winner of next year’s FedEx Cup will walk away with $25m.

Before hitting a shot at the first of the three FedEx Cup playoff events this year, Scottie Scheffler had on-course earnings of  $19,138,342,Jon Rahm had $16,295,608, and Rory McIlroy $11,771,008. Michael Kim, in 79th place on the money list, won $2m, while Lucas Herbert, in 123rd place, picked up $1m.

Next season will see 36 tournaments, eight of which will be so-called “signature” events with limited fields. In other words, the elite will be receiving even more money.

Those include three player-hosted invitationals - The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial - which will have a 36-hole cut and increased prize money. The other five - The Sentry, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship, and Travelers Championship - will have no cut. I seem to recall that when LIV Golf launched its 54-hole schedule, one of the main criticisms from the PGA Tour was that the tournaments were limited field and had no 36-hole cut. It seems that what goes around comes around.

The point of all of this is to highlight just how much money is sloshing around on the PGA Tour. How much is too much? Apparently we haven’t arrived at that sum yet.

Of course, the numbers have increased since the arrival of LIV Golf and the world’s top players will point to professional footballers and tennis players as examples of sportsmen who earn more money than they can possibly ever spend.

However, it is worth pointing out that although prize money and off-court earrings in tennis are just about the same for men and women, the same certainly cannot be said for the world of golf, or football for that matter.

When Celine Boutier won the Scottish Women’s Open at Dundonald, it was her third LPGA victory of the year, two of which were majors. And her prize money? $2,051,834.  Ahead of the Women’s Open she also led the Ladies European Tour money list with just under one million euros. Aditi Ashok, in second place, had earned 527,808 euros, with Celine Borge, in third place, on just 276,323 euros.

The gap is huge and it looks like it is only going to increase. Oh, and there are still plans to give a loyalty bonus to all PGA Tour players who opted not to join the LIV circus. So I have to conclude by asking: has the PGA Tour and its members lost touch with reality?