Why Tyrrell Hatton just won $1million without even playing 

As Sundays go, this wasn’t a bad one for Tyrrell Hatton.

The Englishman has been taking a short break after his T20 finish at The Open, so wasn’t even competing in the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina.

He is instead gearing it up to return to action at the FedEx Cup playoffs, which starts at FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis this week.

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But it wasn’t just the champion, Lucas Glover, who became a whole lot richer after the final event of the PGA Tour regular season.

The Wyndham Championship also brought an end to the AON Risk Reward Challenge, that offers a $1million bonus for the player that tops the standings in a season-long competition.

And Hatton claimed the bumper top prize after his closest challenger, the German Stephan Jaeger, failed to make an eagle in his designated hole in his final round of the tournament.

What is the AON Risk Reward Challenge?

First introduced in 2019, the AON Risk Reward Challenge is a season-long competition held across both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour that provides each winner a $1m prize.

It rewards the pro players who accumulate the best two scores on one designated hole in each event they compete in throughout the season.

The unique concept was introduced by the PGA Tour’s partners AON as a way of highlighting the golfers who make the best strategic decisions across an entire season. Those who thrive on the Challenge holes, measured by lowest average score to par on the holes, win the AON trophy and the $1m bonus.

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Hatton, who had a cumulative score of 23-under-par across 26 Challenge holes, won this year’s competition with an average score of -0.885 under par.

Jaeger, who finished T14 in the Wyndham Championship after a disappointing final round, narrowly missed out on the $1m prize as he finished second on 0.878 under par.

The 34-year-old was cumulatively 43-under-par through 49 Challenge holes in the 2022/2023 campaign.

Meanwhile, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott and Scottie Scheffler made up the remainder of the top five.

AON Risk Reward Challenge winners

2023: Tyrrell Hatton

2022: Scottie Scheffler

2021: Matthew Wolff

2020: Nick Taylor

2019: Brooks Koepka