A total of 20 teams are looking to make family history on Sunday at the 2024 PNC Championship and win the 36-hole scramble team event for the first time at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.
No matter how they finish on Sunday, the team will get paid in the unique event. In fact, every team gets paid for competing in the year-ending event. Each team features a legendary pro and a family member, competing together, with most of the family members being amateurs.
Will the amateurs earn prize money from the 2025 PNC Championship prize pool as a result? After all, the winning team of this week's event will earn $200,000.
The short answer is no. While the partners can href="https://thegolfnewsnet.com/ryan_ballengee/2024/01/21/can-an-amateur-turn-pro-after-a-pga-tour-tournament-ends-to-collect-prize-money-130977/">compete in golf tournaments as an amateur, that means they, like any other amateur competing in a professional golf tournament, are ineligible to earn prize money in a pro golf event. Players on the PGA Tour are typically paid only if they make the cut, although not in this case, but only professional golfers earn money.
Join Golf News Net for $10 per year, and go ad-free!No matter how Team Woods and the other 19 teams finish, the prize money he would otherwise win is paid out to professionals in the field. However, not every partner in the event is an amateur, and they don't have to be.
Under the qualification rules for the event, "A member of each team must have won at least one major (PGA Tour, LPGA or PGA Tour Champions) or The Players Championship title, while the partner must not hold any playing status on a professional Tour."
That means a partner can be a professional, provided they don't have status on any professional tour. That could be someone who was a pro golfer but no longer plays professionally.
In the event the partner is a pro, they can equally share the prize money given to them by the tournament at its completion. The amateur cannot be paid by the tournament directly. However, the reality is that the money could be split after the fact behind closed doors.
Most amateur golfers who have no intention of pursuing a professional golf career will remain amateurs because it affects their eligibility for other competitions at the club and regional level. Many of these events explicitly exclude professional golfers, meaning amateurs are wise to stay as such unless they're planning on a career change.
