The 2026 PGA Championship winner will take home the highest amount from the multi-million dollar purse

NEED TO KNOW

• The 2026 PGA Championship takes place from May 15 – 17 at the Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia
• Each year, a multi-million dollar purse is split among the top professional golfers
• In 2025, champion Scottie Scheffler took home $3.42 million of the $19 million purse

The 2026 PGA Championship has a new round of golfers competing for the title.

The annual tournament — which is one of the four men's majors — features some of the best professional golfers in the world as they compete at Aronimink Golf Club, which is located in a suburb of Philadelphia. The players officially teed off on May 14 and will continue playing until the final round on May 17.

Among other star golfers, Scottie Scheffler will try to defend his title after winning the 2025 tournament at Quail Hollow Club, while Rory McIlroy is coming off his back-to-back Masters wins.

In addition to the winner earning the prized Wanamaker Trophy, they also get to take home a multi-million dollar prize. When Scheffler won in 2025, he walked away with a record-breaking $3.42 million from the $19 million total purse, per the PGA Tour.

So, how much does the winner and other players earn from the tournament this year? Here's everything to know about the 2026 PGA Championship purse.

How much does the 2026 champion win?

The 2026 PGA Championship winner will make $3.69 million from a $20.5 million purse.

PGA of America CEO Terry Clark previously explained that they consider several aspects when coming up with the purse each year.

"It's a balanced approach," Clark said in a press conference, according to ASAP Sports. "We're really focused on all aspects of how do we improve and continue to look at improvement at the assets we have, including PGA Championships. This is a really important one. Obviously, it's something we look at every year.”

Clark further clarified that they don't compare tournaments to one another and instead look at a myriad of factors to consider.

“It's not always in comparison to all of those,” Clark said. “It's what are the factor that's make sense. We do look at it as an annual focus around how do we get at competitive purses.”

How much did the 2025 PGA Championship winner earn?

The 2025 PGA Championship purse was a record-breaking $19 million — which was a $500,000 increase from the year before. Scheffler, who won by a whopping five strokes, took home the biggest prize of $3.42 million.

How much do the other PGA Championship participants make?

Luckily for the rest of the golfers, not everyone goes home empty-handed. The professional competitors who qualify for the 36-hole cut all receive some portion of the total purse, depending on what place they come in.

In 2025, there were a total of 74 people — including Scheffler — who qualified for a monetary prize, according to the Golf Channel. Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Davis Riley all tied for second place and received the same amount: $1.42 million.

From there, the prize for each person after second place ranged from $694,700 for the three players who tied for fifth to $23,420 to the competitor in 74th place.

How much have PGA Championship winners won in years past?

The PGA Championship purse and winning prize have steadily increased ever since the very first winner, Jim Barnes, took home $500 of the $2,580 of the purse in 1916, per Golf Digest.

The biggest total purse jump occurred from 2021 to 2022, when the total purse increased by $3 million, from $12 million to $15 million.

In addition to the overall purse increasing, the individual winner's prize has also surged. For instance, the 2015 prize was $1.8 million — which is nearly half what the 2025 purse was a decade later.

In 2024, Xander Schauffele took home $3.3 million from the $18 million purse, while 2023 champion Keegan Bradley scored a $3.15 million prize from the $17 million purse.

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