Quiz! Can You Name The Top Ten On The PGA Tour Money List?

Can you name those who have earned the most prize money on the PGA Tour during their career?

Creative image of teed-up golf ball and dollar bills
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The prize money in professional golf has risen astronomically in recent years.

The first US Open was held in 1895. It was won by Englishman Horace Rawlins and he received $150. That is the equivalent of $5,600 at today’s prices. When Ben Hogan won his fourth and final US Open, in 1953, it won him £5,000, the equivalent of $59,100 today. When Tom Watson won his only US Open, at Pebble Beach in 1982, it brought him $60,000 ($196,000 in today’s prices).

When Tiger Woods won his second US Open win on 2002 it was the first time that US Open winner got a seven figure cheque – the winning cheque was for exactly $1m, which was $200,000 more than Tiger had won two years previously for winning this Major.

This year’s winner won $4.3m.

In 1991 Corey Pavin had been the leading money winner on the PGA Tour. He won $979,430. In 1997 Tiger Woods headed this list for the first time. He earned $2,066,833 in prize money that season. The last time he headed the PGA Tour seasonal money list was in 2013, when he won $8,553,439.

Last year the winner of the PGA Tour money list earned $29,228,357 – and that figure excludes the $25m he got for winning the Tour Championship.

So our advice when picking answers for this quiz is the same as we gave for the DP World Career Tour Earnings quiz – go for the more recent players. (You have to have earned more than $62.5m to be on it.) Poor old Horace Rawlins and his ilk do not feature on it. Incidentally, were he to have been paid the same equivalent figure as this year’s US Open winner he would have to have been paid $114,500, not $150.

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Roderick Easdale

Contributing Writer Roderick is the author of the critically acclaimed comic golf novel, Summer At Tangents. Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine, travel supplement and website. He also compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose Golf & Country Club and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is also the author of five non-fiction books, four of which are still in print: The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse; The Don: Beyond Boundaries; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder.