The biggest purses in professional golf come nowadays in the PGA Tour's Signature events, in major tournaments or events just shy of major status, all carrying big first-place prize money and the largest payouts in the sport.
Now that the Tour Championship is again an official-money event with a $40 million purse, it has the biggest purse on the PGA Tour and the biggest official-money payday at $10 million for the winner.
The Players Championship has the second-biggest purse in golf as of 2026, with the PGA Tour purse at $25 million, with the winner getting a record $4.5 million.
There are 10 PGA Tour events with purses of $20 million, including the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Genesis Invitational, BMW Championship, FedEx St. Jude Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Memorial Tournament, RBC Heritage, Truist Championship, the Cadillac Championship and the Travelers Championship. The Sentry would be the 11th, but it wasn't played in 2026.
Among the major championships, the US Open so far has the largest purse, coming in at $21.5 million in 2025.
The Masters Tournament has the second-largest purse among the majors, at $21 million in 2025 and offering 20 percent of the purse to the winner. The US Open does, as well.
The US Open had the largest purse among the majors in 2023, with a $20 million purse, increasing $5 million in one year. It remained at that purse in 2024.
The PGA Championship purse is now $19 million. While the PGA of America and the PGA Tour had tied the purses of the PGA Championship and The Players together in recent years, the PGA of America hasn't kept pace with the PGA Tour's efforts to offer the richest purse in golf.
The British Open purse was $10.5 million in 2018 and increased to $10.75 million in 2019, and the price was quoted in US dollars so the prize fund would not be subject to fluctuation in the value of the British pound as the United Kingdom goes through the implications of the 2016 Brexit vote. It is now $17 million.
