2017 PGA Championship prize money: Justin Thomas takes home $1.89 million payout

The total purse is $10.5 million.

For winning the PGA Championship, Justin Thomas gets his name etched on the Wanamaker Trophy and $1.89 million in prize money. That’s the winner’s share out of a $10.5 million purse for the field this week at Quail Hollow in North Carolina.

This year’s total purse is up $500,000 from last year’s even $10 million. It still lags behind the $12 million record purse at this season’s U.S. Open, as well as the $11 million at The Masters. It beats the $10.25 million that went to Jordan Spieth and company after The Open Championship last month at Royal Birkdale in England.

Purses at many golf tournaments, including all four majors, have risen considerably over the last few years. Tournament organizers tend to battle for prestige, and they’ve found that one way to stay competitive is to continually up the financial rewards for players in the field. It’s not that a tournament like the PGA needs to offer more money to attract top talent. Majors are majors, and players will come to them. But it doesn’t hurt, and golf is a clubby enough sport that keeping ahead of the Joneses is important.

The PGA might feel an extra desire to pay out bigger sums because it deals with a perception that it’s somehow less important than the other three majors. That’s probably not true. Few would point to it as the major of the year, but a major — once again — is a major. Its status as the flagship event for the PGA means it will always be an important tournament. Still, it wouldn’t be a good look for the PGA to fall all the way behind its three peers. As the last major of the year, it has the power to avoid that. That this payout is a quarter-million dollars north of The Open’s is not coincidence.

The top 70 professional finishers in the field will get cash payouts. When players tie at a specific position on the leaderboard, they each take the average of the payouts for those spots. The difference between payouts is widest at the top of the leaderboard, and it narrows as you move downward. It pays to be the best. The full structure:

1. $1,890,000
2. $1,134,000
3. $714,000
4. $504,000
5. $420,000
6. $351,750
7. $328,650
8. $307,650
9. $286,650
10. $265,650
11. $244,650
12. $223,650
13. $207,900
14. $193,200
15. $180,600
16. $168,000
17. $155,400
18. $142,800
19. $132,300
20. $121,800
21. $111,300
22. $100,800
23. $95,550
24. $90,300
25. $86,100
26. $81,900
27. $77,700
28. $74,550
29. $71,400
30. $68,250
31. $65,100
32. $61,950
33. $58,800
34. $55,650
35. $52,500
36. $49,770
37. $47,040
38. $44,520
39. $42,000
40. $39,900
41. $37,800
42. $35,700
43. $33,600
44. $32,550
45. $31,500
46. $30,450
47. $29,400
48. $28,350
49. $27,825
50. $27,300
51. $26,775
52. $26,250
53. $25,725
54. $25,200
55. $24,675
56. $24,150
57. $23,625
58. $23,100
59. $22,575
60. $22,050
61. $21,630
62. $21,210
63. $20,790
64. $20,370
65. $19,950
66. $19,740
67. $19,530
68. $19,320
69. $19,110.
70. $18,900