Masters purse 2018: Patrick Reed takes home $1.98 million in prize money

Patrick Reed won the 2018 Masters tournament on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. It’s his first-ever victory there, and in addition to the Green Jacket, he gets a $1.98 million cut from a total purse of $11 million. That’s 18 percent of the total pot for a tournament that had 87 players, of whom 81 were professionals and are thus eligible to be paid.

The Masters purse is not the richest in golf. The U.S. Open paid $12 million last year, a record that the USGA could decide to top itself on any time. The Open Championship paid a $10.25 million total sum, and the PGA Championship paid $10.5 million. The Players Championship, which has tried hard to carve out a place as the sport’s de-facto fifth major, also paid $10.5 million, because purse amounts are largely about prestige-building.

Augusta National knows the Masters is a big deal, though, and the club’s leadership knows that you know it’s a big deal, too. The Masters’ deep history has probably insulated it some from the urge to show how important it is by flexing some additional financial muscle. The Masters doesn’t need to pay a huge amount to attract the best players in the world to compete there, or to make fans care about it, but it pays handsomely anyway.

Here’s the complete list of payouts for the top 50 positions: