The World’s Highest-Paid Golfers 2024

Jon Rahm is No. 1 with a record $218 million in earnings—more than double the next highest player—despite not winning a tournament this year. And five other LIV golfers join him atop the leaderboard.

_{By Justin Birnbaum, Forbes Staff}

In2022, when Scottie Scheffler wrapped up his final round at the BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, he accomplished something no player on the PGA Tour had ever done before. The world’s No. 1 golfer posted a record-breaking $14 million in regular season earnings. A year earlier, Jon Rahm topped the PGA Tour’s official money list with a little more than half that amount, $7.7 million.

Scheffler followed that campaign with another extraordinary season, obliterating his own record and earning more than $21 million last year. And as impressive as that may have been, the 27-year-old has already surpassed his mark again, having won more than $24 million with roughly a third of the 2024 golf season remaining. Scheffler has been dominant on the course again, winning the Masters for the second time and four other tournaments. But he’s also been the beneficiary of rising financial tides in the sport.

The PGA Tour will award $402.4 million in prize money in just the 2024 regular season alone, with roughly another $340 million on the table when factoring the four Majors, a slate of yet-to-be scheduled fall events and bonus pools from the FedEx Cup, the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 and the Player Impact Program. That amounts to more than $740 million disbursed to players this year, about 9% more than the $680 million from the 2022-23 season. (In 2024, the PGA Tour returned to a calendar year format as opposed to the multi-year schedule it had used since 2013.)

A lucrative media rights package spread across CBS, NBC, ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery, which reportedly pays the PGA Tour nearly $900 million per year, has played a role in the sport’s financial growth. Despite the progress the PGA Tour has made, it’s a player from LIV Golf, Jon Rahm, who is the highest-paid golfer for 2024.

The breakaway tour, backed by the $925 billion (assets) Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, has permanently altered the economics of golf with its unusual format and astronomical paydays. By the time LIV completes its third season in 2024, it will have awarded nearly $1.1 billion in prize money, on top of committing at least $1 billion in guarantees to entice the defections of star golfers to the upstart league.

“It’s simple economics,” says Tim Derdenger, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. “Competition is good for the players.”

Combined, the world’s 10 highest-paid golfers earned an estimated $678 million over the past 12 months before taxes and agents’ fees, a 10% decrease from $752 million in 2023. That’s mainly because LIV has slowed its outsized spending spree in the past year, with Rahm being the only big-name defection. The 29-year-old Spaniard joined the Saudi-backed tour for a reported $350 million guarantee, half of which Forbes estimates he received up front. With total earnings of $218 million, he’s the third LIV golfer to rank No. 1 on our list in the last three years even though he has yet to win an event on his new tour.

Rory McIlroy, a stalwart PGA Tour player, is a distant second this year with $83 million in total earnings, despite collecting victories at the Genesis Open, the Zurich Classic and the Wells Fargo Championship over the past 12 months. The 35-year-old McIlroy remains the most successful pitchman not named Tiger Woods in the sport, partnering with Nike, Optum, and Workday, among others. Woods, who pulled in an estimated $67 million and left Nike in January after 27 years to launch a joint apparel venture with TaylorMade called Sun Day Red, ranked No. 3, just ahead of the fourth-place Scheffler at $61 million.

The long-term impact of golf’s fractured landscape, however, remains unclear. While the warring tours have increased player earnings over the past few years, dividing the best golfers in the world has left fans and longtime sponsors of the sport with a less-compelling product. A solution appeared to be on the horizon last June when the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund agreed to join forces to form a new for-profit, commercial entity called PGA Tour Enterprises. The move, which ended a slew of bitter legal battles between the tours, has also drawn antitrust concerns from Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Negotiations have stalled and, in the meantime, the PGA Tour found another investor in a consortium of American billionaires. Strategic Sports Group, which is backed Boston Red Sox co-owners John Henry and Tom Werner, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, as well as other investors, imbued the nascent enterprise with $3 billion in January. In the months since, PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan has outlined a $1.5 billion equity program earmarked for players on tour, and Woods joined the PGA Tour Enterprises’ 13-member board of directors.

While the recent resignation of Jimmy Dunne, a PGA Tour policy member and one of the architects behind the initial deal with the PIF, has done little to inspire hope that a revised agreement is coming any time soon, the PGA Tour issued a vague statement citing progress from a recent meeting in New York on June 7. “Definitely things are heading in the right direction,” McIlroy told reporters at the Memorial Tournament over the weekend. “A lot of progress was made. I can’t really say much more than that, but it was really positive.”

THE WORLD’S 10 HIGHEST-PAID GOLFERS 2024

No. 1 • $218 million

On-Course: $198 million | Off-Course: $20 million | Age: 29 | Tour: LIV

Much like many of his LIV compatriots, Rahm’s move to the upstart league cost him a slew of sponsors. In July, he signed a multi-year extension with digital supply chain firm Blue Yonder, having previously worn their logo on his chest. However, the partnership is no longer active and he now wears the logo of his LIV team, Legion XIII, in that spot. Rahm will not compete in the U.S. Open this weekend due to a foot injury.

