Getty Scottie Scheffler during the 2024 Players Championship; Tiger Woods during the 2000 Nissan Open.
With a dramatic come-from-behind win at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 17, Scottie Scheffler collected a cool $4.5 million, the largest winner’s share of the young 2024 PGA Tour season.
Scheffler, of course, won another $4 million just seven days earlier on March 10, with a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. In just seven starts, the world’s top-ranked player has already earned $10,939,500 this season, giving him a commanding lead on the 2024 PGA Tour money list.
Wyndham Clark, who finished second in each of the last two events, sits in second with $7,896,591 million in on-course earnings.
PGA Tour purses have grown exponentially over the last quarter-century and even more so in the last two seasons with the addition of Signature Events, which were essentially an answer to the big purses distributed by LIV Golf.
To put into perspective just how much more money is available on the PGA Tour today, Scheffler, with his seven starts and two victories in 2024, has already made more money this season than Tiger Woods did during his record-setting campaign in 2000.
In 20 starts that season with nine wins, including three major championships, Woods pocketed $9,188,321, more than $1.75 million less than Scheffler has earned this year.
Scottie Scheffler Has Already Earned More Than $10 Million in 2024
Six of Scheffler’s seven starts have resulted in top-10 finishes, including his two victories at the Arnold Palmer and The Players.
His lowest finish was a tie for 17th at The American Express, the tourney where Nick Dunlap made history by becoming just the eighth amateur to win a PGA Tour event since 1945. Scheffler still earned $132,300 that week, by far his lowest paycheck of the season.
Here’s a quick look at Scheffler’s season thus far.
| Scottie Scheffler 2024 PGA Tour Earnings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Finish | Earnings |
| The Sentry | T5 | $690,500 |
| The American Express | T17 | $132,300 |
| AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am | T6 | $642,500 |
| WM Phoenix Open | T3 | $519,200 |
| The Genesis Invitational | T10 | $455,000 |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational | 1 | $4,000,000 |
| The Players Championship | 1 | $4,500,000 |
With more than $53.5 million in career earnings, Scheffler already ranks 14th on the all-time PGA Tour money list.
Tiger Woods Didn’t Even Crack $10 Million With 9 Wins in 2000
The PGA Tour’s all-time leading money winner, of course, is Tiger Woods, who’s racked up more than $120.9 million in on-course earnings since turning pro in 1996.
Just over $9.18 million of that came during the 2000 PGA Tour season, a record for single-season earnings at the time.
Woods won a ridiculous 55% of his starts and won the final three majors of the season (U.S. Open, The Open Championship, PGA Championship) en route to the “Tiger Slam,” which he capped off with a victory at the 2001 Masters.
As another example of just how much purses have changed, Tiger didn’t pocket a seven-figure payout for any of those three major victories, the largest being $900,000 at the PGA Championship.
His largest check of the 2000 season was a $1 million payout at the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational, one of six additional victories he earned that year to go along with the three majors. In 20 official starts, Woods recorded 17 top-10 finishes. His lowest finish that year was a tie for 23rd at the Western Open.
| Tiger Woods 2000 PGA Tour Earnings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Finish | Earnings |
| Mercedes Championships | 1 | $522,000 |
| AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am | 1 | $720,000 |
| Buick Invitational | T2 | $264,000 |
| Nissan Open | T18 | $37,731 |
| World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship | 2 | $500,000 |
| Bay Hill Invitational | 1 | $540,000 |
| The Players Championship | 2 | $648,000 |
| Masters Tournament | 5 | $184,000 |
| GTE Byron Nelson Classic | T4 | $176,000 |
| Memorial Tournament | 1 | $558,000 |
| U.S. Open Championship | 1 | $800,000 |
| Advil Western Open | T23 | $26,700 |
| The Open Championship | 1 | $759,150 |
| Buick Open | T11 | $57,240 |
| PGA Championship | 1 | $900,000 |
| World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational | 1 | $1,000,000 |
| Bell Canadian Open | 1 | $594,000 |
| National Car Rental Golf Classic Disney | 3 | $204,000 |
| The Tour Championship | 2 | $540,000 |
| World Golf Championships-American Express Championship | T5 | $157,500 |