Chances are you’ve heard a lot already about the PGA Tour establishing a series of “elevated” events for 2023 and beyond. And you’ll hear plenty more this week, as the first of the 13 scheduled for the new year takes place in Maui with the playing of the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Created as a response to the upstart LIV Golf Series offering guaranteed contracts and exorbitant purses, the tour is promoting its new elevated events as an opportunity for its best players to compete against each other more often—and rewarding them for doing so by paying significant prize money payouts as well. The Sentry TOC is offering a $15 million purse, while the remaining elevated events will hand out between $20 million and $25 million each.
The prize money payout at the Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course is particularly enticing considering just 39 pros are in the field (17 of them among the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking) and there is no cut in the event. The tournament winner will earn $2.7 million, while the golfer finishing last still banks $200,000.
What puts things into better context is the difference in payouts from just a year ago until now. The 2022 Sentry TOC had a $8.2 million with Cam Smith earning $1.476 million for his victory. And to make $200,000 last year meant you had to have a top-nine finish.
Here’s a comparison on the prize money payouts for the two events:
It’s interesting to note, too, that 10 years ago, the overall purse for this event was a mere $5.7 million.
Here’s the listing again for the prize money payout for 2023. Come back shortly after the tournament ends on Sunday and we’ll update this list with individual names and specific prize money payouts.