The final golf major of the season concluded Sunday with Cameron Smith etching his name into the history books at St. Andrews. While the eyes of the field were fixated on joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros as prior Champion Golfers of the Year on the Old Course, there was more than history on the line at the 150th Open Championship.
The 2022 Open marked a milestone in the championship's storied history, but it will also gave way to its largest purse and winner's share. $14 million will be distributed amongst the field with Smith, the 2022 Champion Golfer of the Year, earning $2.5 million along with the Claret Jug for his stellar play.
Smith (-20) not only won The Open but did so by tying a major championship record for lowest score to par. His back-nine 30 on Sunday was also the lowest score across the second half of a final round in major history. Smith at one point birdied five straight holes on the back nine, wrestling the lead away from Rory McIlroy and holding it through the final hole.
"There have been significant changes in prize money over the last year," said Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A. "We have therefore increased the prize fund by 22%, which means that the prize money has increased by more than 60% since 2016."
Despite the increase in the purse, The Open checks in as the fifth-highest payday of the season as it falls behind the three other majors (PGA Championship, Masters and U.S. Open) as well as the Players Championship. The $14 million purse will be shelled out to the top 70 professionals (plus ties) who make the cut. The amateurs who make their way through to the weekend cannot accept monetary prizes.
Let's take a look at how the payouts for the 150th Open will be divided among those who competed this weekend at St. Andrews.
2022 Open Championship purse, prize money
Total purse: $14 million
1st (Winner): $2,500,000 -- Cameron Smith
2nd: $1,455,000 -- Cameron Young
3rd: $933,000 -- Rory McIlroy
4th: $725,000 -- Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland ($654,000 each)
5th: $583,000
6th: $505,000 -- Brian Harman, Dustin Johnson ($469,500 each)
7th: $434,000
8th: $366,000 -- Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Jordan Spieth ($325,666 each)
9th: $321,000
10th: $290,000
11th: $264,000 -- Sadom Kaewanijana, Abraham Ancer, Tyrrell Hatton, Dean Burmester ($231,000 each)
12th: $234,000
13th: $220,000
14th: $206,000
15th: $191,500 -- Lucas Herbert, Xander Schauffele, Anthony Quayle, Francesco Molinari, Adam Scott, Si Woo Kim ($165,583 each)
16th: $176,000
17th: $167,500
18th: $159,750
19th: $153,000
20th: $145,750
21st: $139,000 -- Billy Horschel, Min Woo Lee, Trey Mullinax, Shane Lowry, Kevin Kisner, Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler ($120,286 each)
22nd: $132,000
23rd: $125,000
24th: $118,000
25th: $114,000
26th: $109,000
27th: $105,000
28th: $101,500 -- Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Harold Varner III, Will Zalatoris, Dylan Frittelli, Thomas Pieters ($90,917 each)
29th: $97,000
30th: $92,000
31st: $89,000
32nd: $84,500
33rd: $81,500
34th: $79,250 -- Thomas Detry, Robert MacIntyre, Talor Gooch, Lee Westwood, Sahith Theegala, Jon Rahm, Victor Perez, Aaron Wise ($68,906 each)
35th: $76,500
36th: $73,500
37th: $70,000
38th: $66,500
39th: $64,000
40th: $62,000
41st: $59,500
42nd: $56,500 -- Sam Burns, Jason Kokrak, Thriston Lawrence, Adrian Meronk Chris Kirk ($51,000 each)
43rd: $54,000
44th: $51,000
45th: $48,000
46th: $45,500
47th: $43,700 -- Patrick Reed, Garrick Higgo, Jordan Smith, Yuto Katsuragawa, Joo-Hyung Kim, Filippo Celli ($40,100 each)
48th: $42,000
49th: $40,000
50th: $39,100
51st: $38,200
52nd: $37,600
53rd: $37,000 -- Joaquin Niemann, Danny Willett, Robert Dinwiddie, Lars Van Meijel, Justin Thomas, Paul Casey, Jason Scrivener, Brad Kennedy, Nicolai Hojgaard ($35,256 each)
54th: $36,500
55th: $35,900
56th: $35,400
57th: $35,000
58th: $34,750
59th: $34,500
60th: $34,250
61st: $34,000
62nd: $33,900 -- Cameron Tringagle, Sebastian Munoz, John Parry, David Carey, Ian Poulter, Russell Henley ($33,442 each)
63rd: $33,750
64th: $33,600
65th: $33,400
66th: $33,100
67th: $32,900
68th: $32,600 -- Sergio Garcia, Hideki Matsuyama, Christian Bezuidenhout, Richard Mansell ($32,318 each)
69th: $32,400
70th: $32,200
71st: $32,075
72nd: $31,950 -- David Law, Kurt Kitayama (($31,888 each)
73rd: $31,825
74th: $31,700 -- Marcus Armitage, Justin De Los Santos ($31,638 each)
75th: $31,575
76th: $31,450 -- Wyndham Clark, Adri Arnaus, Aaron Jarvis (a) ($31,325 each)
77th: $31,325
78th: $31,200
79th: $31,075 -- Barclay Brown (a), Laurie Canter ($31,013 each)
80th: $30,950
81st: $30,950 -- Sam Bairstow (a), Sungjae Im ($30,950 each)
82nd: $30,950
83rd: $30,950 -- Jamie Rutherford
Prize money decreased by $125 per qualifying place above 70 to a minimum of $30,950.