During Arnold Palmer’s 50 years playing professionally on the PGA Tour, he made 726 tournament starts and played a total of 2,553 rounds. He won 62 titles, fifth most in tour history, while finishing second or third 38 and 27 times, respectively. For those celebrated efforts, the seven-time major champion’s career earnings totaled a mere $1,861,857.
To understand how laughably low that is, consider that the winner on Sunday of the Arnold Palmer Invitational will earn $1,674,000 for his efforts. That’s 89.9 percent of Palmer’s career prize money while playing in .002 percent of the rounds Palmer logged in his career.
Different era for sure, but that contrast illustrates just how much more money is at stake these days on the PGA Tour compared to when Palmer was The King. So does this: There are 10 golfers who have made more money playing in Palmer’s tournament at Bay Hill alone than Palmer did for the entirety of his career. Take a look at the career money list for the API Invitational:
1. Tiger Woods, $7,657,559.53 (18 starts, 8 wins)
2. Marc Leishman, $3,388,192.17 (11/1)
3. Rory McIlroy, $2,803,278.13 (6/1)
4. Vijay Singh, $2,650,365.71 (27/1)
5. Francesco Molinari, $2,487,528.50 (7/1)
6. Matt Every, $2,363,492.43 (11/2)
7. Justin Rose, $2,296,710.43 (15/0)
8. Henrik Stenson, $2,166,174.53 (12/0)
9. Ernie Els, $2,138,036.34 (24/2)
10. Tyrrell Hatton, $2,135,382 (4/1)
The overall prize money payout for this week’s tournament is $9.3 million. Here’s the breakdown for the prize money each golfer who made the cut will earn this week. Come back shortly after the conclusion of the tournament on Sunday and we’ll update this list with individual names and money earned.