Rory McIlroy earned $18,334,567 less than Scottie Scheffler as 2024’s highest-earning golfers’ list revealed

Rory McIlroy was one of golf's highest earners in 2024, but even he, and everyone else in golf, paled in comparison to Scottie Scheffler's earnings. He had a historic season unlike most before it, and it yielded him significant income this year. McIlroy, despite coming short in so many contests, still made out very well.

Money is up in golf thanks to LIV Golf's formation and the SSG investment in the PGA Tour, which helps inflate some of these numbers. Nevertheless, per Golf Monthly, the official numbers have been revealed from 2024.

They are as follows:

Rank	Golfer	Payout
1	Scottie Scheffler	$29,228,357
2	Xander Schauffele	$18,355,910
3	Hideki Matsuyama	$11,237,611
4	Wyndham Clark	$10,901,416
5	Rory McIlroy	$10,893,790
6	Ludvig Aberg	$9,728,857
7	Collin Morikawa	$8,365,977
8	Sahith Theegala	$8,281,285
9	Keegan Bradley	$6,879,455
10	Patrick Cantlay	$6,279,965
11	Sam Burns	$6,185,830
12	Sungjae Im	$6,122,325
13	Shane Lowry	$6,095,881
14	Chris Kirk	$6,023,786
15	Byeong Hun An	$5,871,643
16	Tony Finau	$5,706,467
17	Robert MacIntyre	$5,400,384
18	Akshay Bhatia	$5,344,905
19	Matthieu Pavon	$5,254,412
20	Brian Harman	$5,344,905
21	Russell Henley	$5,080,969
22	Billy Horschel	$5,037,278
23	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	$5,026,363
24	Adam Scott	$4,753,172
25	Tom Hoge	$4,628,329
26	Viktor Hovland	$4,616,727
27	Aaron Rai	$4,613,515
28	Tommy Fleetwood	$4,609,158
29	Sepp Straka	$4,601,079
30	Taylor Pendrith	$4,579,104
31	Will Zalatoris	$4,539,910
32	Justin Thomas	$4,475,561
33	Si Woo Kim	$4,260,683
34	Davis Thompson	$4,144,916
35	Tom Kim	$4,124,968
36	Jason Day	$4,117,518
37	Cameron Young	$4,057,224
38	Cam Davis	$4,039,533
39	Adam Hadwin	$4,034,183
40	Denny McCarthy	$3,958,733
41	Corey Conners	$3,885,439
42	Stephen Jaeger	$3,847,034
43	Max Homa	$3,786,432
44	Matt Fitzpatrick	$3,705,463
45	JT Poston	$3,691,765
46	Alex Noren	$3,649,210
47	Austin Eckroat	$3,633,335
48	Thomas Detry	$3,614,669
49	Eric Cole	$3,209,297
50	Max Greyserman	$3,196,556

This technically does not include the bonus that Scheffler was paid for his victory in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He earned $25 million for his win, but the above numbers are strictly from in-tournament payouts.

Scheffler topped the list by a wide margin even without that $25 million. Xander Schauffele won two Major tournaments this year (PGA Championship and Open Championship) and still fell almost $11 million shy of the lead.

McIlroy didn't win a Major, but he did come in second during the US Open and won the Zurich Classic and the Wells Fargo Championship. That placed him fifth on the money list. In between McIlroy and Schauffele were Wyndham Clark and Hideki Matsuyama, who won the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

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How Scottie Scheffler won so much money

Put simply, Scottie Scheffler was far and away the best player on the PGA Tour this year. He strengthened his grip on the World No. 1 rank amid a historic season. At one point, he'd won four out of five starts, including the Masters Tournament.

Scottie Scheffler had a career year in 2024 (Imagn)

Scheffler won seven times on the tour. One of those was a Major, while the other six were all Signature Events. Those carry heightened prize purses, and Scheffler was able to take full advantage of that.

He made 19 starts this year and made the cut in every single one of them. That means every time he went out, he was paid for it. That helped add to his impressive income.

Other than a T41 at the US Open, Scheffler finished no worse than T17 in any event all year excluding the playoffs. Of those 19 starts, he was top 25 in 17 of them and top 10 in 16 of them. He also placed second twice, which all resulted in a significant amount of money this year.