Despite Tiger Woods’ $15M Victory, Former Rival Phil Mickelson Takes Home the Bigger Prize With $138M

Golf is unquestionably seen as a highly lucrative sport. And golfers are rewarded handsomely for winning events. LIV Golf has taken that to a whole new level. With an even higher purse than the PGA Tour events and a massive winners’ cut, the Saudi-backed league has given the players the chance to win millions in a single game. Besides winning, the new league also offered many star players huge contracts, which saw their earnings boost considerably. The most notable of them was Phil Mickelson. Lefty went on to leave behind even Tiger Woods himself in his career earnings in 2022.

Phil Mickelson beats Tiger Woods and hits the top of the Forbes list

Earlier in July this year, Forbes released a list of the top 10 highest-paid golfers. To no one’s surprise, 7 of the 10 were players who had jumped ship and defected to LIV Golf. The huge difference between the LIV players and the PGA Tour members shocked many.

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A fan recently went on to congratulate Phil on this incredible achievement. Phil Mickelson sat atop the list, boasting $138 million and claiming earnings of $102 million on the course and $36 million off the course. Mickelson signed a $200 million contract with LIV Golf earlier this year, and Forbes assumes that he was paid half up front. This also means that Phil’s earnings over the next few years will be quite high as well. Will he still be on the list next year?

With these massive earnings, Lefty joined his legendary rival, Woods, in surpassing a billion dollars in total career earnings. Tiger has a total of 1.7 billion in his career earnings. Which seems like an impossible feat for anyone to match up to, including Mickelson.

Tiger Woods recently claimed $15 million from his PGA Tour PIP bonus, without playing on the Tour. But Phil’s nine-digit figure certainly has him beat. While Mickelson ranks first, Tiger is in the middle of the pack and ranks fifth. But this could all change with Tiger now seeming like making a return to his beloved sport.

Phil’s debut season performance with LIV Golf

Mickelson hasn’t justified his earnings on the course this year. He participated in 7 of LIV Golf’s 8 events. Individually, he saw only a single top-ten finish, where he was placed 8th at LIV’s Boston event. The legend didn’t see a single win.

His team was placed third at the Boston event, and that was the closest Phil ever got to the top this season. Despite a dip in his performance, Lefty went on to earn $1,825,350 million from these events. He made $1.5 million individually and saw the rest as part of his team’s cut.

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Surely Mickelson will be looking to perform better in the LIV’s 14 events next year. And if so, will he still be at the top of the earnings chart? Or will Tiger’s return make that difficult for him?