PGA Tour

History

The roots of the modern PGA Tour stretch back to April 10, 1916, when the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) was formed. The modern tour recognizes wins from this era as "PGA Tour" victories despite the formal founding of the tour as a separate entity coming much later.

1910s

By 1916, several prestigious golf tournaments offering prize money to the winner had been established in North America, including the North and South Open, the Metropolitan Open, the Canadian Open, the Shawnee Open, the Western Open and the U.S. Open. They formed the initial schedule of what came to be known much later as the "PGA Tour", with the addition of the PGA Championship in 1916. The Open Championship in the UK, the oldest golf tournament in the world founded in 1860, would become a PGA Tour event much later in 1995. All Open Championship wins dating back to 1860 were retroactively recognized as PGA Tour victories in 2002.

1920s

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, various state open tournaments began, many organized by sections of the PGA. Tournaments recognized as PGA Tour wins from this era include the California Open, Connecticut Open, Florida Open, Maryland Open, Massachusetts Open, New Jersey State Open, New York State Open, Ohio Open, Oklahoma Open, Oregon Open, Pennsylvania Open Championship, Utah Open, Virginia Open and the Wisconsin State Open. This legacy lives on with the modern PGA Tour as the Valero Texas Open dates back to this era of state opens on the tour.

The tour, then known informally as "The Circuit" for professional golfers in the PGA, became more formalized in 1929. A tournament committee was formed, consisting of Tommy Armour, Al Espinosa and J.J. Patterson.

1930s

In 1930, Bob Harlow was hired as manager of the PGA Tournament Bureau and worked to formalize a year-round schedule of tournaments.

1940s

In 1945, Byron Nelson enjoyed a record-breaking year, winning 18 PGA tournaments out of the 30 he played, including 11 in a row that he played in. Both records are yet to be beaten. The Byron Nelson, which became the first PGA Tour event to be named for a professional golfer in 1968, is played annually near Dallas.

1950s

Throughout the 1950s, despite injuries from a car crash, star player Ben Hogan won 10 PGA Tour tournaments, including 6 major championships and three times at his hometown tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, the Colonial National Invitation. Younger working class player Arnold Palmer won 13 PGA Tour tournaments, becoming a crowd favorite and TV star including capturing his first Masters Tournament on CBS in 1958. Sam Snead was dominant on his way to a record-setting 82 PGA Tour career victories.

1960s

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were the dominant players of the 1960s, with Palmer winning 43 titles and Nicklaus winning 30.

With an increase of revenue in the late 1960s due to expanded television coverage, a dispute arose between the touring professionals and the PGA of America on how to distribute the windfall. The tour players wanted larger purses, where the PGA desired the money to go to the general fund to help grow the game at the local level. Following the final major in July 1968 at the PGA Championship, several leading tour pros voiced their dissatisfaction with the venue and the abundance of club pros in the field. The increased friction resulted in a new entity in August, what would eventually become the PGA Tour. Tournament players formed their own organization, American Professional Golfers, Inc. (APG), independent of the PGA of America. Its headquarters were in New York City.

After several months, a compromise was reached in December: the tour players agreed to abolish the APG and form the PGA "Tournament Players Division", a fully autonomous division under the supervision of a new 10-member Tournament Policy Board. The board consisted of four tour players, three PGA of America executives, and three outside members, initially business executives.

Joseph Dey, the recently retired USGA executive director, was selected by the board as the tour's first commissioner in January 1969 and agreed to a five-year contract. He was succeeded by tour player Deane Beman in early 1974, who served for twenty years.

1970s

Jack Nicklaus continued his dominance, winning 38 titles.

The tour's name officially changed to the "PGA Tour" in 1975. In 1978 the PGA Tour "removed its restriction on women." However, no women have joined the tour since this date.

Without the tour players, the PGA of America became primarily an association of club professionals, but retained control of two significant events; the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup. The former was an established major championship, but the latter was an obscure match play team event which was not particularly popular with golf fans, due to predictable dominance by the United States. With the addition of players from continental Europe in 1979 and expanded television coverage, it became very competitive and evolved into the premier international team event, lately dominated by Europe. Both events are very important revenue streams for the PGA of America.

The Players Championship, the tour's flagship event, was introduced in 1974.

