It’s the last day of the PGA Tour season, and it’s also the most lucrative. The FedEx Cup playoffs conclude Sunday evening with the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Not only is there the regular $8 million purse up for grabs, but there’s also a majority of the $35 million in postseason bonus money that will be doled out.
FedEx Cup TOUR Championship purse: Winner’s payout is $1.44 million of $8 million in prize money
Sunday is the richest day in golf -- a boatload of FedEx Cup bonus money will be doled out on top of the $8 million purse at the TOUR Championship.
Scott Halleran
For the winner of the TOUR Championship, it will likely be the most successful day of his career, earnings-wise, and by a wide margin. That’s because the two players starting the final round at the top of the leaderboard would automatically win the FedEx Cup with a win at this fourth and final postseason tournament. So if either Billy Horschel or Rory McIlroy were to win, they would take home the $1.44 million winner’s check from the $8 million purse in addition to the grand prize $10 million bonus payment for winning the FedEx Cup.
Beyond that grand prize for the Cup winner, the next four finishers in the standings will all earn seven figures. The $3 and $2 million bonus money checks for second and third are more than any winner’s payout at any event all year. So it pays just to get to Atlanta, where even the last place finisher, almost certainly Geoff Ogilvy, will take home $180,000.
| FEC Finishing Spot | Bonus Money | FEC Finishing Spot | Bonus Money |
| 1 | $10,000,000 | 26 | $195,000 |
| 2 | $3,000,000 | 27 | $190,000 |
| 3 | $2,000,000 | 28 | $185,000 |
| 4 | $1,500,000 | 29 | $180,000 |
| 5 | $1,100,000 | 30 | $175,000 |
| 6 | $800,000 | 31 | $165,000 |
| 7 | $700,000 | 32 | $155,000 |
| 8 | $600,000 | 33 | $150,000 |
| 9 | $550,000 | 34 | $145,000 |
| 10 | $500,000 | 35 | $142,000 |
| 11 | $300,000 | 36 | $140,000 |
| 12 | $290,000 | 37 | $138,000 |
| 13 | $280,000 | 38 | $137,000 |
| 14 | $270,000 | 39 | $136,000 |
| 15 | $250,000 | 40 | $135,000 |
| 16 | $245,000 | 51 | $120,000 |
| 17 | $240,000 | 52 | $115,000 |
| 18 | $235,000 | 53 | $114,000 |
| 19 | $230,000 | 54 | $113,000 |
| 20 | $225,000 | 55-70 | $110,000 |
| 21 | $220,000 | 71-80 | $80,000 |
| 22 | $215,000 | 81-100 | $75,000 |
| 23 | $210,000 | 101-125 | $70,000 |
| 24 | $205,000 | 126-150 (not in FEC) | $32,000 |
| 25 | $200,000 |
One other important bonus money note -- it will be a lucrative Sunday for one player who didn’t even make it to Atlanta. Dustin Johnson, despite not playing a single FedEx Cup event, stayed inside the top 30 in the standings based on the work he did earlier in the season. So he will still collect $175k in bonus cash while he’s on a leave of absence or suspended, depending on who you believe.
The FedEx Cup is sometimes critiqued as nothing more than a cash grab. That’s fine, and probably partly true, but at least all the money put up by the Tour is getting the top players in the world to keep playing after the season’s final major. Rory McIlroy, who has already locked up Player of the Year honors and isn’t hurting for cash, has stated that the FedEx Cup title is the finish he thinks his season deserves. So Rory, who is definitely a little worn out and has all the money and titles he needs this year, is as motivated as any player in the field.
While Johnson will get his bonus money, he should not be eligible to collect any money from the purse at this week’s tournament. So the Tour will actually have a little extra at the bottom of the $8 million purse. Here are the payout totals for this week’s purse at the TOUR Championship (ties will affect these amounts):
UPDATE: Here are the final payout totals from Atlanta, where Billy Horschel won for the second straight week and also took home the $10 million grand prize. Between the two victories, a T2 result in Boston, and the Cup, he banked almost $13.5 million in the first 14 days of September.
| Place | Player | Score | Payout |
| 1 | Billy Horschel | -11 | $1,440,000 |
| T2 | Jim Furyk | -8 | $708,000 |
| T2 | Rory McIlroy | -8 | $708,000 |
| T4 | Chris Kirk | -7 | $343,333 |
| T4 | Jason Day | -7 | $343,333 |
| T4 | Justin Rose | -7 | $343,333 |
| 7 | Ryan Palmer | -6 | $275,000 |
| 8 | Rickie Fowler | -5 | $260,000 |
| T9 | Gary Woodland | -4 | $231,667 |
| T9 | Sergio Garcia | -4 | $231,667 |
| T9 | Adam Scott | -4 | $231,667 |
| 12 | Russell Henley | -3 | $210,000 |
| 13 | Matt Kuchar | -2 | $200,000 |
| 14 | Bubba Watson | E | $190,000 |
| 15 | Cameron Tringale | 1 | $180,000 |
| 16 | Bill Haas | 2 | $175,000 |
| T17 | Brendon Todd | 3 | $168,000 |
| T17 | Jimmy Walker | 3 | $168,000 |
| T19 | Patrick Reed | 4 | $160,000 |
| T19 | Kevin Na | 4 | $160,000 |
| 21 | Zach Johnson | 5 | $154,000 |
| 22 | Hideki Matsuyama | 6 | $150,000 |
| T23 | Webb Simpson | 8 | $143,000 |
| T23 | Hunter Mahan | 8 | $143,000 |
| T23 | Martin Kaymer | 8 | $143,000 |
| 26 | John Senden | 10 | $138,000 |
| T27 | Jordan Spieth | 12 | $135,000 |
| T27 | Morgan Hoffmann | 12 | $135,000 |
| 29 | Geoff Ogilvy | 20 | $132,000 |
See More:
