There are a lot of perks that come with winning a major championship -- the Masters, PGA Championship, US Open and British Open Championship -- in golf.
Aside from the first-place prize money, which is 18 percent of the total purse, a men's major winner earns entry into the major they won for a number of years (sometimes life), PGA Tour exemptions and other goodies.
Let's lay out all the benefits of winning a major championship.
The perks of winning a major championship
- Prestige, obviously -- you're in a limited company of players to ever win a major
- If you win the Masters, you're in the Masters for life, basically, and you're in the U.S. Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship for five years
- If you win the U.S. Open, you're exempt in the U.S. Open for 10 years, and you're in the Masters, Open Championship and PGA Championship for five years
- If you win the British Open, you're in the Open until you're 60, and you're in the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship for five years
- If you win the PGA Championship, you're in the PGA Championship for life, basically, and you're in the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship for five years
- You get a 5-year exemption on the PGA Tour for winning a major, and you can pretty much set your schedule for two years
- You get a spot in the Tournament of Champions
- You get 100 Official World Golf Ranking points, which pretty much locks up a spot in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking for 18 months, no matter what
- You get 600 FedEx Cup points
- You get big Ryder Cup points if you're an American or European player
