For all the banter this summer about rapidly rising prize money payouts in professional golf, it remains hard to wrap your head around about what’s on the line this week at the Tour Championship. The winner on Sunday at East Lake Golf Club will earn $18 million for his victory.
Let’s repeat this: $18 million.
By comparison, for their entire PGA Tour careers, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, winners of 25 majors and 135 tour titles, earned a combined $7,595,888.
Technically speaking, the money on the line this week in Atlanta is not tournament prize money, but rather the payout for the $75 million FedEx Cup bonus pool that players are receiving for their finishes in the season-long points race. No player’s career earnings will increase as a result of their performance in the 2021-22 season finale.
But it is big and impressive. And the difference between finishing first and second is its own incredibly large figure: $11.5 million. This means that there could be a putt made on the 72nd hole that is worth more than what Jack and Arnie made their entire tour careers.
Here then is the prize money payout for each golfer in the final FedEx Cup standings after the conclusion of the Tour Championship. As with regular PGA Tour events, money is split equally among players if there are ties for different places in this last event of the 2021-’22 PGA Tour season. We’ll update this list shortly after Sunday’s finish to include individual names with their earnings.
One additional note: Every player in the FedEx Cup top 150 earns some distribution from the bonus pool. It’s why the list below has far more names than just the 30 competing in the Tour Championship.