Today’s golfers make more than their predecessors, a fact that’s quite evident if you spend any time perusing a PGA Tour star’s social-media accounts. But it’s always jarring to see just how much more they make. And at this point, Jack Nicklaus might want to look away.
Statistician Lou Stagner recently put together a ranking of career earnings at the Masters, which obviously skews heavily towards recent players. But Stagner’s twist was to convert all prizemoney into 2019 dollars to give the older guys at least a fighting chance.
So the Golden Bear – with his six green jackets to go along with an astonishing 22 top-10s and 15 top-fives at Augusta National – actually wound up in the top 20. Barely. Check out this pretty eye-popping rundown:
To put in perspective how much more money they play for these days, I took career earnings at The Masters and converted it to 2019 dollars (e.g. 20k in 1963 is worth ~167k in 2019).
Jack is 20th on the all-time list.
Yes, the same Jack with 6 wins and 22 top 10s. pic.twitter.com/sc6X6JsRZq
— Lou Stagner (Golf Stat Pro) (@LouStagner) October 29, 2020
Of course, it’s no surprise to see Tiger Woods leading the way with his five Masters titles, including last year’s win that came with a cheque for more than $US2 million. By comparison, Nicklaus’ largest first-place prize at Augusta National was the 144 grand he earned in 1986. Before that? The $40,000 he won for his 1975 victory.
You’d also expect three-time winner Phil Mickelson to be second to Tiger and for there to be a sizable gap to the next player on the list. But 27-year-old Jordan Spieth at No.3?
That’s a bit of a surpise. Then again, it’s another indication of how much purses have swelled in recent years. In fact, Lou had another great graph for that:
🚨They play for SO MUCH MORE $🚨
This is avg $ for top 10 from each year compared to median household income.
In 1980 the top 10 money winners won an avg of 17x median household income.
In 2017 = 118x.
This does NOT include huge fedex bonus payouts (2007 and after). pic.twitter.com/e3mUlA7w7x
— Lou Stagner (Golf Stat Pro) (@LouStagner) October 30, 2020
Back to Masters earners, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood lead the way in terms of earners without a win. The pair of Englishmen who each have a pair of runner-ups at Augusta National rank seventh and eighth, respectively. In total, six players without a green jacket make the top 20.
Clearly, Nicklaus’ legendary career could have been timed better when it comes to major paydays (his actual career Masters earnings are less than $1 million). But we’re still pretty sure the 18-time Major champ wouldn’t trade places with anyone on this list.
