PGA-LIV Golf Merger Follows Tour’s 33% Purse Increase: Data Viz
Tuesday’s announcement of a merger between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour leaves more questions than answers. What will golf’s calendar look like going forward? What will the re-admission process be like for golfers who had previously been suspended by the PGA Tour for accepting contracts from LIV?
Another big question mark: what will prize money look like under the new partnership?
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LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, emerged as a competitor to the PGA Tour in 2022, and offered massive signing bonuses to attract top players, including a reported $200 million for Phil Mickelson and $125 million for Dustin Johnson. Additionally, it paid significantly more prize money than the PGA Tour on both a per-event and per-golfer basis.
The PGA Tour responded to its competitor by raising tournament payouts to keep players from bolting to LIV Golf. Its total purse for the 2022-23 season was set north of $560 million, an increase of 33% over the previous year, or 25% after adjusting for inflation. In the previous eight years combined, for comparison, the tour’s purse increased just 19% in 2023 dollars.
As a result, both Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm have already broken the record for most PGA Tour prize money won in a single season this year, topping $14.05 million earned by Scheffler in 2022—and it’s only June.
Last year, seven of the 10 golfers with the most prize money or bonus earnings played on the PGA Tour, while three—Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Branden Grace—were with LIV Golf. The disparity in the numbers is partially explained by LIV's limited schedule of only held eight events to the PGA’s 48.
Additionally, PGA golfers reap the benefits of the tour’s Player Impact Program (PIP), which rewards players for boosting engagement and publicity of the tour. For instance, Dustin Johnson ranked second among all golfers in winnings last year with $35.6 million combined from LIV Golf events and his bonus payout as season champion, but Rory McIlroy topped him with $44.8 million overall, including $12 million from PIP.
The effects of the merger on future prize money is unknown, but the shakeup in the golf world over the past two years has already had a dramatic impact on the PGA Tour—one that players are feeling in their wallets.
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