The PGA Tour starts its year by making everyone in its first event feel good about themselves. The annual Tournament of Champions on Maui is a no-cut event, guaranteeing that everyone who tees it up and finishes will walk away with a pretty nice check. Of course, the cash difference between last and first is significant, but playing golf for a week in one of the world’s most beautiful settings and taking home more than $60,000 for finishing in dead last is still pretty good work.
SBS Tournament of Champions purse: Winner’s payout is $1.2 million at Kapalua
Justin Thomas is about to win his second $1.2 million check of the season.
Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
The 2017 SBS Tournament of Champions purse is $6.1 million, a nice $400,000 bump from last year’s pot at Kapalua. That’s bigger than some events that have a full ~150-man field during the regular season. This event has just 32 players. The winner this year will bank $1.22 million of that $6.1 million purse.
The field is so small because this event is reserved for winners only. In order to get a spot, you have to have won a tournament from the previous calendar year. Justin Thomas went winless through the 2015-16 season, but got on the board early with a victory in the fall series of events, which actually count towards 2016-17 FedExCup season on Tour (they’ve tried to make this as confusing as possible). Thomas won the CIMB Classic over in Malaysia in late October. It was the second time he’d won that event, and his second win on Tour.
Thomas is just 23 years old and big things are expected from him. There will be bigger wins ahead, but to date, this would probably be the biggest moment of his career. Not every superstar in the game is in this field, but there was plenty of firepower. World No. 1 Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, and the hottest player in the world, No. 6 Hideki Matsuyama, were just some of the elite powers in this limited field. Thomas has the ability to join that tier of world talents and opening the year with a win and a big payday in Maui could set him up for that breakout 2017 season.
In just a couple years on Tour, JT has already accrued $8,558,604 in career earnings. The $1.22 million winner’s check wouldn’t be the biggest of his career -- the victory in Kuala Lumpur paid out sliiiightly more, $1.26 million. But the money is secondary for a young star who will probably never have to worry about cash and is trying to do bigger things in the game.
Update: Thomas did hold on for the win. Here are your final payout numbers from Maui:
| Place | Player | Score | Payout |
| 1 | Justin Thomas | -22 | $1,220,000.00 |
| 2 | Hideki Matsuyama | -19 | $712,000.00 |
| T3 | Jordan Spieth | -16 | $359,000.00 |
| T3 | Pat Perez | -16 | $359,000.00 |
| T3 | Ryan Moore | -16 | $359,000.00 |
| T6 | Dustin Johnson | -15 | $210,000.00 |
| T6 | Patrick Reed | -15 | $210,000.00 |
| T6 | Brendan Steele | -15 | $210,000.00 |
| T9 | Tony Finau | -14 | $172,333.00 |
| T9 | William McGirt | -14 | $172,333.00 |
| T9 | Jimmy Walker | -14 | $172,333.00 |
| T12 | Jim Herman | -13 | $147,000.00 |
| T12 | Jason Day | -13 | $147,000.00 |
| T14 | Cody Gribble | -12 | $122,000.00 |
| T14 | Brandt Snedeker | -12 | $122,000.00 |
| T14 | Daniel Berger | -12 | $122,000.00 |
| T17 | Rod Pampling | -11 | $98,333.00 |
| T17 | Charley Hoffman | -11 | $98,333.00 |
| T17 | Russell Knox | -11 | $98,333.00 |
| 20 | Fabian Gomez | -10 | $88,000.00 |
| 21 | Jason Dufner | -9 | $84,000.00 |
| T22 | Brian Stuard | -8 | $78,500.00 |
| T22 | James Hahn | -8 | $78,500.00 |
| 24 | Vaughn Taylor | -7 | $74,000.00 |
| T25 | Mackenzie Hughes | -6 | $70,000.00 |
| T25 | Aaron Baddeley | -6 | $70,000.00 |
| T25 | Bubba Watson | -6 | $70,000.00 |
| 28 | Greg Chalmers | -5 | $66,000.00 |
| 29 | Billy Hurley III | -1 | $64,000.00 |
| T30 | Jhonattan Vegas | E | $62,500.00 |
| T30 | Si Woo Kim | E | $62,500.00 |
| 32 | Branden Grace | 1 | $61,000.00 |
See More:
