The Tiger Woods era, which golf watchers have proclaimed over for some time, may have officially come to an end this week when he lost his perch atop Golf Digest’s roster of the sport’s biggest moneymakers to top-ranked Jordan Spieth.
Jordan Spieth overtakes Tiger Woods as golf’s top earner
For the first time since Golf Digest has named the top 50 moneymakers in golf, Tiger Woods is no longer No. 1. Jordan Spieth, the current world No. 1, moves to the head of class after a superlative 2015 season.
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As Spieth and Phil Mickelson overtook the recuperating Woods on the comprehensive Golf Digest 50 earnings report — the first time the former world No. 1 has not led the field in the list’s 13-year history — the PGA Tour also dropped Tiger from its website’s players page.
Truly the end of an era: No more Tiger Woods on @PGATour player page - pic.twitter.com/XqZur6yiIi
— Emily Kay (@golfexaminer) January 10, 2016 What a double-barreled setback for the 420th-ranked male golfer who last played a competitive round in August and remains sidelined indefinitely with a bad back.
Golf Digest has amassed accounts of golfers’ tournament prize money plus estimated endorsement and other off-course earnings since 2002. Woods, who has banked more than $1.4 billion during his nearly 20-year career, compiled more than $48.5 million in 2015, when he posted one top-10 finish, four missed cuts and a withdrawal in 11 starts.
Spieth, 22, and many observers’ current pick to become the “next Tiger Woods,” won the Masters, U.S. Open and three other tour events on his way to earning more than $53 million last year and leaping from 16th to first on the money list. Phil Mickelson remained in second place after taking home $52 million-plus. Rory McIlroy, at almost $47 million, dipped from third to fourth.
On the women’s side, 18-year-old Lydia Ko made the GD Top 50 for the first time with earnings of some $5.3 million. She, Stacy Lewis (No. 42/$5.9 million) and Paula Creamer (No. 50/$5.1 million) were the only LPGA Tour players to make the cut.
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