1980s

In late August 1981, the PGA Tour had a marketing dispute with the PGA of America and officially changed its name to the TPA Tour, for the "Tournament Players Association". The disputed issues were resolved within seven months and the tour's name was changed back to the "PGA Tour" in March 1982.

The Official World Golf Ranking was introduced in 1986, with the PGA Tour competing with the European Tour for the top golfers, including the world number one.

The Tour Championship was introduced in 1987.

1990s

Tim Finchem became the third commissioner in June 1994 and continued for over 22 years; on January 1, 2017, he was succeeded by Jay Monahan.

As Tiger Woods emerged as a dominant player, TV ratings and revenues soared for the tour.

In 1999, the tour began play of the World Golf Championships.

2000s

Tiger Woods continued his dominance of the tour in the 2000s, winning 57 of his 82 career titles.

Three of the four majors had settled into a pattern of play in eight weeks between June and August. In the past, this had threatened to make the last 2+1⁄2 months of the season anticlimactic, as some of the very top players competed less from that point on. In response, the PGA Tour introduced a new format in 2007, the FedEx Cup. From January through mid-August players competed in "regular season" events and earn FedEx Cup points, in addition to prize money. At the end of the regular season, the top 125 FedEx Cup points winners are eligible to compete in the "playoffs", four events taking place from mid-August to mid-September. The field sizes for these events are reduced from 125 to 100 to 70 and finally the traditional 30 for the Tour Championship. Additional FedEx Cup points are earned in these events. At the end of the championship, the top point winner is the season champion. To put this new system into place, the PGA Tour has made significant changes to the traditional schedule.

In 2007, The Players Championship moved to May so as to have a marquee event in five consecutive months. The Tour Championship moved to mid-September, with an international team event (Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup) following at the end of September. The schedule was tweaked slightly in both 2008 and 2009. After the third FedEx Cup playoff event, the BMW Championship, the Tour takes a full week off. In 2008, the break came before the Ryder Cup, with the Tour Championship the week after that. In 2009, the break was followed by the Tour Championship, with the Presidents Cup taking place two weeks after that.

2007 saw the introduction of a tournament in Mexico, an alternate event staged the same week as the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. A tournament in Puerto Rico was introduced in 2008 as an alternate event staged opposite the WGC-CA Championship.

The Tour continues through the fall, with the focus on the scramble of the less successful players to earn enough money to retain their tour cards. A circuit known as the Fall Series, originally with seven tournaments but now with four, was introduced in 2007. In its inaugural year, its events were held in seven consecutive weeks, starting the week after the Tour Championship. As was the case for the FedEx Cup playoff schedule, the Fall Series schedule was also tweaked in 2008 and 2009. The first 2008 Fall Series event was held opposite the Ryder Cup, and the Fall Series took a week off for the Tour Championship before continuing with its remaining six events.

2010s

The Fall Series was reduced to four events, all held after the Tour Championship, for 2011. This followed the move of the Viking Classic into the regular season as an alternate event.

The 2013 season, which was the last before the tour transitioned to a schedule spanning two calendar years, had 40 official-money events in 38 weeks, including three alternate events played the same week as a higher-status tournament. The other event that is considered part of the 2013 season is the biennial Presidents Cup, matching a team of golfers representing the US with an "International" team consisting of non-European players (Europeans instead play in the Ryder Cup, held in even-numbered years).

Before the transition, the Tour held a group of events known as the PGA Tour Fall Series, which provided a final opportunity for golfers to make the top 125 in season earnings and thereby retain their Tour cards. With the change to an October-to-September season, several of the former Fall Series events will now open the season. The Tour also sanctions two events in Asia during that part of the year:

The CIMB Classic, a limited-field event held in Malaysia and the Tour's first sanctioned event in Southeast Asia. The field is limited to 40 players—the top-25 available players in the final FedEx Cup standings, the top ten available Asian players and five sponsor's exemptions, with at least one place reserved for a Malaysian player. The 2013 edition, which was part of the 2014 season, was the first as an official-money event.

The WGC-HSBC Champions, traditionally held the week after the Malaysia tournament. Despite its elevation to World Golf Championships status in 2009, it initially was not an official-money event. Starting in 2010, if the event was won by a PGA Tour member, it counted as an official win and carried the three-year exemption of the other WGCs. Starting in 2013, the HSBC Champions became an official money event, and wins are official for Tour and non-Tour members alike.

