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Rory McIlroy’s Players Championship victory wasn’t only good for his confidence going into next month’s Masters Tournament – it was good for his bank balance, too.
The 29-year-old pocketed the biggest first prize in the history of the PGA Tour: a cool $2.25m.
That saw the Northern Irishman jump four places to 11th on the tour’s career money list, with winnings of $45,514,482 from 156 starts – an average of roughly $291,760 per event.
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On its own, Rory’s performance at the Players would have been enough to rank him 420th on the PGA Tour career money list, ahead of some of notable names, including Tom Weiskopf, Ian Baker-Finch and Gary Player.
Granted, different times, different prize funds – but eye-opening nonetheless.
Former Open champion Weiskopf won 16 times (once more than Rory) in 446 starts the PGA Tour between 1968 and 1982. His most profitable season was 1973 when he won five times and was runner-up a further three times. He earned $243,156 that year. His career earnings totalled $2,241,687 – approximately $5,026 per event.
Meantime, Baker-Finch, above, won twice on the PGA, including the 1991 Open Championship. The Aussie banked $2,078,743 from his 167 career starts, averaging $12,447 per tournament.
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And then there’s Player, one of the game’s lauded ‘Big Three’. The South African won 24 times on the PGA Tour between 1958 and 1978, including nine majors. For his troubles, he earned a total of $1,834,482 from his 449 starts – roughly $4,085 per start.
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