How much is winning really worth?
It's time for the PGA Tour to take a hard look at modifying its purse payout breakdown
Did Scottie Scheffler make what he was worth for seven wins in 2024? (Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
Winning on the PGA Tour is HARD!
It will only get more challenging as the fields become more competitive with the reduction in field sizes and the exempt status category from 125 to 100 players starting in 2026.
Add in the fact that almost every player wants to slim down the schedule, which has occurred over the last 10 years, with the Tour Championship finale finishing before the NFL season begins.
Last year, the FedEx Cup competition reverted to the calendar-year season, starting on January 4 and included 39 events over a span of eight months before its Sept. 1 finish.
The 2014-15 wrap-around PGA Tour season started in October 12, 2014, and ended 50 weeks later on Sept. 27, 2015, at East Lake. That season consisted of 47 events over 11½ months.
With the best players focused on playing in the eight signature events, four majors and three FedEx Playoff events, the fields for the remaining 24 events will be a mix of a few top players and those at the bottom of the FedEx Cup points list.
The bottom line is that all these changes will create a more competitive PGA Tour with more competitive events — at least that’s the theory.
Assuming that theory proves correct, should the winner see a bigger share of the purse?
The signature-event purse at this week’s relocated Genesis Invitational is $20 million — the same as it was two weeks ago for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But instead of the $3.6 million that Rory McIlroy collected for winning at Pebble, the winner this week at Torrey Pines will take home $4 million. That’s 20 percent of the purse, an increase from the usual 18 percent that the PGA Tour has been paying winners for decades.
“If you look at this tournament, you’ve got a cut, you’ve got the winner making more of a percentage, it’s got Tiger all over it,” McIlroy said of the moves implemented by Genesis tournament host Tiger Woods. “They’re things that he has probably advocated for a long time, which is when you’ve won 82 times out here, you would want more of a percentage when you win.”
So, is 20 percent the proper number? Should it be even higher?
In 1953, Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open at Oakmont by six shots over Sam Snead, earning $5,000. With a purse for $20,150, Hogan received 24.8 percent of the purse.
Over time, the percentage the tour winners received settled at 18 percent, which is where it has been for most of the last 30 years. Runner-up earns 10.8 percent, which is pretty good for being what Tiger once called “the first loser.” Fourth place this week at Torrey gets 5 percent ($1 million).
Is it time for a change in the winning share?
“I think that’s pro-competitive,” McIlroy said of an elevated winner’s check. “I think that’s a great thing. We live in a capitalist society, and successful people should earn more.”
So, what should be the number?