WGC-Bridgestone Invitational 2017 purse: Winner's payout is $1.66 million in prize money
The WGCs are some of the easiest and biggest money in the game of golf.
The purses on the PGA Tour these days are all enormous thanks in large part to Tiger Woods. It's a nice gig to play a game for millions of dollars each week and it usually doesn't get any sweeter than the World Golf Championships, as the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational reminds us this week.
The WGCs are the biggest non-major, non-Players Championship cash games in the sport. And everyone is guaranteed a fat check in these limited field no-cut events. If you can get into a world rankings position to make the WGCs a regular part of your schedule, it's an enormous boost. It would also be insane to pass them up — it's basically free money and more world rankings points while the have-nots struggle and scrap for morsels in other opposite-field events. Even if you don't finish, or don't even start, you're still guaranteed a nice check. Martin Kaymer and Brandt Snedeker both had to withdraw this week before they ever hit a shot, but they'll still receive last-place money, which is more than $40k.
The winner (likely Hideki Matsuyama), will receive $1.66 million of a total $9,750,000 purse. That's another $250k bump from last year's WGCs, which is the kind of increase we've been getting on an annual basis for these things recently. A few years ago, both the PGA Tour and PGA of America made waves with a joint announcement that they were bumping their purses for The Players and PGA Championship to $10 million. It was a new threshold indicative of the kind of arms race among the majors. Now, just three years later, the dang WGCs are almost to that mark and could very well be by next year.
Matsuyama turned pro in 2013 and already has a total career earnings of $18,957,955. So he's not exactly hurting for cash and that's probably not the priority today. He's closing in on the world No. 1 and should be among the favorites next week to win his first major at the PGA. This would be his second WGC title to go along with the fall WGC in China he won at the end of last year. So another $1.66 million will definitely be nice, but for a player of this caliber, it's not exactly a game-changer.
Here are your payout totals for the the 2017 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: