When the inaugural Players Championship was held in 1974, Jack Nicklaus was the winner, earning a $50,000 prize money payout for his victory from an overall purse of $250,000. It was the 54th of 73 PGA Tour titles that Nicklaus won in his career, and the $50K payday matched the largest check the Golden Bear had earned in a tour event up to that point in in the then 34-year-old’s career.
Fast forward to 2025 and, well, you probably know where we’re going with this. The prize money payout for the 51st Players Championship is exponentially bigger, with the overall purse coming in at $25 million and the winner claiming a $4.5 million first-place prize money payout. (One more Nicklaus comparison: his career earnings on the PGA Tour totaled.
The times have certainly changed, the ongoing schism between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf continuing to rage, and with it, the subject of money remains an underlying subplot regarding the uncertain future of men’s professional golf. Suffice it to say, the ramp up in prize money at TPC Sawgrass has happened quickly. As we have noted previously, when Rory McIlroy won the Players just six years ago, he claimed a then-record $2.25 million for his victory. A solo fifth place finish this week earns you $1.025 million.
Indulge us for our annual review of just how much the prize money has risen—again for better or worse—at this championship over the years, seemingly more appropriate given golden anniversary being celebrated this year.
Year: Total Purse/First place 1974: $250,000/Jack Nicklaus, $50,000 1982: $500,000/Jerry Pate, $90,000 1987: $1 million/Sandy Lyle, $180,000 1993: $2.5 million/Nick Price, $450,000 2000: $6 million/Hal Sutton, $1.08 million 2007: $9 million/Phil Mickelson, $1.62 million 2014: $10 million/Martin Kaymer, $1.8 million 2018: $11 million/Webb Simpson, $1.89 million 2019: $12.5 million/Rory McIlroy, $2.25 million 2021: $15 million/Justin Thomas, $2.7 million 2022: $20 million/Cameron Smith, $3.6 million 2024: $25 million/Scottie Scheffler, $4.5 million
Here then is the prize money payout for any golfer making the cut this week at TPC Sawgrass. We’ll update the post after the end of the tournament to list how much each player walked off with from Ponte Vedra Beach.
Win: $4.5 million
2: $2.725 million
3: $1.725 million
4: $1.225 million
5: $1.025 million
6: $906,250
7: $843,750
8: $781,250
9: $731,250
10: $681,250
11: $631,250
12: $581,250
13: $531,250
14: $481,250
15: $456,250
16: $431,250
17: $406,250
18: $381,250
19: $356,250
20: $331,250
Dom Furore / Golf Digest false Public TPC Sawgrass: Stadium Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 4.6 23 Panelists
- 100 Greatest
- 100 Greatest Public
- Best In State
TPC’s stadium concept was the idea of then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman. The 1980 design was pure Pete Dye, who set out to test the world’s best golfers by mixing demands of distance with target golf. Most greens are ringed by random lumps, bumps and hollows, what Dye calls his “grenade attack architecture.” His ultimate target hole is the heart-pounding sink-or-swim island green 17th, which offers no bailout, perhaps unfairly in windy Atlantic coast conditions. The 17th has spawned over a hundred imitation island greens in the past 40 years. To make the layout even more exciting during tournament play, Steve Wenzloff of PGA Tour Design Services recently remodeled several holes, most significantly the 12th, which is now a drivable par 4. View Course
21: $306,250
22: $281,250
23: $261,250
24: $241,250
25: $221,250
26: $201,250
27: $193,750
28: $186,250
29: $178,750
30: $171,250
31: $163,750
32: $156,250
33: $148,750
34: $142,500
35: $136,250
36: $130,000
37: $123,750
38: $118,750
39: $113,750
40: $108,750
41: $103,750
42: $98,750
43: $93,750
44: $88,750
45: $83,750
46: $78,750
47: $73,750
48: $69,750
49: $66,250
50: $64,250
51: $62,750
52: $61,250
53: $60,250
54: $59,250
55: $58,750
56: $58,250
57: $57,750
58: $57,250
59: $56,750
60: $56,250
61: $55,750
62: $55,250
63: $54,750
64: $54,250
65: $53,750
66: $53,250
67: $52,750
68: $52,250
69: $51,750
70: $51,250
71: $50,750
72: $50,250
73: $49,750
74: $49,250
75: $48,750
76: $48,250
77: $47,750
78: $47,250
79: $46,750
80: $46,250
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
