Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
The winner of the 2022 Players Championship won’t just be leaving TPC Sawgrass with a trophy Sunday. He’ll be departing Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, with a record-breaking amount of money.
This year’s Players Championship, which gets underway Thursday, will see another increase in the purse for the tournament. It already was the largest in golf, and now it stands at a whopping $20 million. The winner will be coming away with $3.6 million, the largest check in pro golf history, per Brentley Romine of Golf Channel.
The Players Championship is often referred to as the fifth major because of the star power and prize money. Its purse exceeds those available at the four majors, so this is a great opportunity for the world’s top golfers to earn a huge payday.
Here’s a look at the prize breakdown for the top finishers in the 2022 Players Championship, followed by more on this year’s tournament.
Top Prize Breakdown
1st: $3.6 million
2nd: $2.18 million
3rd: $1.38 million
4th: $980,000
5th: $820,000
6th: $725,000
7th: $675,000
8th: $625,000
9th: $585,000
10th: $545,000
Complete breakdown available at GolfChannel.com.
Preview
The Players Championship was first held in 1974, and it’s taken place at TPC Sawgrass every year since 1982. Yet there’s never been a golfer win the tournament in back-to-back years. Justin Thomas will be looking to change that this weekend.
Thomas notched his first victory at the event in 2021, when he finished at 14 under par, one stroke ahead of Lee Westwood. It marked the 16th time in the past 17 Players Championships that a first-time winner was crowned. The only exception during that stretch was in 2013, when Tiger Woods won for the second time.
There aren’t many golfers who have even won this event on multiple occasions. Jack Nicklaus is a three-time champion, while Woods is among the five golfers who have won the Players Championship twice—the others are Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton and Davis Love III.
Thomas has had mixed results at TPC Sawgrass since making his debut at the course in 2015. While he has three finishes in the top 11, he’s also placed 35th or worse twice. Last year, he shot a 71 in each of the first two rounds before heating up with a 64 in the third round and a 68 in the final round.
Although Thomas has been playing well in 2022, he hasn’t won a tournament since last year’s Players Championship.
“I’m just going to go try to win it again. That’s all I’m going to try to do,” Thomas said, per AL.com’s Mark Inabinett.
Thomas isn’t the only former Players Championship winner seeking his second title at the event. Among the other former champions in the field is 2019 champion Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut last year.
It’s quite possible that the Players Championship will crown yet another first-time winner this year. Jon Rahm, the world No. 1, has never won the tournament. Neither has Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay or Viktor Hovland, each of whom could be among this year’s top contenders.
No golfer has been playing as well of late as Scheffler, who has won two of his past three tournaments. He notched victories at February’s WM Phoenix Open and the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week. A tied-seventh-place finish at the Genesis Invitational was sandwiched by those events.
The 25-year-old will be aiming for a better result at TPC Sawgrass after he missed the cut in his Players Championship debut in 2021.
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