How much is the purse for 2024 The Players Championship?

The Players Championship has long held an interest in emulating the Majors. This has never been made official, but it hasn't stopped the event from long being known as the "fifth major." Its large purse has a lot to do with that.

For the 2024 edition, The Players Championship has a $25 million purse, the largest in all of golf, considering individual tournaments. On that note, it's worth mentioning that LIV Golf events have a similar purse, but a portion ($5 million) goes to the team event.

The TPC Sawgrass event also surpasses the Majors in this regard. The Majors' purses for the current season have not yet been made official. However, in 2023, The Masters had a purse of $20 million, the PGA Championship of $18 million, the US Open of $18 million and The Open Championship of $16.5 million.

The Players Championship's purse is distributed following the general rules of the PGA Tour, so the winner receives $4.5 million. In the 2023 edition, each of the golfers in the Top 5 earned $1 million or more, while 43 players received paychecks of $100,000 or more.

The 2024 edition is the second one of The Players Championship to reach a $25 million purse. The amount was increased from $20 million in 2022 to the current amount in 2023.

How has The Players Championship's purse evolved?

The Players Championship's purse has played a central role in attracting the best players of every era. Over time, the tournament has become the most important event in the world of golf, second only to the Majors.

The event was inaugurated in 1974 with a purse of $250,000 and a winner's share of $50,000. Jack Nicklaus won that first edition.

The tournament proved to be a success and just eight years later doubled its purse: $500,000 in 1982, with a check for $90,000 to the winner. It took just over half the time for the event to double its purse again: $1 million in 1987, with $180,000 going to the winner.

From that point on, the purse has increased almost every other year. It passed the $2 million mark in 1993 and the $3 million mark two years later. The first player to earn more than $1 million at The Players Championship was Hal Sutton in 2000 ($1.08 million).

The purse continued to grow over the following years, at a slower but steady pace. By 2014 it reached $10 million, and in 2019 Rory McIlroy was the first player to collect more than $2 million ($2.25 million).

However, it was during the third decade of the 2000s when the purse of the event grew in an extraordinary way. The sum went from $12.5 million in 2019 to $15 million in 2021, to $20 million in 2022 and $25 million in 2023.