SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — This week’s U.S. Open purse is getting a $1 million boost to $22.5 million, tournament organizers announced Wednesday, matching the Masters as golf’s richest major championship.
In April, prize money at Augusta National surpassed the U.S. Open with a $1.5 million bump over the 2025 Masters. The last time the two majors had the same purse was 2016, when they both paid out $10 million.
“We believe we’re the best championship in the game, and we want a lot of aspects to be the best championship in the game,” USGA CEO Mike Whan said at the organization’s pre-tournament press conference. “Where we go, how we treat the players, how we pay out.”
The USGA did not increase the U.S. Open purse last year, paying out the same $21.5 million in prize money as in 2024. That marked the championship’s first time since 2021 with no pay bump.
J.J. Spaun and Bryson DeChambeau each won $4.3 million in 2025 and 2024, respectively. This week’s champion will take home $4.5 million—the same amount Rory McIlroy won at this year’s Masters.
“Some of that’s just personal pride,” Whan said. “We want to be big. We want to be the best. We want to make sure it’s life-changing in multiple ways.”
However, Whan also said the U.S. Open is “not in a race, we’re not chasing,” echoing what he told Front Office Sports last month. “It wouldn’t bother me a bit if Augusta was more or less the same,” Whan said at the time.
“We think it’s a measure of how we feel about our championship,” Whan said Wednesday of the U.S. Open’s prize money. “It needs to be significant and stand out. We think $22.5 million does.”
Major Movement
The U.S. Open is the third of the four majors to raise its prize money so far this year.
The PGA Championship increased its purse to $20.5 million last month, up from $19 million in 2025.
The Open Championship has paid out $17 million in prize money each of the past two years, and has not yet announced the purse for next month’s tournament.
Prize money in golf has skyrocketed since the 2022 emergence of LIV Golf, which launched paying unprecedented $25 million purses at every tournament, and this year has paid out $32.3 million in prize money at each event.
Despite not having major status, the PGA Tour’s Players Championship has had a $25 million purse and $4.5 million winner’s check since 2023, the same year the PGA Tour started paying out $20 million purses at its eight signature events each season.
Equitable Pay?
This week’s $22.5 million purse increase marks a roughly 4.6% bump over the 2025 U.S. Open’s prize money of $21.5 million.
Earlier this month, the USGA increased the U.S. Women’s Open purse by $500,000 to $12.5 million—a roughly 4.2% bump above the $12 million purse in 2025.
