PGA Championship 2026: Here's the record prize money payout for each golfer at Aronimink
· Yahoo Sports
The rapid rise in prize money payouts in golf have been a provocative topic in all circles of the sport. The launch of LIV Golf and its megamillion-dollar purses forced the PGA Tour to offer more as well, creating exponential leaps that in the short run made sense to stave off a looking competitor but in the long run created questions of fiscal sustainability. Meanwhile, caught in the backdraft were the major championships, previously sporting among the largest paydays in the game only to fall behind and have to make tough decisions on whether they’d increase their purses at a similar rate. New R&A chief Mark Darbon lamented the problem, noting the zero-sum effect that increase in prize money have on funding the governing bodies other initiatives.
Not surprisingly, then, when new PGA of America CEO Terry Clark met with the media for the first time on Wednesday ahead of the PGA Championship, he, too, was asked about purses and how much longer they could continue going up. The topic came with a subtle change in context given LIV Golf’s uncertain future now that the PIF won’t be funding them past this year and whether prize money payout had finally plateaued.
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The specific question for Clark was what was his approach in general to making sure the PGA Championship continues competitive with its purse but staying financially responsible? Here’s his response:
“Yeah, it's a balanced approach. … We're really focused on all aspects of how do we improve and continue to look at improvement at the assets we have, including PGA Championships. This is a really important one. Obviously, it's something we look at every year.”
Despite the cautious tone, the PGA of America announced on Saturday morning that this year's prize money payout would be a record $20 million, a $1 million increase from a year ago, with the winner earning $3.69 million. However, this still puts the PGA Championship third highest among the majors behind the U.S. Open ($21.5 million) and the Masters ($21.5 million last month 2026). The Open Championship paid out $17 million at Royal Portrush last July.
Clark, on the job since January, said the decision on prize money isn’t necessarily tied to what the other majors payout or what the PGA Tour does with its $20 million signature events and $25 million Players Championship payday.
“It's not always in comparison to all of those,” Clark said. “It's what are the factor that's make sense. We do look at it as an annual focus around how do we get at competitive purses.”
For the curious, here’s a quick look at the history of the prize money payout at the PGA Championship:
Year: Winner's Pay, Total Purse 1916: $500, $2,580 (first year of the event) 1931: $1,000, $7,200 (first year winner's pay increased) 1953: $5,000, $20,700 (first year winner's pay was $5K) 1958: $5,500, $39,388 (first year of stroke play, also the winner's amount actually decreased that year) 1965: $25,000, $149,700 1978: $50,000, $300,240 1983: $100,000, $608,099 1988: $160,000, $1,000,000 (first year with a $1M total purse) 1993: $300,000, $1,702,750 1998: $540,000, $2,886,800 2000: $900,000, $5,031,100 (first year with a $5M total purse) 2003: $1,080,000, $5,938,300 (first year with $1M-plus to the winner) 2009: $1,350,000, $7,484,500 2014: $1,800,000, $9,913,000 2018: $1,980,000, $11 million 2021: $2,160,000, $12 million 2022: $2,700,000, $15 million 2023: $3,150,000, $17 million 2024: $3,300,000, $18 million 2025: $3,420,000, $19 million
Here's the prize money payout for each golfer this year. Come back after play ends on Sunday and we'll update the list with names and individual paydays:
Win: $3,690,000
2: $2,214,000
3: $1,394,000
4: $984,000
5: $820,000
6: $727,600
7: $681,050
8: $636,400
9: $593,700
10: $553,000
11: $514,160
12: $477,300
13: $442,370
14: $409,390
15: $378,340
16: $349,240
17: $322,080
18: $296,850
19: $273,570
20: $252,230
21: $232,830
22: $215,370
23: $199,840
24: $187,230
25: $175,110
26: $163,460
27: $152,310
28: $141,640
29: $131,450
30: $121,750
31: $113,990
32: $107,200
33: $101,380
34: $96,530
35: $92,650
36: $88,960
37: $85,370
38: $81,880
39: $78,480
40: $75,180
41: $71,980
42: $68,880
43: $65,870
44: $62,960
45: $60,150
46: $57,430
47: $54,810
48: $52,290
49: $49,860
50: $47,540
51: $45,300
52: $43,170
53: $41,130
54: $39,190
55: $37,350
56: $35,600
57: $33,950
58: $32,600
59: $31,430
60: $30,460
61: $29,690
62: $29,120
63: $28,640
64: $28,180
65: $27,740
66: $27,310
67: $26,890
68: $26,480
69: $26,080
70: $25,690
71: $25,360
72: $25,040
73: $24,730
74: $24,530
75: $24,230
76: $24,230
77: $24,130
78: $24,040
79: $23,970
80: $23,930
81: $23,910
82: $23,900
Players missing the cut and turning in a 36-hole score will be paid $4,300 each. Any player making the cut, but failing to submit a 72-hole score, will also be paid $4,300.
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