Open Championship 2023 purse, payout breakdown: How much prize money does British Open winner make?

23-07-2023
5 min read
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The final major of the 2023 men's golf season compares favorably to the others in terms of prestige, but once again it falls short when it comes to prize money.

Not that the money available at this year's Open Championship was anything to sneeze at. The tournament featured a sizable increase in purse from 2022, when Cameron Smith won both the Claret Jug and the $2.5 million winner's share.

This year's winner, 36-year-old PGA Tour veteran Brian Harman, will take home a cool $3 million in addition to the famous trophy. Harman completed his dominant victory on Sunday by finishing the tournament at 13 under par, six strokes better than his nearest competition.

Here's a breakdown of the Open Championship purse in 2023 and how it compares not only to last year's tournament purse but also to each of golf's majors:

MORE: PGA Tour veteran Brian Harman dominates to win 2023 Open Championship

Open Championship purse 2023

According to an ESPN report, the R&A increased the Open Championship purse to $16.5 million in 2023, a 17.9 percent jump from last year's $14.5 million purse.

Even with the increase in purse, the Open still trails each of the other golf majors in terms of total prize money:

  1. U.S. Open: $20 million
  2. Masters Tournament: $18 million
  3. PGA Championship: $17.5 million
  4. Open Championship: $16.5 million

The 2023 Players Championship's $25 million purse is still the largest in golf history, at least in terms of individual winnings. Each LIV Golf tournament has a $25 million purse, with $20 million for individual placements and $5 million split among the teams that finish in the top three.

MORE: Revisiting Rory McIlroy's 2014 major wins

How much money does the Open Championship winner get?

Brian Harman received $3 million with his win this week, or 20 percent more than the $2.5 million Smith won last year. The winner's share represents 18.1 percent of the total purse, which is a barely higher percentage than those of the other three majors.

But Harman still made less than the winners of the U.S. Open (Wyndham Clark), Masters (Jon Rahm) and PGA Championship (Brooks Koepka):

  1. U.S. Open: $3.6 million (18 percent)
  2. Masters: $3.24 million (18 percent)
  3. PGA Championship: $3.15 million (18 percent)
  4. Open Championship: $3 million (18.1 percent)

Open Championship payouts

Below are the payouts for top 70 placements in the tournament, per PGATour.com:   

Place Projected payout
1 $3,000,000
2 $1,708,000
3 $1,095,000
4 $851,000
5 $684,500
6 $593,000
7 $509,500
8 $429,700
9 $377,000
10 $340,500
11 $310,000
12 $274,700
13 $258,300
14 $241,800
15 $224,800
16 $206,600
17 $196,600
18 $187,500
19 $179,600
20 $171,100
21 $163,100
22 $155,000
23 $146,700
24 $138,500
25 $133,800
26 $128,000
27 $123,300
28 $119,100
29 $113,900
30 $108,000
31 $104,500
32 $99,200
33 $95,700
34 $93,000
35 $89,800
36 $86,200
37 $82,200
38 $78,000
39 $75,200
40 $72,800
41 $69,800
42 $66,400
43 $63,400
44 $59,800
45 $56,400
46 $53,400
47 $51,300
48 $49,300
49 $47,000
50 $45,900
51 $44,900
52 $44,100
53 $43,400
54 $42,800
55 $42,100
56 $41,500
57 $41,100
58 $40,800
59 $40,500
60 $40,200
61 $40,000
62 $39,800
63 $39,600
64 $39,400
65 $39,200
66 $38,900
67 $38,600
68 $38,300
69 $38,000
70 $32,200

In cases of a tie, winnings were divided based on the number of players who finished tied for the placement. For example, because four players tied for second this week, they will each receive an equal cut of the total winnings from places second through fifth. That comes out to $1,027,750 apiece.