On March 20, 2012, the tour announced radical changes to the tour's season and qualifying process. Further details of these changes relating to the Fall Series were announced on June 26, with the remaining details announced on July 10. One of the final details received a minor tweak, effective for the 2013 season only, on September 11.

2020s

In June 2022, the PGA Tour suspended 17 players who played in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event. Monahan wrote in a memo to the tour's membership that any players who take part in future LIV Golf events will be subjected to the same punishment. PGA Tour members who joined LIV Golf included major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, and Phil Mickelson.

In July 2022, it was reported that the US Department of Justice was investigating the PGA Tour to determine if it engaged in anti-competitive behavior with LIV Golf. In late 2021, the PGA Tour had begun speaking with White House officials and members of Congress to express concerns over LIV Golf. The tour paid over $400,000 to the firm DLA Piper to lobby lawmakers on their behalf for various topics including LIV Golf proposals. The tour had previously been investigated in the early 1990s, but despite tour policies having been found to be in violation of antitrust laws, no further action was taken.

In August 2022, 11 players who had joined LIV Golf filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour to challenge their suspensions. Three players failed to obtain a temporary restraining order to allow them to participate in the FedEx Cup playoffs. The trial for the main case was scheduled to begin in September 2023.

On June 6, 2023, the PGA Tour, PGA European Tour, and LIV Golf announced that they would enter into an agreement to merge their commercial rights into a single, for-profit entity. The Saudi Public Investment Fund—which funded LIV Golf—will initially serve as the "exclusive investor" in the entity and have right of first refusal for future investments, while the PGA Tour will appoint the majority of its board members and have its commissioner Jay Monahan act as CEO. The agreement does not impact the three entities' administrative oversight over their events, hence the PGA Tour as a sanctioning entity will remain a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization. The agreement ends all pending litigation between the organizations, and there are plans for a "fair and objective" process to readmit players blacklisted by the PGA Tour for defecting to LIV.

The announcement was met with shock from players, who did not learn of the agreement until it was officially announced, with media outlets describing them as having felt "betrayed" by the decision.

Tournaments

Most members of the tour play between 20 and 30 tournaments in the season. The geography of the tour is determined by climate. It starts in Hawaii in January and spends most of its first two months in California and Arizona during what is known as the "West Coast Swing" and then moves to the American Southeast for the "Southern Swing". Each swing culminates in a significant tour event. In April, tour events begin to drift north. The summer months are spent mainly in the Northeast and the Midwest, and in the fall (autumn) the tour heads south again.

In most of the regular events on tour, the field is either 132, 144 or 156 players, depending on time of year (and available daylight hours). All players making the cut earn money for the tournament with the winner usually receiving 18% of the total purse.

In the event that the PGA Tour cannot guarantee four rounds of play, the PGA Tour can shorten an event to 54 holes. A 54-hole event is still considered official, with full points and monies awarded. Any tournament stopped before 54 holes can be completed is reverted to the 36-hole score and the win is considered unofficial, notably Adam Scott at the 2005 Nissan Open.

Future

In June 2026, the PGA Tour unveiled a new competitive model to debut for the 2028 season. The new model will split the tour into two series, the Championship Series and Challenger Series, with a promotion and relegation system between the two. The Championship Series will have a schedule of approximately 23–24 tournaments from February to August (including majors and other special events), and each tournament will have a field of approximately 120 and a purse of at least $20 million. The Challenger Series schedule will run concurrently with the Championship Series, and will also feature tournaments on seven weekends that the Championship Series will be off. All Challenger Series tournaments will have a field of approximately 144 and a purse of at least $4 million.

A new points system will be developed to determine rankings of players in both series. Approximately 130 players will play in the Championship Series, and at least the top 90 finishers in rankings will be retained. In the Challenger Series, the top 20 finishers on the season will be promoted.

Tours operated by the PGA Tour

The PGA Tour does not run any of the four major championships (Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, The Open), or the Ryder Cup. The PGA of America, not the PGA Tour, runs the PGA Championship and the Senior PGA Championship, and co-organizes the Ryder Cup with Ryder Cup Europe, a company controlled by the PGA European Tour. Additionally, the PGA Tour is not involved with the women's golf tours in the U.S., which are mostly controlled by the LPGA. The PGA Tour is also not the governing body for the game of golf in the United States; this, instead, is the role of the United States Golf Association (USGA), which organizes the U.S. Open. What the PGA Tour does organize are the remaining 43 (in 2009) week-to-week events, including The Players Championship and the FedEx Cup events, as well as the biennial Presidents Cup. It also runs the main tournaments on five other tours: PGA Tour Champions, the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly known as Web.com Tour), PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour China, and PGA Tour Latinoamérica.

