Big money game. How much more will LIV players earn compared to the PGA Tour?

Whatever else is going on around the never-ending PGA versus LIV dispute, professional golf has already won on one issue. Players generally make a lot more money. Both on the side of the traditional PGA enterprise, which has been forced by the advent of competition to squeeze player rewards, or on the innovative LIV Golf enterprise. There, player payouts have soared even higher. Judge for yourself.

If the PGA Tour was criticized for anything before the advent of the LIV, it was money. Yes, the elite players and tournament winners were already earning quite a bit of money, but the bottom half of the players weren’t thought of as much.

In fact, the players themselves have to pay for everything else at the PGA. Travel, accommodation, coaches, caddies, in short, practically everything. But there was no guaranteed money at the PGA, so some players had to work to get around enough tournaments with sponsorship money.

LIV Golf brought something completely new to the top golf world. Each player on their tour will earn at least $120,000 for participating in a tournament, plus the company will pay for the aforementioned travel or lodging expenses. In short, a full service they were not used to.

This certainly played a major role in the move to LIV. A few months ago, Tiger Woods criticized certain earnings, saying that players who are guaranteed earnings cannot be motivated to perform well on the field.

At the time the PGA started to leak shoes, they decided that any player on their circuit who plays at least 15 tournaments would get a guaranteed bonus of $500,000 per season from the Tour. Just for the aforementioned expenses that a player on Tour can’t do without.

GENEROUS LIV BONUSES

Whatever the PGA Tour has done in terms of increasing bonuses, it still lags far behind its competitors. LIV Golf is subsidized by money from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, giving its officials almost endless options.

One of the reasons PGA players have fled to the LIV is a simple equation – more money for less music. In other words, they don’t have to tour the PGA circuit week after week, but they make more money in the final round.

Dustin Johnson made the most money in the inaugural season of LIV Golf. He has earned nearly $75 million in his 15-year long PGA career. This year, all he had to do was play eight tournaments on the LIV circuit, earning $35.6 million.

But then there are players who haven’t made that much on the PGA and their few months on the LIV have earned them more than they have so far. Peter Uihlein, for example, earned just over $10 million in 10 years at the PGA. But all it took was eight tournaments with the LIV to suddenly add almost 13 million to his account.

A specific story is told by the Spanish twenty-two-year-old golfer Eugenio Chacarra, who has never even appeared on the PGA Tour. He managed 7 tournaments in his first season with the LIV, earning just under $7 million.

TOP 10 LIV EARNINGS

1. Dustin Johnson
LIV:: $35,637,767 (8 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $74,897,059 (15 years)

2. Branden Grace
LIV:: $16,634,666 (8 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $12,296,547 (12 years)

3. Peter Uihlein
LIV:: $12,814,786 (8 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $4,043,733 (10 years)

4. Patrick Reed
LIV:: $12,210,714 (7 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $37,065,581 (12 years)

5. Talor Gooch
LIV:: $10,374,500 (8 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $9,153,099 (6 years)

6. Brooks Koepka
LIV:: $8,276,100 (7 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $37,987,257 (10 years)

7. Charl Schwartzel
LIV:: $8,135,000 (8 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $20,912,493 (18 years)

8. Pat Perez
LIV: $8,023,500 (8 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $28,830,160 (21 years)

9. Cameron Smith
LIV:: $7,378,500 (5 tournaments)
PGA Tour: $27,037,033 (8 years)

10. Eugenio Chacarra
LIV:: $6,932,000 (7 tournaments)
PGA Tour:: 0 (never played)

Source:: LIV Golf, Golf Extra