2024 Invited Celebrity Classic: Prize Money Breakdown & Winner’s Payout

For the seventh event of the 2024 season, the PGA Tour Champions stopped at Irvin, Texas, to showcase a different kind of play and field. At the Las Colinas Country Club, 78 PGA Tour Champions players and 40 selected celebrities teed up for competitive and exciting rounds of golf.

In the field were stars from sports like MLB All-Star pitcher Mark Mulder and Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez, golfers like Annika Sorenstam and Blaire O’Neal, Ben Higgins from The Bachelor, and many others from the NHL and tennis, who started the first round at the Irvin Greens. While the celebrities play alongside the pros, the prize money for both groups is distributed uniquely.

What will the players at Invited Celebrity Classic bag on the last day?

This year, the Invited Celebrity Classic has increased its overall prize purse. In 2023, only $2 million was up for the 78-player field and $500,00 for the 40 celebrity golfers. Though the celebrity prize purse has remained the same, the prize pool has been up to $2.2 million for the players.

As the PGA Tour Champions policy follows, the winner of the Invited Celebrity Classic receives a check of $330,000 from the total prize purse. Whereas the runner-up has to suffice with $193,600, ideally. Since there are no cuts observed for the event, all the golfers will go home with something in there, with the bottommost getting $1,100.

Comparatively, the prize purse is much lower than the two PGA Tour events happening this week: RBC Heritage ($20 million, winner’s payout, $3.6 million) and the Corales Puntacana Championship ($4 million purse, where the winner will get $720,000). However, it is still the highest prize purse for the PGA Tour Champions 2024 events outside the majors.

The prize money breakdown for the full field is given below:

At the Invited Celebrity Classic, the prize money was not the only different thing. While the first round went smoothly, the second could not, which produced an anomaly that had never been witnessed before.

What went wrong at the Invited Celebrity Classic? 

The weather went haywire in the middle of the tournament. The event’s second round was suspended because of inclement weather. The usual 54-hole event was cut short to 36 holes because the PGA Tour Champions had shared a forecast that warned about thunderstorms and lighting.

Hence, the winner will be announced after only playing two rounds. After playing only one round, the lead was taken by Thomas Bjorn, who shot 7 under 64. Following the German pro was 11-time PGA Tour Champions winner Jerry Kelly, who tied with three others, who all scored 6 under 65. Who will come out as the victor and bag the $330,000 prize purse? It remains to be seen.