The PGA Tour operates six tours. Three of them are primarily contested in the U.S., and the other three are international developmental tours centered on a specific country or region.

PGA Tour, the top tour.

Some events take place outside the United States: Canada, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic and Bermuda host one sole-sanctioned event each year; Mexico hosts two. The events in Bermuda and the Dominican Republic are alternate events held opposite World Golf Championships tournaments (similar to the Puerto Rican Open) and therefore have weaker fields than regular Tour events. In addition, China hosts a World Golf Championships event and the United Kingdom hosts a major championship.

PGA Tour Champions, for golfers age 50 and over

As of 2016, one regular tournament is held in Canada, and one of the senior majors is held in the UK, the rest in the US.

Korn Ferry Tour, a US developmental tour.

As of 2014, Colombia, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada host one tournament each.

Charity fundraising

The PGA Tour places a strong emphasis on charity fundraising, usually on behalf of local charities in cities where events are staged. With the exception of a few older events, PGA Tour rules require all Tour events to be non-profit; the Tour itself is also a non-profit company. In 2005, it started a campaign to push its all-time fundraising tally past one billion dollars ("Drive to a Billion"), and it reached that mark one week before the end of the season. However, monies raised for charities derive from the tournaments' positive revenues (if any), and not any actual monetary donation from the PGA Tour, whose purse monies and expenses are guaranteed. The number of charities which receive benefits from PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour events is estimated at over 2,000. In 2009, the total raised for charity was some $108 million. The organization announced to have generated $180 million for charities in 2017 through the tournaments of its six tours.

Media coverage

Domestic

The PGA Tour's broadcast television rights are held by CBS Sports and NBC Sports, under contracts most recently renewed in 2020 to last through 2030. While it considered invoking an option to opt out of its broadcast television contracts in 2017, the PGA Tour ultimately decided against doing so. Golf Channel (which, since the acquisition of NBC Universal by Golf Channel owner Comcast, is a division of NBC Sports) has served as the pay television rightsholder of the PGA Tour since 2007. Under the contracts, CBS broadcasts weekend coverage for an average of 20 events per season, and NBC broadcasts weekend coverage for an average of 10 events per season. Golf Channel broadcasts early-round and weekend morning coverage of all events, as well as weekend coverage of events not broadcast on terrestrial television, and primetime encores of all events.

On March 9, 2020, the PGA Tour announced that it had reached an agreement to renew its contracts with CBS and NBC, which expired after the 2020–21 season, through 2030, maintaining most of the existing broadcast arrangements, but with the rights to the final three events of the FedEx Cup playoffs now alternating between CBS and NBC annually. A notable change in production under the new contract is that the PGA Tour now controls the on-site production and infrastructure for all media partners, although each individual broadcaster continues to employ their own on-air talent and personnel.

Tournaments typically featured in NBC's package include marquee events such as The Players Championship, and the biennial Presidents Cup event. The 2011 contract granted more extensive digital rights, as well as the ability for NBC to broadcast supplemental coverage of events on Golf Channel during its broadcast windows. Until 2022, coverage of the final three FedEx Cup playoff tournaments was also exclusive to NBC.

The PGA Tour operates a streaming service known as PGA Tour Live, which carries early-round coverage of events preceding Golf Channel television coverage, including featured groups. The service is offered as a subscription basis; until 2019, it was operated by BAMTech (formerly MLB Advanced Media), and for a period, was also carried as part of ESPN+. From 2019 to 2021, it has been operated under NBC Sports' subscription streaming platform NBC Sports Gold, adding featured holes coverage during Golf Channel's windows. Since 2017, following a pilot at the end of the 2016 season, portions of the PGA Tour Live coverage are also carried for free via the PGA Tour's Twitter account. Under the 2022–2030 contract, the service moved back to ESPN+.

