via Imago
Jon Rahm of Spain celebrates wearing his Green Jacket and holding the Masters Trophy after winning the 87th Masters tournament in the final round at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia on Sunday, April 9, 2023. Rahm won with a score of 12 under par. PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxHUNxONLY AUG202304091078 JOHNxANGELILLO. Image Courtesy: IMAGO
via Imago
Jon Rahm of Spain celebrates wearing his Green Jacket and holding the Masters Trophy after winning the 87th Masters tournament in the final round at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia on Sunday, April 9, 2023. Rahm won with a score of 12 under par. PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxHUNxONLY AUG202304091078 JOHNxANGELILLO. Image Courtesy: IMAGO
Augusta National announced on Saturday that this year’s Masters will have an elevated purse of $20 million, up $2 million from last year. The winner will take home $3.6 million this year, compared to the $3.24 million that Jon Rahm pocketed last year. The purse size increase comes amidst a growing trend of elevated prize pools in men’s progression golf.
This year’s hike comes after a $3 million upward push 12 months ago. The $20 million purse is also on par with what the USGA offered last year. Comparably, the PGA Championship had a total prize of $17.5 million, whereas the Open Championship boasted a purse of $16.5 million. Here is the full purse breakdown for the first major of the season.
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Purse size breakdown of the 2024 Masters
Worth remembering is that Horton Smith, the first Masters champion, took home $2,500. Comparably, the players who missed the cut will earn $10,000. The PGA Tour doesn’t offer guaranteed pay to the players who couldn’t make the cut. But probably, by virtue of being ‘invitational’, Augusta officials do offer a hefty sum to those who have to leave early.
| Position | Earnings |
| 1 | $3.6 million |
| 2 | $2.16 million |
| 3 | $1.36 million |
| 4 | $960,000 |
| 5 | $800,000 |
| 6 | $720,000 |
| 7 | $670,000 |
| 8 | $620,000 |
| 9 | $580,000 |
| 10 | $540,000 |
| 11 | $500,000 |
| 12 | $460,000 |
| 13 | $420,000 |
| 14 | $380,000 |
| 15 | $360,000 |
| 16 | $340,000 |
| 17 | $320,000 |
| 18 | $300,000 |
| 19 | $280,000 |
| 20 | $260,000 |
| 21 | $240,000 |
| 22 | $224,000 |
| 23 | $208,000 |
| 24 | $192,000 |
| 25 | $176,000 |
| 26 | $160,000 |
| 27 | $154,000 |
| 28 | $148,000 |
| 29 | $142,000 |
| 30 | $136,000 |
| 31 | $130,000 |
| 32 | $124,000 |
| 33 | $118,000 |
| 34 | $113,000 |
| 35 | $108,000 |
| 36 | $103,000 |
| 37 | $98,000 |
| 38 | $94,000 |
| 39 | $90,000 |
| 40 | $86,000 |
| 41 | $82,000 |
| 42 | $78,000 |
| 43 | $74,000 |
| 44 | $70,000 |
| 45 | $66,000 |
| 46 | $62,000 |
| 47 | $58,000 |
| 48 | $54,000 |
| 49 | $52,000 |
| 50 | $50,400 |
In addition to the $3.6 million winner’s paycheck, the champion will earn 100 world ranking points. Should a PGA Tour player earn the bragging rights, he will also receive 750 FedEx Cup points, the same as Scottie Scheffler earned for his PLAYERS Championship triumph in March. However, Scheffler pocketed $4.5 million at TPC Sawgrass. Nevertheless, the increase might indicate that the other three majors might follow suit.
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What does the purse size increase indicate?
The $20 million purse means it has doubled in a decade. Bubba Watson, who missed the cut this year, earned $1,620,000 along with his second Green Jacket. Only five years ago, Tiger Woods earned the largest paycheck of his career at the 2019 Masters. That was $2,070,000. It has nearly doubled since 2021, when the total purse was $11.5 million.
Masters total prize money has gone from $18 mil to $20 mil this year.
$3.6 mil to the winner. (And $10k to pros who miss the cut.)
Here's the payout: pic.twitter.com/34whZ0NHzE
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) April 13, 2024
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The Majors have tried to keep up with the increased purse size of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. The breakaway league has a $25 million purse in each event—$5 million for the team competition, and the rest is distributed among 54 players. The champion bags $4 million, the same as what the Tour is offering at the Signature events.
The PGA Tour has elevated eight events, five regular and three player-hosted invitationals, to ‘Signature’ status. As part of the move to counter LIV’s steady incursion, the eight signature events have a $20 million purse with the winner’s grab of $4 million. The Majors, though, have struggled to keep pace with the sudden hike in prize money. But a push from Augusta generally has a ripple effect across the other three majors.
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