British Open 2016 prize money: How much can Rory McIlroy, Danny Willett and Jordan Spieth win at Royal Troon?
Triumph at Troon this week comes with a lucrative reward; the biggest prize money pay cheque in the history of the Open.
Just under £1.18m will be paid to whoever comes out on top of a testing course which includes the longest and shortest holes of any on the Open’s roster.
It marks a £30,000 increase on the £1.15m earned by reigning champion Zach Johnson last year.
The R&A has boosted its total prize money pot by £200,000 to a record £6.5m, guaranteeing even the 70th placed player £15,000 for their weekend’s work.
That means this year’s winner will benefit from a 63 per cent prize money increase since the Open was last held at Royal Troon in 2004 when American Todd Hamilton earned £720,000 for winning.
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“The Open is one of the world’s great sporting events and it is important that this is reflected in the prize fund,” explained R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers of the bumper prize.
The Open has traditionally paid out the same level of prize money as the other three Majors — Masters, the US Open and the USA PGA Championship — but a weak pound means it’s winner’s pay cheque is worth around $200,000 (£149,784) less than the $1.8m received by Dustin Johnson and Danny Willett for winning the US Open and Masters respectively.
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All four are behind the Players Championship which boasts of a $10.5m prize fund from which the winner is cut a slice worth $1.9m.
US Open champion Johnson has arrived in Scotland as the highest-earning player on the PGA or European Tours so far this year with $6.6m made in prize money, narrowly ahead of Masters champion Willett on $6.5m.