International

The PGA Tour is also covered extensively outside the United States. In the United Kingdom, Sky Sports was the main broadcaster of the tour for a number of years up to 2006. Setanta Sports won exclusive UK and Ireland rights for six years from 2007 for a reported cost of £103 million. The deal includes Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour events, but like the U.S. television deals it does not include the major championships, and unlike the U.S. deal, it does not include the World Golf Championships. Setanta set up the Setanta Golf channel to present its coverage. On June 23, 2009, Setanta's UK arm went into administration and ceased broadcasting. The Sky Sports Golf channel is currently the UK broadcaster.

Eurosport picked up the television rights for the remainder of the 2009 season. Sky Sports regained the TV rights with an eight-year deal from 2010 to 2017. In South Korea, SBS, which has been the tour's exclusive TV broadcaster in that country since the mid-1990s, agreed in 2009 to extend its contract with the PGA Tour through 2019. As a part of that deal, it became sponsor of the season's opening tournament, a winners-only event that was renamed the SBS Championship effective in 2010. In 2011 however, Korean automobile manufacturer Hyundai took over the title sponsorship, but SBS still remains a sponsor of the event.

In June 2018, it was announced that Eurosport's parent company Discovery, Inc. had acquired exclusive international media rights to the PGA Tour outside of the United States, beginning 2019, under a 12-year, US$2 billion deal. The contract covers Discovery's international channels (including Eurosport), sub-licensing arrangements with local broadcasters, and development of an international PGA Tour over the top subscription service—which was unveiled in October under the brand GolfTV. The service would replace PGA Tour Live in international markets as existing rights lapse, beginning with Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and Spain in January 2019. GolfTV also acquired rights to the Ryder Cup and European Tour in selected markets, and signed a deal with Tiger Woods to develop original content centered upon him. GolfTV was shuttered in November 2022 after Discovery merged with WarnerMedia, with Warner Bros. Discovery prioritizing its Discovery+ and HBO Max services instead.

Beginning at the 2025 Players Championship, the PGA Tour began to produce a dedicated world feed for international broadcasters, separate from the American network coverage.

Priority ranking system

The PGA Tour maintains a priority ranking system that is used to select the fields for most tournaments on tour. Below is the 2016–17 ranking system, in order of priority.

Winner of PGA Championship or U.S. Open prior to 1970 or in the last five seasons and the current season

Winner of The Players Championship in the last five seasons and the current season

Winners of the Masters Tournament in the last five seasons and the current season

Winners of The Open Championship in the last five seasons and the current season

Winners of the Tour Championship in the last three seasons and the current season

Winners of World Golf Championships events in the last three seasons and the current season

Winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament in the last three seasons and the current season, beginning with the 2015 winners

Leader from the final FedExCup Points List in each of the last five seasons

Leaders from the final PGA Tour Money List prior to 2017 for the subsequent five seasons

Winners of PGA Tour co-sponsored or approved tournaments, whose victories are considered official, within the last two seasons, or during the current season; winners receive an additional season of exemption for each additional win, up to five seasons

Career earnings

Event categories

Majors

The four leading annual events in world golf are the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, The (British) Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. These events each automatically receive 100 OWGR points.

World Golf Championships (WGC)

A set of events co-sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours which attract the leading golfers from all over the world, including those who are not members of the PGA Tour. The HSBC Champions was made a WGC event in 2009.

Unique

The Players Championship is the only event, apart from the majors and the World Golf Championships, which attracts entries from almost all of the world's elite golfers. It is the designated OWGR flagship event for the PGA Tour and awards 80 OWGR points to its winner. Only major championships can be awarded more OWGR points. For purposes of the FedEx Cup standings, The Players has had an identical point allocation to that of the majors since the Cup was instituted in 2007.

Playoff event

The final three events of the season (four from 2007 to 2018) are the FedEx Cup playoffs. The top 125 players on the points list are eligible for the first event and the field size decreases to The Tour Championship with 30 players.

Signature events

Starting in 2024, the PGA Tour established events featuring limited fields of the tour's top players, as a response to the threat of LIV Golf. These events feature an increased purse of $20 million and additional FedEx cup points. Qualification for these events are limited to:

The top 50 players in the previous year's FedEx Cup standings

The top 10 players in the current FedEx Cup rankings who did not finish in the previous year's top 50 (branded as the "Aon Next 10")

PGA Tour University

In June 2020, the PGA Tour announced the creation of PGA Tour University, a scheme to create pathways for collegiate golfers to join development tours operated by the PGA Tour. At its start, it planned to award Korn Ferry Tour cards to the top five collegiate golfers in the United States, and playing status on the PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, or PGA Tour China to the golfers ranked no. 6 through 15. The eligibility for these rankings was limited to seniors, as an incentive to encourage the top golfers to stay in college.

