Tour Championship Is A Huge Financial Carrot
The Tour Championship consisting of the top-30 FedExCup point leaders is a most worthy bonus. Last year’s winner Xander Schauffele pocketed more than $1.5 million in victory earnings, plus another $2 million for finishing third in the FedEx Cup standings.
GolfDigest’s Brian Wacker outlines the wonderful perks by earning a spot in the Tour’s season-ending finale.
• Automatic entry into three of the following year’s majors; the Masters, U.S. Open and the Open Championship. What no PGA Championship?
• A spot in the no-cut, free-money, automatic-world-ranking-points World Golf Championships events, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, the Players, Fort Worth Invitational, the Memorial and, previously, The National (RIP).
Last year, Jason Dufner picked up an extra $175,000 for ending the year 30th in points. That’s $10,000 more than the 31st guy, Henrik Stenson, who didn’t make it to the Tour Championship. With no cut at East Lake, there’s the tournament prize money as well. Last year, Jhonattan Vegas took home a cool $140,000 for finishing last in the 30-man field.
The ultimate “rags to riches” story of the PGA Tour postseason might forever be Bill Haas. In 2011, he barely made it to the finale. At 25th in the standings, Haas needed about a dozen things to go his way to capture the FedEx Cup—including winning the Tour Championship. All of them happened, and viola, Haas padded his bank account by more than $11 million in the blink of a hole out from a hazard.
“Getting to East Lake can easily add up to a six-figure bonus from a sponsor, especially a lesser player, and it gives you the opportunity to play for millions,” according to one agent who spoke on the condition of anonymity, adding that performances like that can also lead to overseas appearance fees as well as spots in “hit-and-giggle (your-way-to-the-bank)” events. “For someone like Xander, a young kid who wasn’t maybe expected to get that far, it was probably a nice bonus from his sponsors. It can add up to maybe a couple million bucks depending on the player and the deal.”
Tony Finau had never made it to the Tour Championship before last year. A tie for seventh at East Lake moved him just inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, where he has been ever since. The ranking would have been good enough to get him into the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship, but getting to East Lake first took care of that and whatever pressure might have existed otherwise. He went on to finishing 10th, fifth and ninth, respectively, in those majors in 2018.
Thus it pays handsomely to make the top-30 each year.
