Jordan Spieth has already earned $10,545,465 in this incredible breakout season. At 22 years old, he’s already raked in $19,818,184 in career earnings and that doesn’t factor in all the off-the-course endorsement money coming to his account. This Sunday, however, may be the most lucrative of his nascent career.
2015 FedExCup purse totals $35 million in bonus money payouts
Jordan Spieth is almost certainly going to set a new single season earnings record on Sunday at the TOUR Championship, and that doesn’t include the outrageous $10 million bonus check he’s favored to win for taking the FedExCup.
Eric Sucar-USA TODAY Sports
Spieth will start the final round of the TOUR Championship with a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson. He’s not played particularly well in the FedExCup Playoffs -- in fact, the opening two events were his worst stretch of the year. But because of the work he put in all season accruing FedExCup points with those four wins, Spieth was a near-lock to stay inside the top five in the FEC standings no matter how poorly he played. That’s a critical distinction because only the top five in the standings hold the oft-cited “control your own destiny” power in the TOUR Championship, meaning they automatically win the overall FedExCup with a win at the fourth event in Atlanta. No outside help is needed.
The winner of the FedExCup earns the biggest cash prize in the game, a $10 million bonus check. It’s an astonishing number and all the cash on the table is an impetus for getting these top players in the world out on the course and playing this postseason after the final major has passed. Rory McIlroy said this week that a $10 million check is not something that would matter too much to him anymore, given his place in the game and the money he’s already earned. He may feel that way, but almost everyone else on Tour and in this field is gunning for that enormous pot.
The $10 million bonus payout, and all the other bonus money, does not count toward a player’s season earnings. If Spieth were to win, he’d bank the Tour Championship’s winner’s payout of $1,485,000 and that would obviously count towards his season totals. It would also set a new single-season earnings record, eclipsing Vijay Singh’s $10.91 million 2004 season. A fourth-place or better finish, which seems extremely likely and would earn at least $396,000, would also be enough to set the new record. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison given inflation of the purses (Singh’s total today would be about $13.8M), but Spieth’s season is still one of the all-time greats.
Aside from that enormous winner’s check, all top-five finishers in the FedExCup standings earn seven figures in bonus cash. As you might imagine, those five are already some of the richest names in the game -- Stenson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, and Jason Day. Stenson won the FedExCup two years ago and held the lead through the first 36 holes this week. He’s just a shot back and should push Spieth all afternoon in a bid to become the second player ever to bank that $10 million two times (Tiger being the other).
Here’s the full breakdown of the bonus cash doled out during this postseason. Aside from the money handed out in Atlanta on Sunday, the 95 players previously eliminated from the postseason all earned nice bonus checks as well. Even 25 players who were so mediocre that they didn’t even make the FedExCup still earned $32,000 in bonus money.
| FEC Finishing Spot | Bonus Money | FEC Finishing Spot | Bonus Money |
| 1 | $10,000,000 | 31 | $165,000 |
| 2 | $3,000,000 | 32 | $155,000 |
| 3 | $2,000,000 | 33 | $150,000 |
| 4 | $1,500,000 | 34 | $145,000 |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | 35 | $142,000 |
| 6 | $800,000 | 36 | $140,000 |
| 7 | $700,000 | 37 | $138,000 |
| 8 | $600,000 | 38 | $137,000 |
| 9 | $550,000 | 39 | $136,000 |
| 10 | $500,000 | 40 | $135,000 |
| 11 | $300,000 | 41 | $134,000 |
| 12 | $290,000 | 42 | $133,000 |
| 13 | $280,000 | 43 | $132,000 |
| 14 | $270,000 | 44 | $131,000 |
| 15 | $250,000 | 45 | $130,000 |
| 16 | $245,000 | 46 | $129,000 |
| 17 | $240,000 | 47 | $128,000 |
| 18 | $235,000 | 48 | $127,000 |
| 19 | $230,000 | 49 | $126,000 |
| 20 | $225,000 | 50 | $125,000 |
| 21 | $220,000 | 51 | $120,000 |
| 22 | $215,000 | 52 | $115,000 |
| 23 | $210,000 | 53 | $114,000 |
| 24 | $205,000 | 54 | $113,000 |
| 25 | $200,000 | 55-70 | $110,000 |
| 26 | $195,000 | 71-80 | $80,000 |
| 27 | $190,000 | 81-100 | $75,000 |
| 28 | $185,000 | 101-125 | $70,000 |
| 29 | $180,000 | 126-150 | $32,000 |
| 30 | $175,000 | TOTAL | $35,000,000 |
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