The third round of the PGA Championship teed off Saturday morning with Xander Schauffele in the lead, one stroke ahead of Collin Morikawa. Schauffele and the other 77 players who made the cut now know how much money is at stake after the PGA of America unveiled the prize purse Saturday afternoon.
Total prize money is $18.5 million, up 5.7% or $1 million from 2023, according to the governing body. First place will receive $3.33 million, an increase of $180,000 from last year, when Brooks Koepka won his third Wanamaker Trophy. Second place this year is due $1.998 million, and third will receive $1.258 million. The rest of the field will earn less than $1 million; the final golfer in 78th place will receive $22,100.
The -1 cut line this year marked the first PGA Championship ever with a cut line under par and wasn’t finalized until late Saturday morning. The PGA of America delayed round two tee times by 80 minutes after a tournament worker was struck by a shuttle bus and died early Friday morning. Play was suspended Friday night due to darkness, and fog delayed the completion of the round on Saturday morning.
Similar to other top golf tournaments, prize money at the PGA Championship has dramatically increased after the launch of LIV Golf. Total prize money was $5 million in 2000 and rose steadily to $12 million in 2021 when Phil Mickelson won the event at 50 years old. But in the last three years, the purse has shot up 54%. Sixteen LIV golfers played the championship this week at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
The PGA Championship prize money is a shade below the 2024 Masters total purse of $20 million. Scottie Scheffler, who found himself in the back of a police car Friday morning, earned $3.6 million for winning his second Masters title in April. Last year, the PGA payout ranked third among the four majors, ahead of only the British Open’s $16.5 million. The U.S. Open was first at $20 million.
The PGA’s most lucrative event, excluding the FedEx Cup bonuses at year-end, is the Players Championship, which paid a total purse of $25 million in March, including $4.5 million for winner Scheffler. The PGA Championship payout is less than the $20 million purse in the PGA Tour‘s 13 “elevated” events, as well as the $20 million for the typical LIV Golf tournament.
Scheffler, is currently on top of this year’s PGA Tour money earnings list at $18.7 million, more than double the total of No. 2 Wyndham Clark at $9.2 million. Joaquin Niemann leads LIV Golf’s top earners at $10.9 million with Dean Burmester in second at $7.3 million after seven events in 2024.
