The size of the purse for the 2022 Players Championship can't be overstated. At $20 million, it was a $5 million bump from last year's edition and easily the biggest individual event purse in the history of golf. It's nearly double any of the four major championship purses, which means there was a lot to play for this week in Jacksonville, Florida, even for golfers who were not in the hunt for the victory at TPC Sawgrass.
To contextualize the significant amount of this prize money, the $3.6 million winner's share that went to Cameron Smith is more than the career earnings of Lee Trevino (who won 29 events), Frank Nobilo, Sandy Lyle and Johnny Miller (who won 25 times). The lowest finishers after the cut all earned $43,000, which is nearly equivalent to what Jack Nicklaus earned for winning the first Players Championship back in 1974.
Everyone who finished in the top 36 this year made at least six figures. The top 11 finishers all earned over $500,000. If that sounds monumental, well, that's precisely the way to describe it.
Let's take a look at how the payouts for the 2022 Players Championship will be divided up.
2022 Players Championship purse, prize money
| Place | Money |
|---|---|
| 1st | $3,600,000 - Cameron Smith |
| 2nd | $2,180,000 - Anirban Lahiri |
| 3rd | $1,380,000 - Paul Casey |
| 4th | $980,000 - Kevin Kisner |
| 5th | $820,000 - Keegan Bradley |
| 6th | $725,000 - Harold Vaner III, Russell Knox, Doug Ghim ($675K each) |
| 7th | $675,000 |
| 8th | $625,000 |
| 9th | $585,000 - Sepp Straka, Adam Hadwin, Viktor Hovland, Dustin Johnson ($525K each) |
| 10th | $545,000 |
| 11th | $505,000 |
| 12th | $465,000 |
| 13th | $425,000 - Keith Mitchell, Erik van Rooyen, Daniel Berger, Max Homa, Tyrell Hatton, Brendan Steele, Shane Lowry ($421K each) |
| 14th | $385,000 |
| 15th | $365,000 |
| 16th | $345,000 |
| 17th | $325,000 |
| 18th | $305,000 |
| 19th | $285,000 |
| 20th | $265,000 |
| 21st | $245,000 |
| 22nd | $225,000 - Joaquin Niemann, Patton Kizzire, Tommy Fleetwood, Kevin Streelman ($199K each) |
| 23rd | $209,000 |
| 24th | $193,000 |
| 25th | $177,000 |
| 26th | $161,000 - Corey Conners, Doc Redman, Sergio Garcia, Alex Noren, Patrick Reed, Will Zalatoris, Sam Burns ($143K each) |
| 27th | $155,000 |
| 28th | $149,000 |
| 29th | $143,000 |
| 30th | $137,000 |
| 31st | $131,000 |
| 32nd | $125,000 |
| 33rd | $119,000 - Abraham Ancer, Ian Poulter, Justin Thomas, Seamus Power, Joel Dahmen, Pat Perez, Tom Hoge, Rory McIlroy, Sebastian Munoz ($100K each) |
| 34th | $114,000 |
| 35th | $109,000 |
| 36th | $104,000 |
| 37th | $99,000 |
| 38th | $95,000 |
| 39th | $91,000 |
| 40th | $87,000 |
| 41st | $83,000 |
| 42nd | $79,000 - Kramer Hickok, Scott Stallings, Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen ($73K each) |
| 43rd | $75,000 |
| 44th | $71,000 |
| 45th | $67,000 |
| 46th | $63,000 - Troy Merritt, Maverick McNealy, Adam Long, Peter Malnati ($58K each) |
| 47th | $59,000 |
| 48th | $55,800 |
| 49th | $53,000 |
| 50th | $51,400 - Brice Garnett, Dylan Frittelli, Aaron Wise ($50K each) |
| 51st | $50,200 |
| 52nd | $49,000 |
| 53rd | $48,200 - Jason Kokrak, Branden Grace ($48K each) |
| 54th | $47,400 |
| 55th | $47,000 - Jimmy Walker, Sungjae Im, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Kyoung-Hoon Lee ($46K each) |
| 56th | $46,600 |
| 57th | $46,200 |
| 58th | $45,800 |
| 59th | $45,400 |
| 60th | $45,000 - Sam Ryder, Michael Thompson, Denny McCarthy ($45K each) |
| 61st | $44,600 |
| 62nd | $44,200 |
| 63rd | $43,800 - Hank Lebioda, Chesson Hadley, Brian Harman ($43K each) |
| 64th | $43,400 |
| 65th | $43,000 |
| T66 | $43,000 - Hayden Buckley, Nick Watney |
| T68 | $43,000 - Lucas Herbert, Bubba Watson |
| 70th | $43,000 - Lee Hodges |
