Thanks to Brooks Koepka’s performance at Shinnecock Hills, Curtis Strange is no longer the answer to one of golf’s more wonky questions: Who was the last player to win back-to-back US Open titles? Yet Strange will forever be the solution to another piece of golf trivia: Who was the first golfer to earn $US1 million in a single season on the US PGA Tour.
Thirty years ago this coming November, the World Golf Hall of Famer won the season-ending Nabisco Championship in a Monday playoff over Tom Kite at Pebble Beach, earning $360,000 and pushing his year-long haul to $1,147,644. “I guess the first one to do it is the one everybody will talk about,” Strange said at the time. “But a couple of years from now, four or five guys will be doing it. It’s kind of like Arnold Palmer becoming the first player to win $1 million in a career [in 1968]. Now there are 40 or 50 who’ve done it.”
Oh, how clairvoyant Strange proved to be. Fast forward to 2018 and through last week’s Northern Trust, the number of golfers who have cracked the $1 million in this latest US PGA Tour season (official money) is an impressive 114, which is believed to be an all-time high. Indeed, every golfer in the field at this week’s Dell Technologies Championship is on this list.
The number of season-long millionaires is up from 102 during the 2016-’17 and 107 from 2015-’16.
As for the number of golfers who have earned at least $1 million in US PGA Tour events during their careers, well that number is now at 556 and counting. Sam Ryder became the latest this past weekend at Ridgewood Country Club, taking home $59,850 for his T-28 finish. He didn’t earn enough FedEx Cup points to move on to the season’s second playoff event, but his cash reward pushed him to $1,046,166 in winnings on tour.
Makes you wish you had put a few more hours on the range when you were a teenager, now, doesn’t it?
Here is the current US PGA Tour money list updated through the Northern Trust:
[*All figures in US dollars]
Rank, Player, Events (Wins), Money
1: Justin Thomas, 20 (3), $8,154,693
2: Dustin Johnson, 17 (3), $7,499,752
3: Brooks Koepka, 14 (2), $6,673,792
4: Bryson DeChambeau, 23 (2), $6,189,009
5: Justin Rose, 15 (2), $5,814,678
6: Bubba Watson, 21 (3), $5,242,048
7: Jason Day, 17 (2), $4,832,761
8: Tony Finau, 25, $4,805,338
9: Patrick Reed, 23 (1), $4,708,018
10: Webb Simpson, 23 (1), $4,670,167
11: Francesco Molinari, 18 (2), $4,650,042
12: Phil Mickelson, 21 (1), $4,270,332
13: Patrick Cantlay, 20 (1), $3,708,414
14: Rickie Fowler, 18, $3,703,337
15: Jon Rahm, 17 (1), $3,663,668
16: Rory McIlroy, 15 (1), $3,609,521
17: Kyle Stanley, 23, $3,538,586
18: Marc Leishman, 22, $3,472,421
19: Tiger Woods, 15, $3,439,862
20: Tommy Fleetwood, 16, $3,386,469
21: Patton Kizzire, 26 (2), $3,340,271
22: Paul Casey, 17 (1), $3,315,521
23: Kevin Na, 23 (1), $3,234,516
24: Xander Schauffele, 24, $3,224,138
25: Aaron Wise, 26 (1), $3,133,517
26: Pat Perez, 21 (1), $2,942,121
27: Kevin Kisner, 23, $2,881,076
