So you want to play on the PGA Tour? You better be really, really good at golf, first of all. But once you do make it, you better be really, really good with numbers.
OK, so these guys almost all have accountants crunching the numbers for them and it’s easy to see why after one PGA Tour winner revealed how much money a top-50 player actually makes after paying out expenses and taxes. Because it’s a lot to keep track of!
And while the end result is still a lot of money, it might be less than what golf fans think after Uncle Sam gets his cut. Anyway, take it away, Michael Kim—who in this case is part PGA Tour pro, part PGA Tour professor.
https://twitter.com/Mike_kim714/status/1943026007037890781
Taxes after deductions: ~$1.5 million federal (at a 37% rate) + ~$160k state (at 4% average rate, varies by state) = $1.6 million to the IRS
We pay state income tax based on the state we earned money in. For ex. The difference between winning the ATT pebble beach and Arnold…
— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) July 9, 2025
Net Earnings is 2.4m not 3.4m
Sorry!
— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) July 9, 2025
Thanks to Michael—one of Golf Twitter’s best follows—for sharing, because golf fans seems to be fascinated by this stuff. Like we said, there’s a lot of maths involved—especially when factoring in individual US state taxes from tournaments where money was earned. Even Michael, a Cal grad, initially makes a simple subtraction mistake.
Trueeee
— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) July 9, 2025
But bottom line, that $US5 million in earnings turns into a $US2.4 million bottom line. (It would be less if those business expenses weren’t tax deductible.)
And as Michael points out, this is NOT factoring in player endorsement deals (which for some is how they make most of their money). Like the one he has with Range finance that he mentions in this series of tweets. (Brilliant move, Michael!) In any event, if you’re playing on the PGA Tour, you’re doing pretty well—especially if you’re in the top 50.