The PGA Tour University system was modified in November 2022, and beginning in 2023 the top-ranked collegiate golfer would immediately be awarded membership on the PGA Tour. Golf Magazine stated this change was a response to LIV Golf, which had recruited Eugenio Chacarra and David Puig directly from college in the preceding few months. Ludvig Åberg of Texas Tech University topped the PGA Tour University rankings after the conclusion of the 2023 NCAA D-I National Championship, and so became the first player to receive a PGA Tour card through the university ranking system. In October 2023, following the World Team Amateur Championship in Dubai, Gordon Sargent reached the 20-point threshold and became the first ever player to earn PGA Tour card through PGA Tour University Accelerated program. He is eligible to take up the membership following the conclusion of 2024 NCAA Division I Championship but elected to defer his membership and return for his senior year at Vanderbilt.

In 2024, PGA Tour University gave PGA Tour Americas cards to golfers who finished 11th-25th (up from 20th) in the rankings and entry into the second stage of PGA Tour Q School. Those 6th through 10th are conditionally exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour, fully exempt on PGA Tour Americas, and earn entry into the second stage of Q School. Players ranked 2nd to 5th are fully exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour, can earn unlimited PGA Tour sponsor exemptions, and are entered into the final stage of PGA Tour Q School. The top player is fully exempt on the PGA Tour for the remainder of the current season and all of the next season. The Division II Jack Nicklaus Award winner also earns status on PGA Tour Americas.

List of PGA Tour card winners

This a list of the players to have won PGA Tour cards by topping the PGA Tour University rankings. A player's "point average" is the average number of points he receives at each tournament on the PGA Tour University schedule, multiplied by 100.

Money list winners

Player and rookie of the year awards

PGA Tour Player of the Year

The PGA Tour Player of the Year award, also known as the Jack Nicklaus Trophy, is administered by the PGA Tour and was introduced in 1990; the recipient is selected by the tour players by ballot, although the results are not released other than to say who has won. More often than not the same player wins both awards; in fact, as seen in the table below, the PGA and PGA Tour Players of the Year have been the same every year from 1992 through 2018.

PGA Player of the Year

The PGA Player of the Year award dates back to 1948 (originally named the PGA Golfer of the Year) and was awarded by the PGA of America. From 1982 to 2022, the winner has been selected using a points system with points awarded for wins, money list position and scoring average. The award was last given in 2022.

Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year award was also introduced in 1990. Players are eligible in their first season of PGA Tour membership if they competed in less than seven events from any prior season. Several of the winners had a good deal of international success before their PGA Tour rookie season, and some have been in their thirties when they won the award.

PGA Tour Courage Award

In March 2012, a new award, the PGA Tour Courage Award, was introduced in replacement of the defunct Comeback Player of the Year award. The award recognizes talents that have battled with “extraordinary adversity such as personal tragedy or debilitating injury or illness” and have overcome the adversity “to make a significant and meaningful contribution to the game of golf.”

Multiple Player of the Year Awards

The following players have won more than one PGA Player of the Year Award through 2022:

11: Tiger Woods

6: Tom Watson

5: Jack Nicklaus

4: Ben Hogan

2: Julius Boros, Billy Casper, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Arnold Palmer, Nick Price, Justin Thomas

The following players have won more than one PGA Tour Player of the Year Award through 2025 (first awarded in 1990):

11: Tiger Woods

4: Scottie Scheffler

3: Rory McIlroy

2: Fred Couples, Dustin Johnson, Nick Price

Career money leaders

The top ten career money leaders on the tour as of the 2026 season are as follows:

A complete list updated weekly is available on the PGA Tour's website. Phil Mickelson ($96.7M) and Dustin Johnson ($75.7M) were dropped from this list after being suspended from the tour.

Due to increases in prize funds over the years, this list consists entirely of current players. The figures are not the players' complete career prize money as they do not include FedEx Cup bonuses, winnings from unofficial money events, or earnings on other tours such as the European Tour. In addition, elite golfers often earn several times as much from endorsements and golf-related business interests as they do from prize money.

Tiger Woods held the top spot on the list from February 13, 2000 until August 30, 2026, when he was surpassed by Scottie Scheffler.