28: Billy Horschel, 24 (1), $2,821,200
29: Cameron Smith, 21, $2,818,997
30: Chesson Hadley, 28, $2,749,423
31: Brian Harman, 23, $2,693,603
32: Ian Poulter, 18 (1), $2,692,985
33: Luke List, 27, $2,684,996
34: Chez Reavie, 26, $2,659,518
35: Gary Woodland, 24 (1), $2,623,228
36: Jordan Spieth, 21, $2,612,141
37: Henrik Stenson, 14, $2,602,547
38: Alex Noren, 16, $2,595,590
39: Andrew Landry, 25 (1), $2,575,939
40: Byeong Hun An, 22, $2,484,852
41: Ryan Armour, 30 (1), $2,422,169
42: Brandt Snedeker, 23 (1), $2,375,867
43: Austin Cook, 27 (1), $2,369,900
44: Beau Hossler, 26, $2,356,164
45: Keegan Bradley, 24, $2,277,664
46: Brendan Steele, 20 (1), $2,272,048
47: Andrew Putnam, 26 (1), $2,221,882
48: Emiliano Grillo, 23, $2,211,823
49: Si Woo Kim, 29, $2,200,345
50: Adam Scott, 19, $2,194,676
51: Rafa Cabrera Bello, 18, $2,153,769
52: Brian Gay, 28, $2,107,591
53: Charles Howell III, 26, $2,085,135
54: Jimmy Walker, 22, $2,009,672
55: Ryan Moore, 21, $1,968,968
56: J.J. Spaun, 25, $1,934,626
57: Ted Potter, Jr., 26 (1), $1,911,308
58: Zach Johnson, 23, $1,905,660
59: Whee Kim, 29, $1,903,240
60: Stewart Cink, 24, $1,868,038
61: Scott Piercy, 24 (1), $1,856,597
62: Hideki Matsuyama, 18, $1,781,477
63: Chris Kirk, 27, $1,748,342
64: Tyrrell Hatton, 14, $1,722,635
65: Adam Hadwin, 23, $1,722,608
66: Charl Schwartzel, 20, $1,710,179
67: Matt Kuchar, 23, $1,691,237
68: Daniel Berger, 22, $1,680,194
69: Louis Oosthuizen, 15, $1,656,950
70: Jason Kokrak, 27, $1,614,122
71: Peter Uihlein, 24, $1,596,340
72: J.B. Holmes, 23, $1,574,442
73: Kevin Chappell, 22, $1,566,769
74: Kevin Streelman, 26, $1,523,642
75: Branden Grace, 17, $1,500,429
76: Keith Mitchell, 27, $1,498,520
77: Jason Dufner, 21, $1,497,655
78: Russell Henley, 22, $1,496,548
79: Kelly Kraft, 30, $1,496,253
80: Joel Dahmen, 27, $1,476,838
81: Satoshi Kodaira, 17 (1), $1,471,462
82: C.T. Pan, 28, $1,469,287
83: Ryan Palmer, 20, $1,465,635
84: Anirban Lahiri, 23, $1,441,205
85: Russell Knox, 26, $1,395,170
86: Abraham Ancer, 28, $1,393,330
87: Nick Watney, 25, $1,383,663
88: Charley Hoffman, 24, $1,383,357
89: Michael Kim, 26 (1), $1,379,736
90: Jamie Lovemark, 25, $1,360,366
91: Kevin Tway, 30, $1,350,684
92: James Hahn, 25, $1,344,732
93: Tom Hoge, 30, $1,340,002
94: Troy Merritt, 26 (1), $1,326,989
95: Ollie Schniederjans, 26, $1,303,610
96: Patrick Rodgers, 30, $1,287,040
97: Brice Garnett, 28 (1), $1,258,999
98: Danny Lee, 29, $1,247,886
99: Sung Kang, 29, $1,243,309
100: Harold Varner III, 27, $1,223,064
101: Alex Cejka, 24, $1,198,541
102: Trey Mullinax, 24, $1,184,245
103: Bronson Burgoon, 23, $1,159,726
104: Brandon Harkins, 30, $1,148,115
105: Jhonattan Vegas, 26, $1,137,444
106: Scott Stallings, 29, $1,126,073
107: Rory Sabbatini, 27, $1,126,057
108: Sean O’Hair, 22, $1,104,865
109: Richy Werenski, 32, $1,081,283
110: Scott Brown, 32, $1,076,678
111: Grayson Murray, 22, $1,056,628
112: Sam Ryder, 26, $1,046,166
113: Brian Stuard, 31, $1,035,200
114: Martin Laird, 22, $1,017,580
