Whoever wins the Masters on Sunday will win a green jacket, a place in golf’s history books, and $1.98 million in prize money. That’s the winner’s share of the $11 million purse for this year’s tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Keeping with its status as the most prestigious tournament in golf, the Masters pays out big money.
The 50 low professional scorers in the field all get specific payouts. After that, the rest of the pros in the field get cash prizes progressing downward from $27,060.
Masters purse 2018 ($11 million total)
| Position | Payout |
|---|---|
| Position | Payout |
| 1 | $1,980,000 |
| 2 | $1,118,000 |
| 3 | $748,000 |
| 4 | $528,000 |
| 5 | $440,000 |
| 6 | $396,000 |
| 7 | $368,500 |
| 8 | $341,000 |
| 9 | $319,000 |
| 10 | $297,000 |
| 11 | $275,000 |
| 12 | $253,000 |
| 13 | $231,000 |
| 14 | $209,000 |
| 15 | $198,000 |
| 16 | $187,000 |
| 17 | $176,000 |
| 18 | $165,000 |
| 19 | $154,000 |
| 20 | $143,000 |
| 21 | $132,000 |
| 22 | $123,200 |
| 23 | $114,400 |
| 24 | $105,600 |
| 25 | $96,800 |
| 26 | $88,000 |
| 27 | $84,700 |
| 28 | $81,400 |
| 29 | $78,100 |
| 30 | $74,800 |
| 31 | $71,500 |
| 32 | $68,200 |
| 33 | $64,900 |
| 34 | $62,150 |
| 35 | $59,400 |
| 36 | $56,650 |
| 37 | $53,900 |
| 38 | $51,700 |
| 39 | $49,500 |
| 40 | $47,300 |
| 41 | $45,100 |
| 42 | $42,900 |
| 43 | $40,700 |
| 44 | $38,500 |
| 45 | $36,300 |
| 46 | $34,100 |
| 47 | $31,900 |
| 48 | $30,140 |
| 49 | $28,600 |
| 50 | $27,720 |
The payout now is bigger than ever before.
It was $1.8 million for the winner in both 2015 and 2016, up from $1.44 million the year before that. The total purse for the field has increased over the years, too. It was $10 million last year, and a jump from $10 million to $11 million is significant even when divided up among every golfer to make the cut.
Masters winner prize money:
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 9, 2017
1997 -- $486,000
2002 -- $1,008,000
2007 -- $1,305,000
2012 -- $1,440,000
2017 -- $1,980,000
Whoever is fortunate to win the Masters will be due for the largest individual payout from any Masters ever (and maybe the largest anywhere).
The sport’s four majors and the Players Championship have been in a sort of payout arms race for the last few years, raising their financials in an effort to outduel one another in prestige. The Masters’ $11 million purse is the largest in the history of at least this event. The same goes for the $1.9 million payout for first place.
Entering the Masters, the leader in PGA Tour money this year was world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, who’s not playing in the Masters because of a back injury.
Johnson has earned $5.3 million on the tour in the 2017 season. Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Adam Hadwin, and Pat Perez follow.
Then come Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, at $2.5 and $2.4 million respectively. Spieth and Fowler are playing together in the second-to-last group of the day on Sunday at Augusta. Both are about to get a lot richer, and maybe a lot richer.
Winning the Masters is a life-altering accomplishment for whomever does it, whether that player’s done it before or not.
Champions are afforded a lifetime exemption to play in the tournament. They get the most coveted piece of clothing in sports and a lifelong seat at the tournament’s Champions Dinner. They get tons of World Golf Ranking points and endorsements and all of it. But there’s nothing like cold, hard cash, and the Masters champion gets a whole lot of it for four days of competition.