It was a big day on Sunday for Cameron Smith at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. As headlines trumpeted afterward, the 28-year-old from Brisbane held off world No.1 Jon Rahm to win his fourth career PGA Tour title, doing it in style by setting the new PGA Tour scoring mark for lowest 72-hole total in relation to par (34-under).
Less well known was that in winning at Kapalua’s Plantation course, Smith earned the largest single payday of his young and burgeoning pro golf career: $US1.476 million. That tops Smith’s previous high of $1.188 million that he made for his victory at the 2020 Sony Open.
Suffice it to say, it pays to be successful on the PGA Tour. Literally. Winners of any full-status tour event earn seven-figure prizemoney payouts that will only be increasing in 2022. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan outlined to tour members late last year that tournament prizemoney will rise from $US375 million to $US427 million in 2022, thanks in part to increases in revenues from the new television deal that kicks in this year.
An interesting fact about Smith’s $1.476 million payday, however, is where it puts him among active PGA Tour pros in terms of the largest individual payouts earned. As large as $1.476 million sounds, it ranks Smith only 44th among all current tour members in terms of the biggest one-time paydays.
Yes, 43 other PGA Tour pros have won a cheque for more than that amount.
With help from the PGA Tour’s communications team, Golf Digest compiled a list of the largest paydays for every active player on tour. Justin Thomas sits in the top spot with his $US2.7 million windfall for winning last year’s Players Championship. He’s one of 11 tour pros who have earned a payday of more than $2 million.
Meanwhile, of the 266 golfers with some form of active status on tour (winners, top 125 on the FedEx Cup points, Korn Ferry Tour graduates, past champions, medical extensions, etc.), you might be surprised that 155 of them (58.2 percent) have earned a cheque for $US1 million at some point during their careers. And of the total membership, the average largest cheque comes in at $1,000,756.40. (This includes one player, Callum Tarren, who has a tour card but has yet to win any prizemoney on tour; take him out of the equation, and the average goes to $1,004,532.84.)
Below is the list of all 155 active players whose largest paydays have exceeded the $US1 million mark. Interestingly, not all of them are cheques earned en route to victory. Louis Oosthuizen, for example, has his largest payday for his runner-up at last year’s US Open ($1.35 million) rather than his 2010 Open Championship win ($1,305,593.20). Largest cheques for something that wasn’t a win are denoted in parentheses, while all amounts are in $US.
Justin Thomas / $2,700,000 / 2021 Players Championship
Bryson DeChambeau / $2,250,000 / 2020 US Open
Rory McIlroy / $2,250,000 / 2019 Players Championship
Jon Rahm / $2,250,000 / 2021 US Open
Gary Woodland / $2,250,000 / 2019 US Open
Brooks Koepka / $2,160,000 / 2018 US Open
Phil Mickelson / $2,160,000 / 2021 PGA Championship
Dustin Johnson / $2,070,000 / 2020 Masters
Hideki Matsuyama / $2,070,000 / 2021 Masters
Collin Morikawa / $2,070,000 / 2021 Open Championship
Tiger Woods / $2,070,000 / 2019 Masters
Sergio Garcia / $1,980,000 / 2017 Masters Tournament
Patrick Reed / $1,980,000 / 2018 Masters Tournament
Webb Simpson / $1,980,000 / 2018 Players Championship
Shane Lowry / $1,935,000 / 2019 Open Championship
Jason Day / $1,890,000 / 2016 Players Championship
Si Woo Kim / $1,890,000 / 2017 Players Championship
Francesco Molinari / $1,890,000 / 2018 Open Championship
Jordan Spieth / $1,845,000 / 2017 Open Championship
Abraham Ancer / $1,820,000 / 2021 WGC–FedEx St Jude Invitational
Billy Horschel / $1,820,000 / 2021 WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play
Rickie Fowler / $1,800,000 / 2015 Players Championship
Jimmy Walker / $1,800,000 / 2016 PGA Championship
