Scottie Scheffler won the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis this weekend, tying the course record with a second-round 61 and holding off the field through humid, high-90s conditions to open the FedEx Cup Playoffs on top. The win kicks off the PGA Tour’s three-event playoff stretch that determines the $25 million FedEx Cup champion.
The tournament’s $20 million purse — with the winner’s share landing around $3.6 million — is standard for a FedEx Cup Playoffs opener, and it’s fair to note how far removed that number is from the daily economic reality of most fans watching from the gallery or on television.
A No-Cut Field Playing for Real Money
Because the Playoffs opener has no cut, even the last-place finisher in the 70-man field walks away with a six-figure check. That’s a genuinely different competitive environment than a normal PGA Tour event, where missing the cut means going home with nothing. It doesn’t make the golf any less demanding — Scheffler’s 61 was a legitimately elite round under tournament pressure — but it does mean the financial stakes for the field are structured very differently than in most professional sports, where a bad week can mean no paycheck at all.
What the Number Actually Represents
A $20 million purse for one tournament week is a useful reminder of how concentrated professional golf’s economics have become at the top of the sport, largely driven by television and corporate sponsorship revenue rather than gate receipts from the fans in Memphis. Whether that’s a fair reflection of the players’ value to broadcasters and sponsors, or a sign of how disconnected elite sports economics have gotten from the audience funding them, is a legitimate ongoing debate — one that isn’t unique to golf.
🔥 Scheffler’s Course-Record Round:
What do you think? Do massive playoff purses like the FedEx Cup’s reflect golf’s real value to fans and sponsors, or has prize money in professional sports gotten disconnected from the audience that funds it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments on BeezLoop.com!
