When you're watching a Sunday afternoon golf broadcast and the commentators mention a staggering figure like a $20 million total purse, it's easy to wonder what that really means. A total purse is simply the total amount of prize money available for all eligible professional golfers competing in a tournament. This article will break down exactly how that money is funded, how it gets paid out to the players, and why it's about much more than just a big winner's check.
Think of the total purse as the entire prize pool for a professional golf event. It’s the pot of gold at the end of the four-day rainbow. But unlike a lottery where one person takes all, this money is distributed among a large portion of the field based on performance. The size of the purse is a direct reflection of a tournament's prestige. Major championships like The Masters and The U.S. Open, along with "elevated" events like THE PLAYERS Championship, boast the largest purses, attracting the best players in the world.
A larger purse not only signifies status but also has a massive impact on a player's career. Earning a piece of it can mean securing your playing rights for the next year, gaining entry into bigger tournaments, or simply covering the hefty expenses of being a touring professional.
A purse worth tens of millions of dollars doesn't just appear out of thin air. It’s built from several major revenue streams that tournament organizers cultivate. Understanding these sources gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the business of professional golf.
Corporate sponsors are the financial bedrock of nearly every professional golf tournament. When you hear names like the an AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or the Waste Management Phoenix Open, that "title sponsor" is the primary funder. A company pays a massive fee to have its name attached to the event, and a significant portion of that fee goes directly into the purse. In return, the sponsor receives incredible brand exposure through international television broadcasts, on-course signage, and media mentions, reaching millions of die-hard golf fans.
The second pillar of tournament funding is broadcast and media rights. Networks like CBS, NBC, ESPN, and Sky Sports pay the PGA TOUR and other governing bodies billions of dollars for the exclusive rights to televise tournaments. A piece of that enormous pie is allocated to each official event to help fund its operations and, most importantly, its purse. The more eyeballs an event is expected to draw, the more valuable its media rights become, and the larger its purse can grow.
While often smaller than sponsorships and media rights, revenue generated on-site is still a vital component. The thousands of fans - or "patrons" as they're called at Augusta National - who walk the grounds contribute by purchasing tickets, merchandise like hats and polos, and of course, food and beverages. For high-attendance events, this can add up to millions of dollars, helping to bolster the purse and cover the tournament's operational costs.
Most tournaments host a Pro-Am event, typically on the Wednesday before the main competition begins. This is a unique opportunity for amateur golfers and corporate executives to pay a substantial entry fee to play a round of golf with a touring professional. The money raised from Pro-Ams is a significant revenue driver that directly supports the prize fund for the pros.
Okay, so we have a giant pot of money. How does it get split up? The first and most important hurdle for any player is to "make the cut."
After the first two rounds of a typical 72-hole tournament, the field is cut to roughly the top 70 players (plus ties). Only the players who make the cut are eligible to earn a portion of the purse. If you miss the cut, you go home with nothing from the official prize money, and you're out what you spent on travel, lodging, and caddie fees for the week.
A long-standing and widely accepted tradition on the PGA TOUR is that the winner of the tournament receives 18% of the total purse. This has become the standard formula for most events.
From second place on down, the percentages cascade. While the winner gets a huge slice, a high finish is still incredibly lucrative. Here’s a sample breakdown for a hypothetical $10 million tournament purse to see how quickly the amounts change:
This illustrates the financial pressure perfectly. The difference between finishing 4th and 5th can be nearly $100,000. That’s why you see players grinding over a four-foot putt on the final hole, even when they’re nowhere near the lead. Every single shot counts.
Golf is unpredictable, and paydays can get complicated when ties and unique tournament formats come into play.
Ties are a common occurrence in golf, and they are handled differently depending on the position.
As mentioned, players who miss the weekend cut do not earn official money from the purse. However, golf is an expensive sport. To help offset the costs for players who make the effort to compete but don't make the cut, some tournaments (though not all) will provide a small stipend of a few thousand dollars for non-finishers to help with travel costs. It’s important to note this isn't "prize money" but rather a practical acknowledgment of the costs of being on tour.
Additionally, some elite events like the TOUR Championship or the Hero World Challenge are "no-cut" events. In these smaller fields, every player is guaranteed to play all four rounds and receive a paycheck, with even the last-place finisher earning a significant amount.
For a professional golfer, prize money is a scorecard for more than just their bank account, it’s a direct measure of their career success and stability.
A player's total earnings from purses are tallied on an "Official Money List" or converted into points (like in the FedExCup standings). This ranking is the primary mechanism for determining who keeps their "tour card" - the right to play in PGA TOUR events - for the following season. Finishing inside the top 125 of the FedExCup standings means you're fully exempt for next year. A high finish in just one big-purse tournament can secure your job for an entire year.
Winning a tournament grants so much more than money. It often comes with multi-year exemptions on the host tour. A victory can also grant a player an automatic invitation into golf’s most hallowed events: The Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and The Open Championship. These are career-defining opportunities that are often more valuable than the prize money itself.
The total purse in a golf tournament is the engine that drives professional golf. It's the multi-million dollar prize pool, funded by sponsors, media, and fans, that rewards the world's best players for their performance. How it's distributed - with a hefty 18% to the winner and a cascading scale for those who make the cut - is a masterclass in high-stakes pressure and proves that every single shot truly matters.
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