Hovland Claims PGA Tour Championship, Record $34 5M in Earnings
Voice over: Michael Robles
Writer: Kurt Badenhausen
Video editor: Lance Keller
Hovland Claims PGA Tour Championship, Record $34.5M
in Earnings
Last Sunday, Viktor Hovland shot a course record 61 at
Olympia Fields Golf Club in
Illinois
to come from behind to
win the BMW Championship in the second event of the
FedEx Cup Playoffs. The career-low round clinched a $3.6
million payday. “Nothing that beats that,” Hovland said.
The 25-year-old Norwegian just beat that.
Hovland ran away from the field this week to capture the
PGA Tour Championship, with Xander Schauffele finishing
in second, five strokes back. The victory also secured
Hovland the FedEx Cup Playoffs title and its $18 million
bonus. The five-year pro set a new PGA Tour record for
one-year earnings with $34.5 million, including his prize
money, FedEx bonus and Comcast Business Tour top 10
bonus.
The FedEx Cup playoff launched in 2007 and carried a
$75 million bonus pool this year. Rory McIlroy won it last
year for his third title; Tiger Woods is the only other golfer
with two wins. Schauffele finished second at the Tour
Championship in Atlanta for a $6.5 million FedEx bonus,
followed by Wyndham Clark ($5 million) and McIlroy ($4
million).
After Hovland, the golfers with the highest total earnings
for 2023 were Scottie Scheffler ($26.4 million), Jon Rahm
($21.3 million), McIlroy ($20.3 million) and Clark ($17.8
million). McIlroy’s $28.4 million in earnings last year set
the previous Tour record.
It has been a banner year for golfers’ bank accounts after
the PGA Tour boosted prize money this season to
compete with LIV Golf. The PGA established 13 “elevated”
events that feature increased winnings totaling $315
million, up 47% from 2022. The PGA Tour’s total purse for
the year is expected to top $560 million, an increase of
$140 million.
Scheffler set a record last year for official PGA Tour prize
money with $14 million. Three golfers—Scheffler ($21
million), Rahm ($16.5 million) and Hovland ($14.1 million)
—topped the record this year, with McIlory just $100,000
behind.
Last year, LIV recruited Bryson Dechambeau,
Dustin
Johnson
, Brooks Koepka, Phil
Mickelson
, Patrick Reed,
Cameron Smith, and dozens of other players. In addition
to massive signing bonuses, its eight no-cut events last
year had total prize money of $255 million. Johnson
topped LIV’s prize money list with $35.6 million. In 2023,
the 14 LIV events are scheduled to pay $405 million in
total.
In June, the PGA Tour, LIV and DP World Tour, Europe’s
main golf circuit,
reached
an agreement to merge their
commercial interests into a single, for-profit global golf
entity. It ended all litigation between LIV and the PGA
Tour.
Hovland and other PGA Tour stars will add to their prize
money haul via the Tour’s Player Impact Program (PIP),
which began in 2021 to funnel more money to top players
who bring attention to the sport. It paid out $40 million
during the first year and jumped to $100 million for 2022.
Hovland’s total earnings should hit $40 million if he
finishes in the program’s top six.
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