When you hear commentators talking about a PGA Tour event, the word purse is often mentioned, usually alongside a jaw-dropping number. In golf, the purse is simply the total prize money available to the players competing in a tournament. This article breaks down exactly what that means, where all that money comes from, how it’s divided among the players, and which events offer the most lucrative paydays in the sport.
Think of the purse as the tournament's prize pot. It's the grand total of cash that will be awarded to the professional golfers based on their finishing positions. Unlike a winner-take-all scenario, this pot is distributed among a large portion of the field, rewarding players for their performance throughout the week.
For example, if a PGA Tour event has a $20 million purse, that doesn't mean the winner takes home $20 million. Instead, that sum is divided according to a pre-determined formula. A player’s goal, beyond lifting the trophy, is to finish as high up the leaderboard as possible to earn a larger share of this purse. A higher finish means a bigger check, and for professional golfers who pay for their own travel, coaching, and expenses, earning a piece of the purse is essential to making a living.
Where does all this money come from? Millions of dollars don't just appear out of thin air. Tournament purses are funded through several a combination of major revenue streams, creating a lucrative financial ecosystem.
Once the final putt drops, the tournament's purse is carved up and a check is cut for each player who "made the cut." Making the cut is the first financial hurdle for a player in a standard Tour event. After the first two rounds (36 holes), the field is typically cut to the top 65 players (including ties). If a player fails to make the cut, they generally earn no official money from the purse and will leave with nothing to show for their efforts besides hefty travel expenses.
For those who do make it to the weekend, the distribution is heavily weighted toward the top of the leaderboard.
The standard payout for the winner of a PGA Tour event is typically 18% of the total purse. So, for a tournament with a $20 million purse, the winner would receive a check for $3.6 million. The second-place finisher often receives a little over 10%, and the percentages decrease from there.
This big reward for winning creates incredible drama down the stretch on Sunday, as a single shot can be the difference between a life-changing payday and a still-excellent, but significantly smaller, prize.
The money is distributed on a sliding scale. The difference between finishing 3rd and 4th is substantial, and that trend continues all the way down the leaderboard. A player finishing 10th might earn around 3% of the purse, while someone finishing 50th might earn less than 0.3%.
Let's look at a hypothetical breakdown for a $20 million purse tournament like the Genesis Invitational or the Arnold Palmer Invitational to see how this works for the top 10:
Even the player who finishes last among those who made the cut will walk away with a check, though it may be a modest amount in the tens of thousands, barely enough to cover the week's expenses for them and their team.
Not all purses are created equal. Certain high-profile tournaments, often called "designated" or "signature" events, offer larger prizes that attract the world's best players.
The four men's major championships are the most prestigious tournaments in golf, and their purses reflect that status. While they historically lagged behind some other events, purses at the majors have recently surged. In 2023, the U.S. Open and PGA Championship both offered $20 million purses, with The Masters (often the most secretive a a tradition-focused purse) following suit with their own figures.
Often referred to as the "fifth major," The PLAYERS Championship boasts the largest purse of any single event on the PGA Tour. In 2024, the purse reached an incredible $25 million, with the winner taking home a staggering $4.5 million. It’s a tournament owned by the players, so it’s fitting that it offers them their biggest payday of the year.
The emergence of the LIV Golf Tour in 2022 dramatically inflated purses across the sport. Standard LIV Golf events feature a $25 million purse, with $20 million dedicated to individual prizes and $5 million for the team component. The winner of a LIV event earns $4 million. Their season-ending Team Championship offers a massive $50 million purse, pushing the financial rewards in professional golf to levels never seen before and pressuring the PGA Tour to increase its own prize funds.
Beyond individual tournament purses, the PGA Tour features a season-long points competition called the FedExCup. The top players at the end of the season qualify for the playoffs, culminating in the Tour Championship. The money awarded here is a "bonus" pool, not a purse. In 2023, the total FedExCup bonus pool was a mind-boggling $75 million, with the ultimate winner taking home $25 million.
It's important to remember that players aren't the only ones benefiting from large purses. Caddies are typically paid a weekly salary plus a percentage of whatever their player earns from the purse. The generally accepted formula is:
On a $3.6 million winner's check, that's a $360,000 bonus for the caddie. This pay structure creates a true a team dynamic, as both player and caddie have a direct financial stake in every shot.
What about your local club championship or weekend tournament with friends? At the amateur level, the concept of a cash "purse" is strictly forbidden by the Rules of Golf to protect players' amateur status. Instead of prize money, tournaments award prizes with retail value, typically in the form of:
This system allows competitive golf to thrive at the grassroots level without the complexities of professional payments, an amateur 'purse' keeps things centered on the spirit of competition.
A golf purse is far more than just a number, it is the financial engine that drives professional golf, rewarding players for their incredible skill and dedication. From the sponsorship and T.V. deals an to a winner's 18% share passed all the way down to a players paycheck, the purse underpins the structure of every tour tournament, week in and week out.
While most of us may never compete for a multi-million dollar prize, understanding the strategy and consistent execution required at that level and implementing some of them in your game can dramatically lower your scores. This is where we built Caddie AI to come in. Our app gives you tour-level strategic insights for any course you play, helping you with everything from club selection to on course-strategy and helping you make smarter, more confident decisions by turning potential double-bogeys into respectable pars. It is all about playing smarter to shoot your personal best round, which at the end of the day can feel just as good as a P.G.A sized paycheck.
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