2016 Masters: Payout, purse up for grabs in Sunday’s final round

While some golf events and major championships might trumpet the size of their total prize money, at Augusta, we never talk about the cash. It would be undignified for the green jackets to discuss the Masters purse -- it’s more about the tradition, the honor, the green jacket and the experience -- blah, blah, blah.

But as much as the club would rather it not be discussed at all, there’s huge interest in how much money the winner gets and what the payout breakdown is for the field. On Saturday, the club quietly announced that this year’s total purse would be a cool $10 million, which is unchanged from last year.

In recent years, there has been an arms race of sorts among the major championships. Back in November 2013, the PGA of America and the PGA Tour made a grand announcement that their two marquee events, the PGA Championship and The Players, would be making the big move to a $10 million purse. At the time, it was the richest purse in the game and a power move to try and increase the prestige of those sometimes downtrodden events. The Players considers itself the “fifth major” and has always boasted about having the most lucrative purse in the game. The PGA has aggressively tried to improve its identity as the afterthought fourth major and this was one way to do that -- zip past the other three majors in prize money.

The PGA and The Players had the largest purse in the game, but not for long. They held that title for a year before the other three majors joined the party and bumped their total prize money to $10 million. In 2014, the Masters increased their purse from $8 to $9 million and last year from $9 to $10 million. So the announcement that it will be static for 2016 is perhaps a sign of a slowdown in the major championship purse arms race.

Jordan Spieth will start the final round on the lead yet again, playing in the final Sunday pairing for the third straight year. Spieth is just 22 years old and, of course, does not exactly need the money. With his $10 million FedExCup win, the biggest cash windfall in golf, Spieth’s season earnings last year ballooned to a record $22 million. He’s making an enormous amount of money both on and off the course. Another $1.8 million payout would be nice, but he really just wants a second straight green jacket.

Spieth’s final round playing partner, on the other hand, would earn almost the equivalent of his entire career earnings if he were to win at Augusta on Sunday. Smylie Kaufman’s career total is $2,289,646, which is pretty good for just 18 career PGA Tour starts. Smylie has no experience in this late Sunday spot at a major and the cash will probably be pretty far from his mind all day. If he were to stay in that runner-up spot, he’d still earn a massive seven-figure payout.

Here’s the payout breakdown for the top 50 (all finishers will receive totals from $24,600 going down and those who miss the cut still get $10,000):

Be sure to subscribe to SB Nation’s YouTube channel for highlight videos, features, analysis and more