No. 2 • $83 million

On-Course: $38 million | Off-Course: $45 million | Age: 35 | Tour: PGA

One of the PGA Tour’s most outspoken supporters since the arrival of LIV Golf, McIlroy recently lamented how the division have played out. “In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t have gotten as deeply involved in it,” he told reporters last month. The ongoing tour drama hasn’t stopped his momentum off the course, though. McIlroy cofounded TMRW Sports with Tiger Woods and sports executive Mike McCarley, which plans to launch a stadium-based, virtual golf league in 2025, while his Symphony Ventures has invested in companies like Puttery, Hyperice and Whoop.

No. 3 • $67 million

On-Course: $12 million | Off-Course: $55 million | Age: 48 | Tour: PGA

Woods may no longer be the Major-winning machine he once was, but he still found a way to break another record this year. In April, he made the cut at the Masters for the 24th consecutive time, passing Gary Player and Fred Couples. Unfortunately, his pursuit of a sixth green jacket came up far short. Woods finished 60th at Augusta.

No. 4 • $61 million

On-Course: $41 million | Off-Course: $20 million | Age: 27 | Tour: PGA

Scheffler currently has a vice grip on the World Golf Ranking’s No. 1 spot. His only blemish in 2024 was a traffic-related incident while on the way to the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club that resulted in the alleged assault of a Louisville police officer and Scheffler’s subsequent arrest. The charges were dropped two weeks later, though he told reporters he’s still struggling with the incident. “It’s not something that I love reliving, just because it was fairly traumatic for me being arrested going into the golf course.”

No. 5 • $47 million

On-Course: $43 million | Off-Course: $4 million | Age: 30 | Tour: LIV

Smith may have received a reported $100 million guarantee to join LIV Golf, but his time with the upstart tour has been far more lucrative on the course than a decade spent competing in PGA Tour events and Majors. In three seasons, the 2022 British Open Champion has won just shy of $40 million in prize money with LIV, according to Spotrac, roughly $5 million more than his career total on the PGA Tour.

No. 6 • $44 million

On-Course: $43 million | Off-Course: $1 million | Age: 30 | Tour: LIV

DeChambeau may not have the endorsement portfolio he once had, a list that once included Cobra Puma Golf, Bridgestone and Rocket Mortgage, among others. But his lighter sponsorship load has opened other opportunities, such as growing his YouTube presence. DeChambeau’s channel now has more than 670,000 subscribers and over 76 million views, with a nine-hole match between DeChambeau and Mickelson scoring 2.6 million views alone.

No. 7 • $43 million

On-Course: $35 million | Off-Course: $8 million | Age: 34 | Tour: LIV

Koepka celebrated his 34th birthday last month by winning the fourth LIV Golf event of his career at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore, which made him the career leader in titles on the nascent tour. He also remains the only golfer to win a Major under the LIV banner, with a victory at the 2023 PGA Championship. Off the course, Koepka has partnerships with Nike, Srixon and NetJets.

No. 8 • $40 million

On-Course: $33 million | Off-Course: $7 million | Age: 26 | Tour: PGA

Hovland is still chasing his first Major title and he’s come achingly close, finishing second to Koepka at the PGA Championship last year. In the meantime, he has plenty to celebrate. Hovland secured the FedEx Cup crown in 2023, which came with an $18 million bonus.

No. 9 • $38 million

On-Course: $36 million | Off-Course: $2 million | Age: 53 | Tour: LIV

Mickelson has earned more than $1 billion in his golf career, becoming the second player, after Woods, to surpass that mark. However, his ability to spend has become equally infamous. The 53-year-old allegedly bet more than $1 billion over the past three decades, with losses reaching as much as $100 million, according to a book written by renowned professional gambler Billy Walters. Off the course, Mickelson has become significantly less active since joining LIV, but he did cofound coffee company For Wellness in 2020.

No. 10 • $37 million

On-Course: $32 million | Off-Course: $5 million | Age: 39 | Tour: LIV

Johnson gave a simple explanation for why he joined LIV Golf. “Play less golf, play for more money—it just made sense,” he told Forbes in 2022. The two-time Major winner hasn’t quite earned the roughly $75 million he did in his PGA Tour career yet, but with $56 million in LIV prize money, according to Spotrac, and a reported guarantee of $125 million, he’s not exactly hurting for cash. The 39-year-old also recently joined a slew of legendary athletes, including Derek Jeter, Serena Williams and Michael Strahan, as an investor in Cincoro Tequila.

METHODOLOGY

This year’s list of the world’s highest-paid golfers tracks earnings over the last 12 months, dating to the 2023 U.S. Open. The on-course earnings figures include prize money and bonuses, as well as upfront payments golfers received for signing with LIV Golf. Based on conversations with a dozen industry sources, Forbes estimates top-tier LIV players received half of their guarantees upfront while lower-tier players received smaller sums in bulk. Forbes estimates any remaining signing money is being paid in equal annual installments across four-year contracts. Bonuses from the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program are included in on-course income, while payments for joining the TGL were not included since the league pushed its start back to 2025.

The off-course earnings figures are an estimate of sponsorship deals, appearance fees and memorabilia and licensing income over the last 12 months, plus cash returns from any businesses in which the athlete has a significant interest. Forbes does not include investment income such as interest payments or dividends but does account for payouts from equity stakes athletes have sold. Forbes does not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees.

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