Following the emergence of LIV Golf in 2022, the prize money on the PGA Tour has risen dramatically in an effort to compete with its cash-rich rival, but a look back over the PGA Tour money list leaders through the years shows us that it is far from the norm.
Not even taking into account Scottie Scheffler’s $25m bonus prize for his 2024 FedEx Cup win at the Tour Championship, the American has far exceeded the previous record of money earned through the year, with winnings of $29,228,357.
That surpassed the $21,014,342 he earned in 2023 (which, incidentally, also beat another of his records, the $14,046,910 he won in 2022).
However, the early days of the money list tell a different story. The first money list was drawn up for the 1934 season, and two-time PGA Champion Paul Runyan topped it with total PGA Tour earnings of an altogether more modest $6,767.
Of course, given that was 90 years ago, inflation rates over time have meant that the sum would be worth considerably more now. However, when adjusted for inflation, the figure still only amounts to around $158,842 - the kind of earnings one of today’s players could expect to bank from finishing around halfway down the leaderboard of a signature event.
No one even reached five figures in earnings on the PGA Tour over a single season until 1937. Back then, Harry Cooper was around as dominant as Scheffler has been in 2024, with seven wins, but he still only banked $14,138 for his efforts. That’s around $309,000 in today’s money - still nowhere near the generational wealth that the top players routinely earn over a season nowadays.
Legendary figures of the game followed in the years immediately afterwards, including seven-time Major winner Sam Snead, who topped the list in 1938 with earnings of $19,534, and Ben Hogan, who finished top five times between 1940 and 1948. In Hogan’s case, the most lucrative of those years came in 1946, when he won $42,556 (around $686,000 today).
It wasn’t until Arnold Palmer topped the money list for the fourth time in 1963 that the amount breached six figures. He earned $128,230 that year (around $1.3m nowadays).
Following that, Jack Nicklaus finished top eight times over the next 12 years before Tom Watson led the way four years in a row between 1977 and 1980, but it wasn’t until eight years later that Curtis Strange finally became the first million-dollar earner in a single season on the PGA Tour.
In 1998, he won $1,147,644, which equates to around $3m today - not too far shy of the $3.6m typically handed to the winner of a single signature event nowadays.
Within a decade, the Tiger Woods era was up and running and, not surprisingly, his profile helped more money pour into the game. Equally unsurprising was the fact that he (along with another formidable talent of the era, Vijay Singh) was the main beneficiary.
Woods first topped the money list in 1997, when he earned $2,066,833 (about $4m today). A decade later, he managed it for the eighth time (out of a record 10), with earnings of $10,867,052, which would be around $16.5m nowadays. Singh, incidentally, beat that figure in 2004, earning $10,905,166 (worth over $18m today).
Along with Woods and Singh, only Jordan Spieth in 2015 (who won $12,030,465 after a season featuring five victories, including two Majors) and Scheffler have earned topped the money list with earnings of $10m or above in a single season.
Below is the full list of PGA Tour money list leaders through the years.
