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For all the division and uncertainty that has clouded men’s professional golf over the last 18 months, fans can at least all agree on one thing…
Golfers have never had it so good.
The influx of the Saudi millions into game via the launch of LIV Golf has forced the PGA Tour to significantly bump up their own prize pots, creating a more lucrative golfing landscape than was once ever imaginable.
It’s why, after thorough research, CBS’s Kyle Porter has 15 different names across the two circuits in his list of players who have (already) made $10m+ plus this season.
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The astronomical numbers you will see below, Porter stresses, are added up from the prize money made from majors, the PGA Tour and LIV events, as well as year-end bonuses.
Money earned from certain contracts, sponsors and PIP (Player Impact Program) bonuses are not included, nor is the money banked throughout the season on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour.
Here’s a full breakdown of the highest earners in golf in 2023…
The top dog
How fitting in the complex, often nonsensical world that is men’s professional golf that the highest paid player in the game is not even eligible for next year’s majors. Talor Gooch, now making his millions for the Range Goats GC team at LIV, has raked in over $36m this season in prize money alone. The American won three times of LIV’s 14 events this year and then claimed an $18m bonus as the league’s individual champion.
But his major record was disappointing, only making the cut in April’s Masters, and he is now down to 231st in the world rankings with his huge success at LIV going unrecognised by the OWGR board. Unless the outcome of the framework peace deal between the Saudi sovereign wealth fund bankrolling LIV and the PGA Tour changes things, Gooch will need to enter Open and US Open qualifying to have a chance of competing in golf’s most eminent events next year.
Golfers who have made $10M+ so far this season.
Includes: All majors, all PGA Tour and LIV events, individual year-end bonuses (FedEx and LIV), individual bonuses from team finish (LIV), Comcast top 10.
Does not include: Contracts, sponsors, PIP, Euro Tour money, Asian Tour…
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) October 26, 2023
The best of the rest
Gooch may top the money list at this stage, but it’s also been quite a healthy year for Viktor Hovland’s bank account. Hovland claimed an $18m bonus with his FedEx Cup win and has broken the record for the highest-earning season on the PGA Tour.
It looked for all the world that Scottie Scheffler would take home the FedEx Cup bonus, and he would have topped this list had he not fallen down the leaderboard in the Tour Championship at East Lake. Still, $26m is not bad for a year’s work, ey?
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Two of this year’s major winners, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm, have both earned more than $20m a piece. So too has Rory McIlroy. In total, there are four LIV players and six PGA Tour stars in the top ten highest earners in 2023.
The likes of McIlroy and Rahm are not done yet either, with a $6m bonus pool up for grabs in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this month.
Like we said before, they’ve never had it so good.
Here’s the list of the highest earning golfers of 2023 in full…
Highest earning golfers in 2023
1. Talor Gooch: $36.2m
2. Viktor Hovland: $33.5m
3. Scottie Scheffler: $26.0m
4. Brooks Koepka: $22.7m
5. Jon Rahm: $21.2m
6. Rory McIlroy: $20.3m
7. Cam Smith: $19.8m
8. Wyndham Clark: $17.8m
9. Bryson DeChambeau: $15.7m
10. Xander Schauffele: $14.9m
ALL ABOUT THE MASTERS
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