PGA Championship 2026: Here's the prize money payout for each golfer at Aronimink

The rapid rise in prize money payouts in golf have been a provocative topic in all circles of the sport. The launch of LIV Golf and its megamillion-dollar purses forced the PGA Tour to offer more as well, creating exponential leaps that in the short run made sense to stave off a looking competitor but in the long run created questions of fiscal sustainability. Meanwhile, caught in the backdraft were the major championships, previously sporting among the largest paydays in the game only to fall behind and have to make tough decisions on whether they’d increase their purses at a similar rate. New R&A chief Mark Darbon lamented the problem, noting the zero-sum effect that increase in prize money have on funding the governing bodies other initiatives.

Not surprisingly, then, when new PGA of America CEO Terry Clark met with the media for the first time on Wednesday ahead of the PGA Championship, he, too, was asked about purses and how much longer they could continue going up. The topic came with a subtle change in context given LIV Golf’s uncertain future now that the PIF won’t be funding them past this year and whether prize money payout had finally plateaued.

The specific question for Clark was what was his approach in general to making sure the PGA Championship continues competitive with its purse but staying financially responsible? Here’s his response:

“Yeah, it's a balanced approach. … We're really focused on all aspects of how do we improve and continue to look at improvement at the assets we have, including PGA Championships. This is a really important one. Obviously, it's something we look at every year.”

A year ago, the PGA Championship prize money payout was a record $19 million, bumped up $500,000 from the previous year. However, that was third highest among the majors behind the U.S. Open ($21.5 million) and the Masters ($21 million in 2025 and up to $21.5 million last month 2026). The Open Championship paid out $17 million at Royal Portrush last July.

Clark did not announce how much the PGA of America is offering this week—that will come on Saturday after they make the cut at Aronimink. But he did say that the decision isn’t necessarily tied to what the other majors or even the PGA Tour with its $20 million signature events and $25 million Players Championship payday.

“It's not always in comparison to all of those,” Clark said. “It's what are the factor that's make sense. We do look at it as an annual focus around how do we get at competitive purses.”

For the curious, here’s a quick look at the history of the prize money payout at the PGA Championship:

Year: Winner's Pay, Total Purse 1916: $500, $2,580 (first year of the event) 1931: $1,000, $7,200 (first year winner's pay increased) 1953: $5,000, $20,700 (first year winner's pay was $5K) 1958: $5,500, $39,388 (first year of stroke play, also the winner's amount actually decreased that year) 1965: $25,000, $149,700 1978: $50,000, $300,240 1983: $100,000, $608,099 1988: $160,000, $1,000,000 (first year with a $1M total purse) 1993: $300,000, $1,702,750 1998: $540,000, $2,886,800 2000: $900,000, $5,031,100 (first year with a $5M total purse) 2003: $1,080,000, $5,938,300 (first year with $1M-plus to the winner) 2009: $1,350,000, $7,484,500 2014: $1,800,000, $9,913,000 2018: $1,980,000, $11 million 2021: $2,160,000, $12 million 2022: $2,700,000, $15 million 2023: $3,150,000, $17 million 2024: $3,300,000, $18 million 2025: $3,420,000, $19 million

The question then remains if the PGA Championship purse will remain at $19 million or go up. We’ll find out on Saturday and we’ll update this post when the news comes out. In the meantime, here’s what the prize money payout from a year ago:

Win: $3,420,000

2: $2,052,000

3: $1,292,000

4: $912,000

5: $760,000

6: $683,880

7: $640,220

8: $598,270

9: $558,140

10: $519,830

11: $483,360

12: $448,700

13: $415,870

14: $384,860

15: $355,680

16: $328,320

17: $302,780

18: $279,070

19: $257,180

20: $237,120

21: $218,880

22: $202,460

23: $187,870

24: $176,010

25: $164,610

26: $153,670

27: $143,180

28: $133,150

29: $123,570

30: $114,450

31: $107,160

32: $100,770

33: $95,300

34: $90,740

35: $87,100

36: $83,630

37: $80,260

38: $76,970

39: $73,780

40: $70,680

41: $67,670

42: $64,750

43: $61,920

44: $59,190

45: $56,540

46: $53,990

47: $51,530

48: $49,160

49: $46,880

50: $44,690

51: $42,590

52: $40,580

53: $38,670

54: $36,840

55: $35,110

56: $33,470

57: $31,920

58: $30,640

59: $29,550

60: $28,640

61: $27,910

62: $27,380

63: $26,920

64: $26,490

65: $26,080

66: $25,680

67: $25,290

68: $24,920

69: $24,570

70: $24,240

71: $23,940

72: $23,740

73: $23,570

74: $23,420

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