Sergio Garcia is the Masters champion for 2017, having beaten Justin Rose in a thrilling Sunday round that required a sudden-death playoff. For that, he’ll get a green jacket and a place in eternal golfing lore. He’ll also get $1.98 million, the largest payout in Masters history.
Masters purse 2017: Sergio Garcia takes home $1.98 million in prize money
The green jacket comes with almost $2 million.
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
The sport’s four majors have all become significantly more lucrative over the last few years. Golf has undergone a sort of payouts arms race, with tournaments competing amongst themselves to add a sense of prestige by paying out more money. Every major’s been swept up in it, along with the PGA Tour and the Players Championship.
The Masters offered a winner’s payout of less than $500,000 as recently as the 1990s. The purse and winner’s share have grown together over the years, crescendoing this year. No Masters champion has ever earned this much for his efforts, and there’s a great chance this payout will be topped as soon as a year or two from now.
The total purse for this year’s Masters is $11 million. The first-place finisher comes out more than $800,000 ahead of the second-place finisher, and the difference between positions gets progressively smaller from there. Each of the top 50 professionals in the field get at least $27,720, and even those who missed the cut get something. The payout for cut-missing pros starts at $27,060 and goes down from there.
Garcia entered the tournament with less than $600,000 in PGA Tour earnings so far in 2017. He’s now more than tripled that sum by winning at Augusta.
The Masters is one of golf’s greatest, most unique traditions. (The slogan indicating as much is corny but not inaccurate.) The most memorable thing about any Masters tournament is the competition itself, with the green jacket ceremony not far behind. But winning nearly $2 million for your efforts isn’t such a bad thing, either.
The next major on the schedule is the U.S. Open in June, taking place at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. The purse for that event will be a record $12 million. The takeaway here is that if you can get it and then win majors in it, professional golf is really good work.
Here’s the full table of payouts by place for this year’s Masters, starting with the winner and running down to the 50th-lowest-scoring professional. The amateurs in the field aren’t eligible to take payouts for their performance.
Masters purse 2018 ($11 million total)
Position | Payout |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,980,000 |
| 2 | $1,118,000 |
| 3 | $748,000 |
| 4 | $528,000 |
| 5 | $440,000 |
| 6 | $396,000 |
| 7 | $368,500 |
| 8 | $341,000 |
| 9 | $319,000 |
| 10 | $297,000 |
| 11 | $275,000 |
| 12 | $253,000 |
| 13 | $231,000 |
| 14 | $209,000 |
| 15 | $198,000 |
| 16 | $187,000 |
| 17 | $176,000 |
| 18 | $165,000 |
| 19 | $154,000 |
| 20 | $143,000 |
| 21 | $132,000 |
| 22 | $123,200 |
| 23 | $114,400 |
| 24 | $105,600 |
| 25 | $96,800 |
| 26 | $88,000 |
| 27 | $84,700 |
| 28 | $81,400 |
| 29 | $78,100 |
| 30 | $74,800 |
| 31 | $71,500 |
| 32 | $68,200 |
| 33 | $64,900 |
| 34 | $62,150 |
| 35 | $59,400 |
| 36 | $56,650 |
| 37 | $53,900 |
| 38 | $51,700 |
| 39 | $49,500 |
| 40 | $47,300 |
| 41 | $45,100 |
| 42 | $42,900 |
| 43 | $40,700 |
| 44 | $38,500 |
| 45 | $36,300 |
| 46 | $34,100 |
| 47 | $31,900 |
| 48 | $30,140 |
| 49 | $28,600 |
| 50 | $27,720 |
Augusta National Golf Club
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