Players Championship purse 2019: Winner’s payout is $2.25 million in prize money

A primary part of the ascendance of The Players Championship is its purse. The money should not matter so much. A big purse does not make an event more significant to the outside viewer in the way history and context do. The Ryder Cup has no prize money on the line. But a big part of billing it as this elite event and maybe one worth crowbarring into the major championship discussion is that hefty purse. They marketed is as such, too. Augusta National is loath to mention the purse for the Masters. They do not want the money matters to become a public talking point. The Players has always been the opposite, especially in the Tim Finchem era since the turn of the century. They are proud and public about having the richest purse in the game, or one of the richest purses in the game.

They had lost that status as the richest in recent years during a frenzied arms race between the major championships. The race really kicked into overdrive back in the fall of 2013, when both the PGA Tour and PGA of America made a joint announcement that their two prized championships, the Players and PGA, were making a purse jump together to $10 million. It was a mind-boggling number at the time and ever since, all four majors, The Players, and even the WGCs, have been in a constant state of adding to the already massive numbers.

The biggest recent jump since that 2013 announcement came at the U.S. Open, where the USGA threw down the gauntlet and made the move to $12 million in 2017. That was a $2 million increase in one fell swoop and put the U.S. Open clearly ahead of all the other majors after a few years of all four (and The Players) hovering around the same amounts.

Now, two years later, The Players is making its own massive jump to claim the title of the richest purse in the game again. This year’s total purse at TPC Sawgrass is $12.5 million, the largest ever for one of these championships. Combine that with all the cash doled out during the FedExCup and you have a PGA Tour that appears to be swimming in one big money bath. Here are some of the biggest purses in the game from last season and the start of this season:

The Players moving to $12.5 million obviously makes it the biggest of the lot ... for now. I would not be surprised if the U.S. Open came over the top come June, increasing their purse to at least $12.5 million or possibly more to reclaim the title. We do, however, have a little bit of separation in the group, as opposed to the minimal $250k differences in the past five years. We’ll see if the Masters or PGA makes a similar dramatic jump in the next two months.

The top two finishers make handsome seven-figure sums, while everyone inside the top 26 is making at least six figures. It’s an obscene amount of cash that no one could have imagined when this tournament started on the PGA Tour four decades ago. Here are your payout totals

UPDATE: Rory McIlroy did not need another $2 million, but the Ulsterman will take it. His Players win will certainly amp up the hype before the Masters. Here are your results and payout totals from TPC Sawgrass: