The U.S. Open winner gets $2.16 million out of a $12 million total purse

The winner of the 2018 U.S. Open will get a $2.16 million cut of a $12 million total purse from golf’s national championship, tying a record this tournament set last year.

The U.S. Open set the current purse record at $12 million in 2017, with winner Brooks Koepka walking away with $2.16 million of that before taxes. The USGA, which runs the tournament, has been at the forefront of a purse arms race that’s caught up all four majors.

The Masters purse is currently at $11 million. The Open Championship was at $10.25 million in 2017, and the PGA Championship was at $10.5 million. The Players Championship has hiked its purses in recent years in an effort to solidify its status as a kind of fifth major. It’s now up to $11 million, paying its players like it’s an upper-tier major. (It’s not.)

The USGA doesn’t have to play the prestige game, but it’s possible that it’s sought to have the game’s biggest purses so it can outdo the Masters at something. The tournament at Augusta National is the major, if most golf people have to pick one, but the U.S. Open can at least claim a slight financial advantage for now. All of these majors are likely to keep pushing each other upward in purse totals well into the future.

The tournament had a 156-man field. Everyone except the 20 amateurs gets at least something, though the dollar figures get relatively tiny as you make your way down the leaderboard. If multiple players are tied, they each get the average of the payout amounts for their respective leaderboard slots. Here’s the top-50 breakdown at Shinnecock Hills:

1. $2.16 million
2. $1.296 million
3. $804,023
4. $563,642
5. $469,460
6. $416,263
7. $375,278
8. $336,106
9. $304,188
10. $279,403
11. $254,981
12. $235,757
13. $219,677
14. $202,751
15. $188,243
16. $176,153
17. $166,481
18. $156,809
19. $147,137
20. $137,464
21. $129,122
22. $120,780
23. $112,680
24. $105,184
25. $98,655
26. $93,094
27. $88,862
28. $85,114
29. $81,487
30. $77,860
31. $74,233
32. $70,606
33. $66,979
34. $63,715
35. $61,055
36. $58,395
37. $55,856
38. $53,438
39. $51,020
40. $48,602
41. $46,184
42. $43,766
43. $41,348
44. $38,930
45. $36,512
46. $34,336
47. $32,159
48. $30,104
49. $28,895
50. $27,686