Tiger Woods is the person most responsible for the financial boom in professional golf, and is frankly one of the biggest reasons that the PGA Tour is what it is today. While every player of the modern era should be eternally grateful for Woods from a monetary standpoint, Scottie Scheffler's sense of gratitude may rightfully trump all others.
Scheffler, who turned 30 in June, picked up the 21st PGA Tour victory of his career on Sunday by winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship by eight shots. The win earned him a paycheck of $3.6 million, bringing his career on-course prize money to $119,964,411.
Woods is, of course, the all-time money leader on the PGA Tour, but he won't be for long, with Scheffler pulling within just over $1 million of catching Woods' career earnings of $120,999,166.
This week's BMW Championship is a no-cut event carrying a $20 million purse, with the following week's Tour Championship in Atlanta also having no cut and a purse of $40 million. Scheffler, who will be the favorite to begin both events, will almost assuredly take over the No. 1 spot in the career-earnings list over the course of the next two weeks.
The top eight players at the Tour Championship will earn at least $1 million, with the winner in Atlanta earning $10 million.
PGA Tour purses have exploded over the last handful of years, and it's unlikely we've seen anything close to the ceiling with the Tour going from a non-profit to a for-profit entity.
Scheffler has the benefit of simply playing and winning in this era of professional golf, but the numbers are eye-opening to compare. Woods' 2019 Masters win earned him $2.07 million, while Scheffler's first Masters victory just three years later carried a payday of $2.7 million.
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Woods, 50, has made 378 starts and won 82 times on the PGA Tour on his way to earning $120.9 million. Scheffler, meanwhile, has nearly caught him despite making fewer than 168 starts on Tour.
While Scheffler passing Woods on the career-money list is by no means a shocker, considering the money in the sport today compared to the late 90s and early 2000s.
What is quite shocking is the Top 3 on the career-money list and the gap they have achieved over everyone else.
Woods leads the charge with $120.9 million, Scheffler is in the No. 2 spot with $119.9 million, and Rory McIlroy sits third with $116.4 million earned. Justin Rose is No. 4 on the list with just less than $79 million in career earnings.
