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Rory McIlroy won $4.5 million at the Players Championship, following a three-hole playoff victory over J.J. Spaun on Monday morning.
That ties the largest winner’s check in PGA Tour history. Scottie Scheffler won the same amount at the 2024 Players Championship, when the purse increased to a record $25 million, which remained unchanged this year.
The $4.5 million sum is larger than the first-place prize money for any major championship, and any individual LIV Golf title. Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf pay out larger total sums to the winners and top finishers at their season-ending events, but those include season-long bonus pool money.
Spaun, whose birdie attempt on the 72nd hole that would have clinched the tournament fell just inches short of the hole, earned $2.725 million for his second-place finish at TPC Sawgrass, which is his biggest check from a single event. The 34-year-old has one PGA Tour victory, the 2022 Texas Open, for which he earned $1.54 million. His career earnings coming onto the Players was $14.4 million, and now stands at $17.1 million.
Tom Hoge, Akshay Bhatia, and Lucas Glover all finished two strokes outside the playoff, and each earned $1.325 million for their respective ties for third place.
Danny Walker, who was not in the original Players field but got an alternate spot on Thursday morning after Jason Day withdrew, finished tied for sixth, and won $843,750. Walker, 29, is playing his first full season on the PGA Tour, where he had previously earned $179,668 from six starts.
It even pays well to make the cut and finish in last place: Xander Schauffele earned $50,250 for 72nd.
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