Phoenix Open prize money dwarfed by LIV Golf as Saudi league heads to Las Vegas
LIV Golf's £20 million ($25m) Las Vegas prize pot is more than double the amount that is on offer at the PGA Tour's Waste Management Phoenix Open.
It is once again the battle of the tours this week, with LIV hosting their first ever event in Las Vegas, whilst the PGA Tour heads to one of its most iconic venues in TPC Scottsdale. Despite the history of the Arizona-based tournament, it was not given signature event status for 2024.
This means unlike the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational either side, it was not handed one of the lucrative £16 million ($20m) purses, with players instead competing for £7 million ($8.8m) across the week.
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This has been trumped by their Saudi rivals at LIV, who have yet another eye-watering £20 million purse on offer, this time in Vegas. The breakaway league's prize pot is split into two parts at each of its events, with £16 million ($20m) played for in the individual event, and £4 million ($5m) split between the top three performing teams.
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Their first big payout of 2024 came in Mexico last week, as Mayakoba played host to the opening event of the year. The man who took home the largest chunk of the £20 million purse was Joaquin Niemann, as he landed his first LIV Golf title.
The Torque GC star prevailed following a dramatic final round, which included a tense four-hole playoff in near darkness with Sergio Garcia. Niemann finally claimed victory to cap off an incredible week - which included an opening round 59 - with a £3.2 million ($4m) payout.
Joaquin Niemann won his first LIV Golf title (Getty Images)The Chilean's impressive week individually also helped Torque finish third in the team standings, ensuring he was handed a bonus just short of £100,000. In total Niemann has won a cool £10.5 million ($13.2m) in just 19 events since joining the breakaway league in 2022.
In total this is just over £1 million less than his all-time earnings on the PGA Tour, having banked £11.8 million ($14.9m) across 121 events on the American-based circuit. Whilst Niemann has seen his bank balance trend upwards though, his world ranking has headed in the opposite direction.
Having joined the league as a top-20 player, the 25-year-old now found himself 74th in the world amid LIV Golf's wait for Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) recognition. This comes at a cost for Niemann, who is eligible to compete in just one major in this July Open Championship, after winning the Australian Open at the end of 2023.
Discussing how he is using his major snub to his advantage on the back of his lucrative win last Sunday, he said: "I think I have a different mindset for this year. It kind of hurt me a little bit not being in the majors and I think also helped me to get motivation to kind of earn my spot back into the majors, into the elite players.
"I think it helped me a little bit to get focused back, to start working harder, to start working with a purpose. I think it's paying off, and I just want to keep telling myself that I'm capable of doing this, of winning tournaments, and this is a good way to prove that, and I don't want to stop working the way I'm doing it. I just want to keep going."
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