You have to love the payouts for the PGA TOUR’s signature events, which last week’s Wells Fargo Championship was one. Thanks to an amazing 8-hole, 8-under run, Rory blew past Xander and pocketed $3.6M on Sunday. For his efforts, Xander’s pre-tax take home was $2.2M. That’s big cheese.
Now comes the funny math. Much like Anthony Kim’s financial gains for posting mid-level college golfer scores in LIV events, the last-place finishers in PGA TOUR signature events receive enormous amounts of cash too. This week’s bottom feeder was nice guy Eric Cole. He finished 35 strokes behind Rory. Surely embarrassed, and possibly injured, his check read $41,400. It pays to play good golf on tour.
A look into how Sunday performances impacted the $$$ some players took home:
- Sepp Straka who started the day in the penultimate group leaked oil right out the gates and finished the day with a 74, 3-over par. Had he only shot par, he would have finished in solo 4th and made roughly $350k more than the $600k he did.
- Red-hot Stephan Jaeger’s final round 75 cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He finished up T-21, making $225k. Had he shot a 71, he would have made $400k more. Ouch.
- Will Zalatoris closed with an 80. That pushed him into a T-60 finish at 10-over total. Finishing the tourney at even would have tied him with Jaeger and others. Instead, he flew home private (richy rich-style) with a measly $44,200 check which likely only covered his crazy-high expenses for the week.
- Russell Henley’s final round 67 (4-under) vaulted him into a T-10 position — good for a $500k payday. Now, that’s the way to finish off a tourney!
The 2024 Wells Fargo Championship Payouts:
| Position | Player | Score | Earnings |
| 1 | Rory McIlroy | -17 | $3,600,000 |
| 2 | Xander Schauffele | -12 | $2,160,000 |
| 3 | Byeong Hun An | -9 | $1,360,000 |
| T4 | Jason Day | -6 | $880,000 |
| T4 | Sungjae Im | -6 | $880,000 |
| T6 | Mackenzie Hughes | -5 | $695,000 |
| T6 | Denny McCarthy | -5 | $695,000 |
| T8 | Max Homa | -4 | $601,000 |
| T8 | Sepp Straka | -4 | $601,000 |
| T10 | Russell Henley | -3 | $501,000 |
| T10 | Grayson Murray | -3 | $501,000 |
| T10 | Taylor Pendrith | -3 | $501,000 |
| T13 | Corey Conners | -2 | $387,667 |
| T13 | Tommy Fleetwood | -2 | $387,667 |
| T13 | Sam Burns | -2 | $387,667 |
| T16 | Lucas Glover | -1 | $301,000 |
| T16 | Si Woo Kim | -1 | $301,000 |
| T16 | Seamus Power | -1 | $301,000 |
| T16 | Christiaan Bezuidenhout | -1 | $301,000 |
| T16 | Collin Morikawa | -1 | $301,000 |
| T21 | Justin Thomas | E | $224,667 |
| T21 | Keegan Bradley | E | $224,667 |
| T21 | Stephan Jaeger | E | $224,667 |
| T24 | Viktor Hovland | 1 | $166,500 |
| T24 | Webb Simpson | 1 | $166,500 |
| T24 | Nick Dunlap | 1 | $166,500 |
| T24 | Alex Noren | 1 | $166,500 |
| T24 | Lee Hodges | 1 | $166,500 |
| T29 | Patrick Cantlay | 2 | $130,500 |
| T29 | Jordan Spieth | 2 | $130,500 |
| T29 | Adam Scott | 2 | $130,500 |
| T29 | Patrick Rodgers | 2 | $130,500 |
| T29 | Andrew Putnam | 2 | $130,500 |
| T34 | Matt Kuchar | 3 | $106,000 |
| T34 | Harris English | 3 | $106,000 |
| T34 | Kurt Kitayama | 3 | $106,000 |
| T34 | Cameron Young | 3 | $106,000 |
| T38 | Gary Woodland | 4 | $88,500 |
| T38 | Tom Hoge | 4 | $88,500 |
| T38 | Taylor Moore | 4 | $88,500 |
| T38 | Cam Davis | 4 | $88,500 |
| 42 | Akshay Bhatia | 5 | $78,500 |
| T43 | Chris Kirk | 6 | $68,500 |
| T43 | Rickie Fowler | 6 | $68,500 |
| T43 | Kevin Tway | 6 | $68,500 |
| T43 | Nick Taylor | 6 | $68,500 |
| T47 | Brian Harman | 7 | $53,420 |
| T47 | Shane Lowry | 7 | $53,420 |
| T47 | Wyndham Clark | 7 | $53,420 |
| T47 | Tom Kim | 7 | $53,420 |
| T47 | Adam Svensson | 7 | $53,420 |
| T52 | Matt Fitzpatrick | 8 | $47,000 |
| T52 | Justin Rose | 8 | $47,000 |
| T52 | Adam Hadwin | 8 | $47,000 |
| T52 | Sahith Theegala | 8 | $47,000 |
| T52 | Billy Horschel | 8 | $47,000 |
| T52 | Tony Finau | 8 | $47,000 |
| T58 | Jake Knapp | 9 | $45,200 |
| T58 | Ben Kohles | 9 | $45,200 |
| T60 | J.T. Poston | 10 | $44,200 |
| T60 | Brendon Todd | 10 | $44,200 |
| T60 | Will Zalatoris | 10 | $44,200 |
| 63 | Austin Eckroat | 11 | $43,400 |
| T64 | Emiliano Grillo | 12 | $42,800 |
| T64 | Adam Schenk | 12 | $42,800 |
| 66 | Peter Malnati | 14 | $42,200 |
| 67 | Matthieu Pavon | 17 | $41,800 |
| 68 | Eric Cole | 18 | $41,400 |