Danny Willett / $1,800,000 / 2016 Masters
Zach Johnson / $1,794,690 / 2015 Open Championship
Jason Kokrak / $1,755,000 / 2020 CJ Cup @ Shadow Creek
Kevin Kisner / $1,745,000 / 2019 WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play
Patrick Cantlay / $1,710,000 / 2021 BMW Championship
K.J. Choi / $1,710,000 / 2011 Players Championship
Tony Finau / $1,710,000 / 2021 Northern Trust
Matt Kuchar / $1,710,000 / 2012 Players Championship
Henrik Stenson / $1,710,000 / 2009 Players Championship
Xander Schauffele / $1,700,000 / 2018 WGC–HSBC Champions
Bubba Watson / $1,700,000 / 2018 WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play
Tyrrell Hatton / $1,674,000 / 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Max Homa / $1,674,000 / 2021 Genesis Invitational
Adam Scott / $1,674,000 / 2020 Genesis Invitational
Justin Rose / $1,660,000 / 2017 WGC–HSBC Champions
Lee Westwood / $1,635,000 / 2021 Players Championship (second)
Keegan Bradley / $1,620,000 / 2018 BMW Championship
Marc Leishman / $1,575,000 / 2017 BMW Championship
Jason Dufner / $1,566,000 / 2017 Memorial
William McGirt / $1,530,000 / 2016 Memorial
Cameron Smith / $1,475,000 / 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions
K.H. Lee / $1,458,000 / 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson
Bill Haas / $1,440,000 / 2011 Tour Championship
Chris Kirk / $1,440,000 / 2014 Deutsche Bank Championship
Hunter Mahan / $1,440,000 / 2014 Barclays
Charl Schwartzel / $1,440,000 / 2011 Masters
Brandt Snedeker / $1,440,000 / 2012 Tour Championship
Nick Watney / $1,440,000 / 2012 Barclays
Sung Kang / $1,422,000 / 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson
Ernie Els / $1,405,890 / 2012 Open Championship
Daniel Berger / $1,404,000 / 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Nick Taylor / $1,404,000 / 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Luke Donald / $1,400,000 / 2011 WGC–Accenture Match Play Championship
Russell Knox / $1,400,000 / 2015 WGC–HSBC Champions
Ian Poulter / $1,400,000 / 2010 WGC–Accenture Match Play Championship
Aaron Wise / $1,386,000 / 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson
Corey Conners / $1,350,000 / 2019 Valero Texas Open
Cam Davis / $1,350,000 / 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic
Jim Furyk / $1,350,000 / 2010 Tour Championship
Lucas Glover / $1,350,000 / 2009 US Open
Lanto Griffin / $1,350,000 / 2019 Houston Open
Brian Harman / $1,350,000 / 2017 Wells Fargo Championship
Charley Hoffman / $1,350,000 / 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship
Graeme McDowell / $1,350,000 / 2010 US Open
Joaquin Niemann / $1,350,000 / 2019 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier
Louis Oosthuizen / $1,350,000 / 2021 US Open (second)
Vijay Singh / $1,350,000 / 2008 WGC–Bridgestone Invitational
Steve Stricker / $1,350,000 / 2009 Deutsche Bank Championship
Matthew Wolff / $1,350,000 / 2020 US Open (second)
Harris English / $1,340,000 / 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions
J.B. Holmes / $1,332,000 / 2019 Genesis Open
Ted Potter, Jr. / $1,332,000 / 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
James Hahn / $1,314,000 / 2016 Wells Fargo Championship
Garrick Higgo / $1,314,000 / 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree
Nate Lashley / $1,314,000 / 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic
Kevin Na / $1,314,000 / 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge
David Toms / $1,300,000 / 2005 WGC–Accenture Match Play Championship
Tommy Fleetwood / $1,296,000 / 2018 US Open (second)
Talor Gooch / $1,296,000 / 2021 RSM Classic
Viktor Hovland / $1,296,000 / 2021 Mayakoba Golf Classic
Chez Reavie / $1,296,000 / 2019 Travelers Championship
Brendon Todd / $1,296,000 / 2019 Mayakoba Golf Classic
Stewart Cink / $1,278,000 / 2021 RBC Heritage
Patton Kizzire / $1,278,000 / 2017 OHL Classic at Mayakoba
Kyle Stanley / $1,278,000 / 2017 Quicken Loans National
