Spanish golfer Jon Rahm shot a 4-under 66 Sunday to win the LIV Golf Chicago event and $4 million in prize money. The victory also clinched the year-end individual title and $18 million bonus for Rahm in his first season on the Saudi Arabia-backed golf tour. He has over $34 million in LIV winnings this season.
The LIV Golf League wraps its third season this week with its team championship event in Dallas.
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Chicago was Rahm’s second LIV victory, and he finished in the top 10 at every LIV event he finished. He withdrew from Houston with a toe infection.
Joaquín Niemann and Sergio Garcia finished tied for second behind Rahm in Chicago. The two golfers also ranked second and third in the season-long points race to earn bonuses of $8 million and $4 million, which boosted their 2024 winnings to $24.4 million (Niemann) and $17.1 million (Garcia).
In December, Rahm signed with LIV in a shot across the bow as the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV negotiated a merger of their commercial operations. Rahm was ranked third in the world and was the reigning Masters champion. His signing bonus was estimated at $300 million—two times what any other LIV golfer received—with half of the money paid upfront.
The signing bonus pushed Rahm’s 2023 earnings to $203 million, including prize money and endorsements. It ranked second among athletes behind only Cristiano Ronaldo at $275 million.
Talor Gooch was LIV’s top earner last year at $35.3 million. Rahm’s 2024 LIV prize money is $34.8 million, and he also won $509,033 in the three major championships he played—the toe infection caused him to miss the U.S. Open. Last year, Rahm won $22 million on the PGA Tour, plus $9 million for his third-place finish in the PGA’s Player Impact Program.
Rahm led LIV Golf in 2024 winnings, but his tally severely lags Scottie Scheffler, who had a dominant 2024 season that included seven PGA Tour wins, including his second green jacket at the Masters, plus an Olympic gold medal in Paris. He had five other top-five finishes and made the cut in all 19 tour events. Scheffler earned $62 million, including a pair of bonuses: $25 million for the FedEx playoffs and $8 million as the leader in the Comcast Business Tour Top 10.
The other top-earning PGA Tour golfers in 2024 are Xander Schauffele ($29.3 million), Collin Morikawa ($25.3 million) and Rory McIlroy ($19.2 million).
Golf prize money has exploded since the launch of LIV Golf, which poached top stars from the PGA, including Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith. The PGA Tour handed out more than $560 million in 2023, including $100 million for the Player Impact Program (PIP) and $75 million for the Tour Championship, up $140 million from the prior year; the PIP and Tour Championship bonuses are not counted as official prize money.
The PGA Tour bumped the total purse to $20 million and winner’s check to $4 million for most of its 14 newly dubbed “elevated” events—it marked a 47% increase from the payouts at those 14 events in 2022. The total purse and first-place purse matched what LIV put in place. In 2023, LIV paid out $405 million over 14 events, including $115 million in team prize money.
In 2024, PGA Tour payouts are $689 million, including the majors and FedEx, Comcast and PIP bonus programs.
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