A statue of Arnold Palmer is seen at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando.
During Arnold Palmer’s 50 years playing professionally on the PGA Tour, he made 726 tournament starts and played a total of 2,553 rounds. He won 62 tour titles, fifth most in tour history, while finishing second or third 38 and 27 times, respectively. For those celebrated efforts, the seven-time major champion’s career earnings totaled a mere $1,861,857.
To understand how laughably low that is, consider that the winner on Sunday of the Arnold Palmer Invitational—Bryson DeChambeau after closing with a one-under 71 to outpace Lee Westwood by one shot—earned $1,674,000 for his efforts. That’s 89.9 percent of Palmer’s career prize money while playing in .002 percent of the rounds Palmer logged in his career.
Different times, different era for sure, but this contrast illustrates just how much more money is at stake these days on the PGA Tour compared to when Palmer was The King. So does this: At the start of the tournament, there were 10 golfers who had made more money playing in Palmer’s tournament at Bay Hill than Palmer did for the entirety of his career. Take a look at the career money list for the API Invitational:
1. Tiger Woods, $7,657,559.53 (18 starts, 8 wins)
2. Marc Leishman, $3,388,192.17 (11/1)
3. Rory McIlroy, $2,803,278.13 (6/1)
4. Vijay Singh, $2,650,365.71 (27/1)
5. Francesco Molinari, $2,487,528.50 (7/1)
6. Matt Every, $2,363,492.43 (11/2)
7. Justin Rose, $2,296,710.43 (15/0)
8. Henrik Stenson, $2,166,174.53 (12/0)
9. Ernie Els, $2,138,036.34 (24/2)
10. Tyrrell Hatton, $2,135,382 (4/1)
DeChambeau now has earned $3.091 million playing in the API in five starts, $4.4 million for the 2020-21 season (which includes his U.S. Open victory in September) and a little more than $23 million for his career. Not bad for somebody who does not turn 28 until September.
The overall prize money payout for this week’s tournament is $9.3 million. Here’s the breakdown for the prize money each golfer who made the cut earned this week.
Win: Bryson DeChambeau, 277/-11, $1,674,000
2: Lee Westwood, 278/-10, $1,013,700
3: Corey Conners, 280/-8, $641,700
T-4: Andrew Putnam, 282/-6, $391,375
T-4: Jordan Spieth, 282/-6, $391,375
T-4: Richy Werenski, 282/-6, $391,375
7: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 283/-5, $313,875
T-8: Chris Kirk, 284/-4, $281,325
T-8: Jason Kokrak, 284/-4, $281,325
T-10: Keegan Bradley, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Paul Casey, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Matthew Fitzpatrick, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Tommy Fleetwood, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Charley Hoffman, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Max Homa, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Rory McIlroy, 285/-3, $195,300
T-10: Will Zalatoris, 285/-3, $195,300
T-18: Hideki Matsuyama, 286/-2, $132,525
T-18: Brendan Steele, 286/-2, $132,525
T-18: Matt Wallace, 286/-2, $132,525
T-21: Lanto Griffin, 287/-1, $97,557
T-21: Emiliano Grillo, 287/-1, $97,557
T-21: Tyrrell Hatton, 287/-1, $97,557
T-21: Sungjae Im, 287/-1, $97,557
T-21: Harold Varner III, 287/-1, $97,557
T-26: Harris English, 288/E, $69,285
T-26: Branden Grace, 288/E, $69,285
T-26: Bo Hoag, 288/E, $69,285
T-26: Denny McCarthy, 288/E, $69,285
T-26: Ian Poulter, 288/E, $69,285
T-31: Jason Day, 289/+1, $55,614
T-31: Padraig Harrington, 289/+1, $55,614
T-31: Cameron Tringale, 289/+1, $55,614
T-31: Bernd Wiesberger, 289/+1, $55,614
T-31: Danny Willett, 289/+1, $55,614
T-36: Jason Dufner, 290/+2, $42,381.43
T-36: Charles Howell III, 290/+2, $42,381.43
T-36: Kevin Kisner, 290/+2, $42,381.43
T-36: Robert MacIntyre, 290/+2, $42,381.43
T-36: Pat Perez, 290/+2, $42,381.43
T-36: Kristoffer Ventura, 290/+2, $42,381.43
T-36: Doug Ghim, 290/+2, $42,381.42
T-43: Byeong Hun An, 291/+3, $30,287
T-43: Talor Gooch, 291/+3, $30,287
T-43: Mark Hubbard, 291/+3, $30,287
T-43: Martin Laird, 291/+3, $30,287
T-43: Keith Mitchell, 291/+3, $30,287
T-43: Kevin Na, 291/+3, $30,287
T-49: Will Gordon, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Viktor Hovland, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Zach Johnson, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Danny Lee, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Maverick McNealy, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Sebastián Muñoz, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Alex Noren, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-49: Chez Reavie, 292/+4, $22,831.50
T-57: Tyler Duncan, 293/+5, $21,018
T-57: Jazz Janewattananond, 293/+5, $21,018
T-57: Patton Kizzire, 293/+5, $21,018
T-57: Patrick Rodgers, 293/+5, $21,018
T-57: Brendon Todd, 293/+5, $21,018
T-57: Erik van Rooyen, 293/+5, $21,018
T-63: John Huh, 294/+6, $20,181
T-63: Luke List, 294/+6, $20,181
T-63: Steve Stricker, 294/+6, $20,181
T-66: Lucas Glover, 295/+7, $19,716
T-66: Doc Redman, 295/+7, $19,716
T-68: Victor Perez, 296/+8, $19,344
T-68: Brandt Snedeker, 296/+8, $19,344
70: Russell Knox, 297/+9, $19,065
71: Henrik Norlander, 298/+10, $18,879
72: Rickie Fowler, 299/+11, $18,693
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