U.S. Open purse 2017: Winner’s payout is record $2.1 million in prize money

If Brian Harman hangs on to win the U.S. Open on Sunday, his cut of the record-setting $12 million purse — more than $2.1 million — will almost equal his total 2017 PGA Tour earnings.

The world’s 50th-ranked golfer and 54-hole leader at Erin Hills, who has made almost $2.8 million so far in a year that features one of his two career tour victories and four additional top-10 finishes in 15 starts, would not be the only contestant fattening his bank account. With the USGA announcing in February that the prize money for this year’s national championship would total $2 million more than in 2016 — when golf’s most lucrative tournament awarded winner Dustin Johnson $1.8 million of the $10 million prize package — the runner-up would take home $1.3 million.

Should Justin Thomas, Bruce Koepka, and Tommy Fleetwood finish as they started Sunday’s finale, in a tie for second, they would split $2.67 million among them.

To put the 2017 winner’s new-found riches in context, Tiger Woods pocketed $1.35 million when he prevailed in the 2008 U.S. Open, his last major triumph.

The USGA’s massive bump to $12 million is the latest big move in what seems like an annual arms race between the four majors and The Players Championship. In 2014, the PGA Tour and PGA of American made a joint announcement that they were pushing The Players and PGA Championship purses to $10 million, the first to get to eight figures. The other three majors quickly followed suit and we’ve had a back-and-forth now for a few years.

Brexit impacted The Open’s purse dramatically last year, but all four majors and The Players had stood pat around $10 million — until this offseason, when the USGA used some of that cash from a $1 billion TV deal with FOX to made the latest dramatic increase.

The purse increase means we’ll be getting our first-ever $2 million winner and a runner-up that’s well in excess of $1 million. We know the U.S. Open can be a grind, but this is not bad work for hitting a little white ball around a field for four days.

A total of 68 players made the cut, but two — Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Champ — are still amateurs. Both those players are also inside the top 35, so they’re going to be forfeiting what would have been some hefty five-figure checks. Here is a breakdown of who will win what at Erin Hills — we’ll update totals with ties when results go official: