The 2024 BMW Australian PGA Championship began on November 21 and will go on till November 24 at the Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane. This event, one of the most significant golf tournaments in Australia, has now been cut short to 54 holes because of 180mm rainfall on Thursday night. This will be the first time in the tournament’s 95-year history that it will not be played over four rounds.

Last week, The DP World Tour Championship in Dubai concluded a season that offered record prize money as Rory McIlroy wrapped up both the tournament title and the Race to Dubai. It began last November at the same venue in Australia. This year’s tournament will mark the first of at least 42 events between now and November 16, 2025, when the DP World Tour Championship will once again bring down the curtain to the season.

This time, there will be an overall prize fund of $153 million. Like the previous season, it will also be split into three distinct stages – the Global Swings, the Back 9, and the DP World Tour Play-Offs. The Global Swings phase is the longest, as of now, running till mid-August. It will be separated into five different swings beginning with the Opening Swing, which runs until the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, which ends on December 22.

To kickstart things, the 2024 BMW Australian PGA Championship has a total purse of AUD 2 million, which is around USD 1.3 million. Min Woo Lee returned to the field to defend his title, while players like Cameron Smith have made the event all the more thrilling. The first round has already concluded, and Elvis Smylie has taken the lead by one stroke, and three players are tied for the second position.

Elvis Smylie’s potential earnings at 2024 BMW Australian PGA Championship

If Smylie keeps up with the pace of his gameplay, he will be taking home the highest portion of the total prize money, that is $340,000. On the other hand, players finishing in the runner-up and second runner-up positions will be entitled to AUD 220,000 and AUD126,000.

Apart from that, all the seventy players who make the cut after the Friday round will get some portion of the prize money. The player who finishes at the bottom of the leaderboard will get the lowest amount (AUD3,800). Here is what the final payout in Australian Dollars looks like:

The winner will also get approximately 13.1 OWGR points, and 2000 Race to Dubai points are on the line too. While the field is filled with star-studded players, Jason Day is one of the highest-ranked players. And well, while he needs to maintain his rank, the 2024 BMW Australian PGA Championship is a rather special event for him nonetheless.

Jason Day returns to Australia after seven years

Jason Day teed off with Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee during the opening round from the back nine. He is currently tied at T6 with five other players and is just two strokes behind Elvis Smylie. He is all set to make his home fans proud since this is the first time he has been playing on Australian soil since the 2017 Australian Open.

This year also marks Jason Day’s return to the Australian PGA Championship after a 12-year hiatus since his T9 finish at Coolum in 2011. Now 37, Day has been reacquainting himself with the significantly updated Royal Queensland Golf Club layout.

As the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 31 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Day recognizes he might not be the crowd favorite in Queensland. He humbly acknowledged the local hero, saying, “Cammy [Smith] is a very big favorite here and has a lot of fans,” referring to three-time Australian PGA Championship winner Cameron Smith.

He also added that although he is from Australia, he does not play much there and hence it is difficult to get fans’ attention. But he is willing to fight through it. Do you think Day will be able to lift the trophy on his home ground when the 54-hole play comes to an end on Sunday? Let us know in the comments section below!