PGA Championship purse 2017: $1.89 million in prize money awaits winner

Whoever wins the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow gets two things: his name inscribed on the Wanamaker Trophy and, more importantly, a huge pile of cash.

The purse for this year’s championship is $10.5 million, the highest ever for the event and an increase of $500,000 from last year. The winning share is $1.89 million. The purse for the PGA beats the $10 million at last month’s Open Championship. It’s below the $11 million total at the Masters and the record $12 million at the U.S. Open.

Purses in golf tournaments can be likened to an arms race. The people who organize these tournaments want their events to seem as prestigious as possible, and one way to work toward that goal is to wave a lot of money in front of the participants. The Players Championship has escalated its purse over the years to entrench its status as golf’s “fifth major,” and the majors themselves have jockeyed for financial positioning as well. These numbers are on their way up, not down.

To some degree, there’s an extra impetus for the PGA to hike its payouts. Fair or not (and I’d argue it’s not), this championship is often considered less prestigious than the Masters, U.S. Open, and Open Championship. A major is a major, but some majors get more major billing than others. For the PGA to offer less than all the others would not be a helpful look.

As with most purse structures, the stakes are highest at the top of the leaderboard. The difference between finishing first and finishing second is $756,000, and the gap between places gets progressively smaller from there. When players tie at a given position, they average the payouts for those spots and all get the same amount.

Here’s the full payout sheet for the top 70 professional finishers:

1. $1,890,000
2. $1,134,000
3. $714,000
4. $504,000
5. $420,000
6. $351,750
7. $328,650
8. $307,650
9. $286,650
10. $265,650
11. $244,650
12. $223,650
13. $207,900
14. $193,200
15. $180,600
16. $168,000
17. $155,400
18. $142,800
19. $132,300
20. $121,800
21. $111,300
22. $100,800
23. $95,550
24. $90,300
25. $86,100
26. $81,900
27. $77,700
28. $74,550
29. $71,400
30. $68,250
31. $65,100
32. $61,950
33. $58,800
34. $55,650
35. $52,500
36. $49,770
37. $47,040
38. $44,520
39. $42,000
40. $39,900
41. $37,800
42. $35,700
43. $33,600
44. $32,550
45. $31,500
46. $30,450
47. $29,400
48. $28,350
49. $27,825
50. $27,300
51. $26,775
52. $26,250
53. $25,725
54. $25,200
55. $24,675
56. $24,150
57. $23,625
58. $23,100
59. $22,575
60. $22,050
61. $21,630
62. $21,210
63. $20,790
64. $20,370
65. $19,950
66. $19,740
67. $19,530
68. $19,320
69. $19,110.
70. $18,900