LIV Golf's Massive Offer to Schauffele Draws Attention
LIV Star Gooch Surpasses Scheffler in Prize Money
Five of the Top Ten All-Time Golf Earners Are LIV Players
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) continues to wield its "money power." Backed by Saudi oil capital, LIV Golf is constantly recruiting players in an effort to raise the quality of its tour, even as it negotiates a merger with the PGA Tour.
LIV Golf recently approached world No. 3 Xander Schauffele (USA). Schauffele's father, Stefan, revealed in an interview with The Times (UK) that LIV Golf offered his son between $150 million (about 208.5 billion KRW) and $200 million (about 278 billion KRW) to move from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf.
Schauffele is a major star who won the gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and captured both the PGA Championship and The Open last year. He has collected nine career wins on the PGA Tour. Although there have often been rumors of Schauffele moving to LIV Golf, this is the first time a concrete offer amount has been disclosed. Stefan emphasized, "Schauffele turned down the offer," adding, "Even if they had offered twice as much, my son would not have gone to LIV Golf."
This year, LIV Golf has scheduled 14 tournaments, but the prize money is enormous. The total purse for individual competitions is $20 million, and for team competitions, $5 million, making a total of $25 million per event. The winner's prize for the individual event is an unprecedented $4 million, while the team event winner receives $3 million.
Taylor Gooch (USA), who transferred to LIV Golf, has completely turned his life around and is now called the "LIV Crown Prince." On the PGA Tour, he had just one win and earned $9.25 million (about 12.86 billion KRW). In LIV Golf, he has followed a path similar to "golf emperor" Tiger Woods (USA), collecting four career wins, including three in 2023. He was named MVP and received a bonus of $18 million. The prize money he has earned through LIV Golf alone amounts to $62,238,636 (about 86.52 billion KRW).
Golf specialist outlet Golf365 released an interesting statistic in April, just before the Masters Tournament. Since 2022, LIV Golf players have dominated the top ranks in prize money among male professional golfers. Eight of the top ten in prize money rankings were LIV Golf members. Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), currently world No. 2, barely made it into the top ten.
Jon Rahm (Spain) ranked No. 1 in earnings over the past three years, with $59,491,137. After winning the 2023 Masters Tournament, Rahm moved to LIV Golf at the end of the season. Gooch was second, earning a total of $57,095,280. Dustin Johnson (USA) was third with $56,108,880.
Among PGA Tour members, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (USA) was fourth with $53,583,895. Although Scheffler is 1,698 places ahead of Gooch (ranked 1,699) in the world rankings, he earned about $3.5 million less in the past three years. Joaquin Niemann (Chile, $44,986,998), Brooks Koepka (USA, $42,442,415), Cameron Smith (Australia, $42,013,874), and Sergio Garcia (Spain, $40,803,908) were ranked fifth through eighth.
McIlroy, who achieved a career grand slam by winning the Masters Tournament this year, was ninth with $33,872,356. Even after adding the $4.2 million winner's prize from this year's Masters, his earnings still fall short of Garcia's. LIV member Branden Grace (South Africa) was tenth with $31,281,011.
LIV Golf players also stood out in the all-time earnings rankings, according to U.S. sports contract analysis outlet Spotrac. The top ten included five PGA Tour players and five LIV Golf players. McIlroy topped the all-time earnings list, amassing $194,697,653 over his career. Among PGA Tour players, Tiger Woods ranked second ($185,650,404), Scheffler was fifth ($132,504,307), Justin Thomas (USA) was ninth ($105,426,289), and Schauffele was tenth ($104,866,888).
Among LIV Golf members, Johnson was third ($168,587,793), having earned $81,619,854 on the PGA Tour and $56,151,195 in LIV Golf. Phil Mickelson (USA) was fourth ($140,928,314), Rahm was sixth ($121,953,603), Koepka was seventh ($116,216,994), and Garcia was eighth ($106,753,178). Gooch climbed to 24th place in the all-time earnings rankings with $72,240,314.
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