Major championships are famous for having enormous purses, with tournament winners typically receiving well over $1.5 million in recent years.

 
Brooks Koepka, last month’s U.S. Open champion, received over $2 million for his victory – the largest winning share in history.

With the Open Championship coming up in just a few weeks at Royal Birkdale, this year’s purse has been announced, and to nobody’s surprise, it is the largest pot in tournament history.

The Open purse will be $10.25 million, with the winner receiving $1,845,000.

Bullets

• Big Purse: The Open Championship, set to tee off in two weeks at Royal Birkdale, is boasting the largest purse in tournament history. The $10.25 million is an increase over last year’s $9.3 million. Defending champion Henrik Stenson ended up taking home the equivalent of $1,549,590 in U.S. dollars.
• U.S. Dollars: This will also be the first year that the entire Open Championship purse will be awarded in U.S. dollars, rather than British pounds.
• Smallest Top Share: The most recent Masters and PGA Championship both had a slightly smaller purse than this Open will have, although both of their winners, Sergio Garcia and Jimmy Walker respectively, took home a bigger first-place prize than the winner at Royal Birkdale will get.
• Pays To Lose: The second-place finisher will also receive in excess of $1 million dollars ($1,067,000), with the numbers dropping off significantly after that.

Quotable
“We are operating in an increasingly global marketplace and have made the decision to award the prize fund in U.S. dollars in recognition of the fact that it is the most widely adopted currency for prize money in golf.”
–Martin Slumbers, R&A Chief Executive