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Adam Scott finished 29th in the 39-man field at last week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. The golfer bagged $210,000 for the effort. With this, the 42-year-old became just the seventh golfer to reach the $60 million mark in PGA Tour career earnings.
Despite being among the most earning golfers, Scott believes that PGA Tour event winners are underpaid. Speaking on Wednesday at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Scott called on the American circuit to increase the winner's share of events from 18 percent to 40 percent. Opposing the traditional prize money system in place, the Aussie stated that the players deserved more for the win.
Responding to a question about his stance on the PGA Tour’s prize money allocation, Adam Scott said:
"It's a fine question to put forward. I mean, potentially you could have weighted the win and not put purses up, you know what I mean? You could give them 40 percent. Leave the purse the same size, but give the winner 40 percent of the total purse and cut everybody else and look for—reward excellence in a week."
It is pertinent to note that Jon Rahm earned a whopping $2.7 million for winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions last week. The prize money was 18 percent of the total purse. That was the exact amount Scottie Scheffler earned by winning last year's Masters. However, Adam Scott thinks that the Spaniard should have received $6 million from the $15 million purse.
Adam Scott's radical idea could cause trouble among players
Adam Scott’s idea of a radical increase in prize money comes after the PGA Tour raised prize purses following the emergence of LIV Golf. However, the Aussie golfer isn’t ignorant about the problems the raised paychecks could cause. He also addressed the same and said that the increased numbers would leave other players unhappy going forward.
The 14-time PGA Tour winner added:
"I mean, I'm perfectly fine to have those kinds of conversations and look at things a different way, but you might also get to the point where the top 10 players feel that's not—finishing eighth is not worth $36 or whatever that leaves. You know what I mean?
"I think what all of this is showing is like the traditional structures that we've had in pro golf, it's probably time for a change. And there has to be different ways to look at it."
Interestingly, Adam Scott isn’t the only one who feels the winners should be rewarded more. Following the Aussie, PGA star Jordan Spieth also backed the notion and said those event winners could be earning a lot more than they make.
He said:
"If that percentage were to go up a couple points, I wouldn't be opposed to that at all. If it aligned with [the] World Ranking system that got adjusted to a strokes-gained system, where somehow things got aligned in what could be changed going forward on the World Ranking, then maybe that would be the best way to do it."
It is pertinent to note that the PGA Tour has raised the prize purses significantly in the past year. The new pay structure saw Rory McIlroy receive 24 percent of the $75 million up for grabs at the 2022 Tour Championship, while LPGA star Lydia Ko grabbed around 30 percent of the $7 million purse at last year’s CME Group Tour Championship.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Jay Monahan-led circuit considers upping the prize money yet again.
