The PGA Tour returns for 2023 and it’s back with a bang, as this week’s Tournament of Champions has seen its purse almost doubled from $8.2m last year to a whopping $15m.
The winner will take home $2.7m vs $1.476m last year, with the prize money bumped up as part of the PGA Tour’s new series of elevated events that were brought in to combat the threat, and riches, of LIV Golf. A total of 13 tournaments have had purses elevated and guaranteed that the top players all turn up.
Players are allowed to skip one of the elevated events, however, and Rory McIlroy has chosen to miss this week’s event at Kapalua. Shane Lowry is another who has chosen to sit out of the 2023 opener. The field is still very strong though, with 17 of the world’s top 20 in attendance.
There’s just 39 players teeing it up, with the tournament inviting all of 2022’s PGA Tour winners and anyone who made the season-ending Tour Championship.
Another big name missing is defending champion Cameron Smith, with the Aussie now part of LIV Golf and therefore suspended from the PGA Tour. Smith shot a record 34-under-par last year to pip then-World No.1 Jon Rahm and win his fourth PGA Tour title.
Scoring is always low at Kapalua, which features wide fairways to allow the world’s best to open their shoulders and bomb drives – especially on some of the downhill holes. Dustin Johnson famously almost made a hole-in-one on the 430 yard par-4 12th in 2018, and despite the course’s 7,600 yards of length, the players tend to rip it up.
First prize this week is $2.7m, with the runner-up picking up $1.5m and third place taking $950,000. There’s no cut, so even last place wins money, with a guaranteed $200,000 just for playing four rounds.
SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS PRIZE MONEY BREAKDOWN
- 1 $2,700,000
- 2 $1,500,000
- 3 $950,000
- 4 $730,000
- 5 $610,000
- 6 $500,000
- 7 $425,000
- 8 $383,000
- 9 $347,000
- 10 $320,000
- 11 $300,000
- 12 $285,000
- 13 $275,000
- 14 $265,000
- 15 $255,000
- 16 $245,000
- 17 $237,000
- 18 $232,000
- 19 $229,000
- 20 $226,000
- 21 $223,000
- 22 $221,000
- 23 $219,000
- 24 $217,000
- 25 $215,000
- 26 $213,000
- 27 $212,000
- 28 $211,000
- 29 $210,000
- 30 $209,000
- 31 $208,000
- 32 $207,000
- 33 $206,000
- 34 $205,000
- 35 $204,000
- 36 $203,000
- 37 $202,000
- 38 $201,000
- 39 $200,000
SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS FIELD
- Keegan Bradley
- Ryan Brehm
- Sam Burns
- Patrick Cantlay
- Corey Conners
- Tony Finau
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Brian Harman
- Russell Henley
- Tom Hoge
- Max Homa
- Billy Horschel
- Viktor Hovland
- Mackenzie Hughes
- Sungjae Im
- Tom Kim
- KH Lee
- Luke List
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Collin Morikawa
- Trey Mullinax
- JT Poston
- Seamus Power
- Jon…
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