Jason Day, Jordan Spieth headline lucrative WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and newly crowned U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson may be the headliners, but even relative no-names at this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational will head home on Sunday with lovely parting gifts.

Just ask Troy Merritt. The 2015 Quicken Loans National winner was DFL in last year’s edition of the no-cut event that features a small field and still pocketed the tidy sum of $47,750 just for slogging through four days of golf.

This year’s last-place finisher will make out even better, as he’ll bank a $50,000 paycheck. The winner will also do pretty well, with his share up from last year’s paltry $1,570,000 to $1,620,000. What a country!

Though Day, defending champ Shane Lowry, Adam Scott, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen have withdrawn from the Olympics in Rio (the entire field may have pulled out by now), each of the Firestone contenders — and everyone else on the 61-player roster — can thank the summer games for the extra-heavy money bags they’ll tote out of Akron.

Because of the addition of the summer games to the already busy PGA Tour schedule, the fourth and final WGC event of the year moved up from its usual spot in early August to this week. That’s the same time slot as the French Open, which irked the European Tour so much that officials decided players could not garner Ryder Cup points by playing in the U.S. contest.

Eligibility is limited by several factors, including ranking among the top 50 players in the world. So with Rory McIlroy and Masters winner Danny Willett among those opting for the Euro competition, and fifth-ranked Henrik Stenson inactive this week, the stateside tourney is even smaller than usual.

And with an even bigger purse ($9.5 million compared with $9.25 million in 2015) up for grabs, do the math and it comes out to fewer players splitting the scratch.