Tour Championship Pays $355K Even to Last Place at East Lake

Every player in the 30-man Tour Championship field is guaranteed at least $355,000 this week, the floor for a $40 million purse at East Lake Golf Club that pays $10 million to the winner. There is no cut, and every man who tees it up gets paid on the strength of his finish alone.

How much does each position actually pay?

The PGA Tour has not released a full 30-row breakdown. It publishes anchor positions, and the rest of the field falls somewhere between them.

Individual figures for positions 2 through 24 and 26 through 29 have not been published by the Tour.

Why are two different payout figures circulating this week?

Some purse breakdowns published online this week list the 30th-place figure at $280,000. That number reflects an earlier version of the payout structure before the bottom-of-field floor was raised to $355,000. Because the top of the table, including the $10 million winner's share, has not changed, the two versions look nearly identical and only diverge at the bottom, which is why the outdated figure has kept circulating alongside the current one.

What does the FedExCup champion get besides the check?

The winner also receives a five-year PGA Tour exemption, which removes any question of status for half a decade. For a player outside the game's elite tier, that security can matter more than the prize money itself.

The trophy and the money at East Lake are decided by two different mechanisms that happen to share a week.

Why is Scottie Scheffler's total pay so much higher than the purse?

The FedExCup's roughly $100 million bonus pool is settled before the Tour Championship begins, distributed across the standings after the BMW Championship, and it is separate from the $40 million East Lake purse. Scheffler arrived at East Lake having already banked $33 million: $10 million for finishing atop the post-regular-season standings and a $23 million FedExCup season bonus paid out after the BMW Championship. Neither figure depends on how he plays this week.

What happens to a player who withdraws mid-round?

J.J. Spaun withdrew during the first round with a shoulder injury. Because the field is fixed at 30 with no cut, the Tour's general convention is to treat a player who starts and then withdraws as the last finisher for payment purposes. The Tour has not published a specific ruling on Spaun's case.