Topline
Brooks Koepka became the first active LIV Golf member to win one of golf’s four major tournaments Sunday, and while his seven-figure prize is a drop in the bucket compared to his LIV earnings, loyalists of the new Saudi-financed tour characterized Koepka’s victory as a momentous occasion.
Brooks Koepka celebrates with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak … [+]
Key Facts
Koepka took home $3.15 million in prize money for his 2023 PGA Championship win, his fifth major championship.
That pales in comparison to the $72 million he earned between May 1, 2022 and May 1, 2023, according to Forbes’ calculations, thanks to the roughly $50 million up-front signing bonus Koepka received from LIV last summer.
And though other LIV golfers put up solid performances at the PGA Championship—11 of 16 golfers made the cut and Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith notched top-10 finishes— their comparatively meager payouts shed light on just how much LIV’s seemingly endless checkbook from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund shook the sport’s financial landscape.
Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Koepka, Smith and DeChambeau, LIV’s highest-paid players and five of the 20 highest-paid athletes in the world, won $4.4 million this weekend, just a hair over 1% of their collective $427 million paydays last year.
Yet, LIV overwhelmingly celebrated its golfers’ PGA Championship showing as a smash success: LIV CEO Greg Norman tweeted Sunday it proved the tour’s players “belong,” Koepka characterized it as a “huge thing for LIV” and DeChambeau said it “validated everything” LIV players have said as their eligibility to compete in majors remains in limbo.
Surprising Fact
LIV golfers’ finishes at this year’s Masters and PGA Championship, the two majors played thus far, have been nearly identical compared to last year (see below chart). Of the nine LIV players who played in both majors in 2022 and 2023, their median and average finish was roughly the same year-over-year. Mickelson’s second-place finish at April’s Masters and DeChambeau’s fourth-place at the 2023 PGA Championship were not included in this calculation due to each player not participating in both 2022 tournaments.
Key Background
LIV debuted last June to significant fanfare and controversy, poaching dozens of golfers from the long-established PGA Tour thanks to guaranteed signing bonuses previously foreign to the sport. Koepka was the most notable, younger American golfer to switch allegiances to LIV, teeing off for the first time at the tour’s first American tournament. The PGA Tour banned LIV players from playing its events in a decision that sparked a federal antitrust probe, but independently-governed majors have welcomed qualified golfers from both tours.
Tangent
Golf isn’t the only sport upended by Saudi money: Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo signed with Saudi club Al-Nassr in December for a reported $75 million salary, while Lionel Messi is reportedly in talks to join the same league for a nine-figure salary.
Further Reading
Saudi Money Is Supercharging Athletes’ Pay — And Shaking Up The Sports World (Forbes)
Koepka’s Collapse Leaves Masters Crown Out Of LIV Golfers’ Hands, But Their Paychecks Still Reign (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/05/22/brooks-koepkas-32-million-pga-championship-win-dwarfed-by-his-liv-payday-but-heres-why-it-looks-good-for-liv-golf/