The Zurich Classic in New Orleans has been an unqualified success. It’s the first team event on the PGA Tour in some 36 years and as you can imagine, the interest level has far exceeded what existed for prior iterations of the Zurich. Any time we can switch things up from the week-to-week monotony of a 72-hole stroke play event, we should.
Zurich Classic 2017 purse: Winners’ payout is $2 million in prize money in New Orleans
The Zurich Classic is the first two-man team event on the PGA Tour in decades. But does that mean less cash for the winner? Not quite.
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
The new two-man format featured two days of foursomes alternate-shot play and two days of four-ball best ball. It drew 13 of the top 30 players in the world. Last year, there were only three from the top 30. This was an event that needed a jolt and the PGA Tour finally acquiescing to a team-play format was an enormous boost for both interest and field depth.
The move seemed like a no-brainer but there were, of course, some complications to be worked out. The biggest issue was how to allocate FedExCup points, exemptions, and cash for the winners. It’s pretty simple when there’s just one winner on Tour. They get exemptions to the Masters and PGA Championship, a two-year PGA Tour card, a full allotment of FedExCup points, a big boost in Official World Golf Rankings points, and (almost always) a $1 million-plus check.
Here’s the breakdown of who gets what for winning this week. Both players get the two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, which is such a critical perk for players grinding to stay on the most competitive tour in the world. Both get full first-place money. Both get full first-place FedExCup points. There are no OWGR points available and there will be no exemptions to the two majors, a previous perk when this event had just one winner.
The total purse is $7.1 million, which is above average for one of these regular old weekly PGA Tour events. It’s part of the commitment the title sponsor made with the Tour to give this thing some juice. Here’s the full payout table for the two-man teams that made the cut — money is obviously split in half (we’ll update final totals when results go official, obviously some of these amounts will be impacted by ties):
Place | Payout |
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