Pat Perez / $1,260,001 / 2016 OHL Classic at Mayakoba
Sam Burns / $1,260,000 / 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship
Russell Henley / $1,260,000 / 2017 Shell Houston Open
Sungae Im / $1,260,000 / 2021 Shriners Children’s Open
Matt Jones / $1,260,000 / 2021 Honda Classic
Martin Laird / $1,260,000 / 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
Ryan Moore / $1,260,000 / 2014 CIMB Classic
Carlos Ortiz / $1,260,000 / 2020 Vivint Houston Open
Brian Stuard / $1,260,000 / 2016 Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Vaughn Taylor / $1,260,000 / 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Camilo Villegas / $1,260,000 / 2008 Tour Championship
C.T. Pan / $1,242,000 / 2019 RBC Heritage
Will Zalatoris / $1,242,000 / 2021 Masters (second)
Jim Herman / $1,224,000 / 2016 Shell Houston Open
Keith Mitchell / $1,224,000 / 2019 Honda Classic
Seung-Yul Noh / $1,224,000 / 2014 Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Sangmoon Bae / $1,206,000 / 2013 HP Byron Nelson Championship
Paul Casey / $1,206,000 / 2019 Valspar Championship
Satoshi Kodaira / $1,206,000 / 2018 RBC Heritage
Andrew Landry / $1,206,000 / 2020 American Express
Danny Lee / $1,206,000 / 2015 Greenbrier Classic
Troy Merritt / $1,206,000 / 2015 Quicken Loans National
Cameron Champ / $1,188,000 / 2019 Safeway Open
Tyler Duncan / $1,188,000 / 2019 RSM Classic
Sebastian Muñoz / $1,188,000 / 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship
Rod Pampling / $1,188,000 / 2016 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
Robert Streb / $1,188,000 / 2020 RSM Classic
Michael Thompson / $1,188,000 / 2020 3M Open
Aaron Baddeley / $1,170,000 / 2011 Northern Trust Open
Wesley Bryan / $1,170,000 / 2017 RBC Heritage
Lucas Herbert / $1,170,000 / 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Davis Love III / $1,170,000 / 2003 Players Championship
Sean O’Hair / $1,170,000 / 2009 Quail Hollow Championship
Rory Sabbatini / $1,170,000 / 2009 HP Byron Nelson Championship
Charles Howell III / $1,152,000 / 2018 RSM Classic
Kevin Tway / $1,152,000 / 2018 Safeway Open
Scottie Scheffler / $1,150,000 / 2021 WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play (second)
Jonas Blixt / $1,134,000 / 2013 Greenbrier Classic
Kevin Chappell / $1,134,000 / 2016 Players Championship (second)
Matt Every / $1,134,000 / 2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Adam Hadwin / $1,134,000 / 2017 Valspar Championship
Jerry Kelly / $1,134,000 / 2009 Zurich Classic of New Orleans
D.A. Points / $1,134,000 / 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Jonathan Byrd / $1,120,000 / 2011 Hyundai Tournament of Champions
Austin Cook / $1,116,000 / 2017 RSM Classic
David Lingmerth / $1,116,000 / 2015 Memorial
Ben Martin / $1,116,000 / 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
J.T. Poston / $1,116,000 / 2019 Wyndham Championship
Kevin Stadler / $1,116,000 / 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open
Brendan Steele / $1,116,000 / 2017 Safeway Open
Kevin Streelman / $1,116,000 / 2014 Travelers Championship
Scott Stallings / $1,098,000 / 2014 Farmers Insurance Open
Dylan Frittelli / $1,080,000 / 2019 John Deere Classic
Fabian Gómez / $1,080,000 / 2015 FedEx St. Jude Classic
Emiliano Grillo / $1,080,000 / 2015 Frys.com Open
Tim Herron / $1,080,000 / 2006 Bank of America Colonial
Mackenzie Hughes / $1,080,000 / 2016 RSM Classic
Jhonattan Vegas / $1,080,000 / 2017 RBC Canadian Open
Mike Weir / $1,080,000 / 2003 Masters
Branden Grace / $1,062,000 / 2016 RBC Heritage
Adam Long / $1,062,000 / 2019 Desert Classic
Ryan Palmer / $1,051,200 / 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Michael Kim / $1,044,000 / 2018 John Deere Classic
Hudson Swafford / $1,044,000 / 2017 CareerBuilder Challenge
Scott Piercy / $1,036,800 / 2018 Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Brian Gay / $1,026,000 / 2009 Verizon Heritage
Johnson Wagner / $1,008,000 / 2008 Shell Houston Open
