As the final men’s Major of the year, The Open Championship has quite the act to follow with The Masters, the PGA Championship and the US Open each having offered a diverse celebration of golf in the preceding months.
The Open is the game’s most historic Major and leans heavily on tradition as it closes out the year, with the prestige of hoisting the Claret Jug deemed to be far more important than any amount of money.
As a result, The R&A has long ensured prize money levels at The Open do not become outrageous and – in 2026 – the Championship purse will sit far below that of its three peers.
The Masters and US Open both offered a total of $22.5 million to the field this year while the PGA Championship nudged north of $20 million as well.
In a comfortable fourth place for 2026 is The Open with a grand total of $17.75 million. That’s up $750,000 from last year.
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Consequently, the winner is set to collect $3.2 million (roughly £2.4 million), which is $100,000 (£74,600) more than Scottie Scheffler picked up at Royal Portrush in 2025. However, there are a couple of very good reasons why the Open champion’s take-home pay will be significantly less.
Sam Burns began the final round at 10-under and was in the best position to pick up the lucrative perk for winning The Open ahead of Ryan Fox, who he partners on Sunday, and Si Woo Kim on eight-under.
However, the South Korean now leads and looks to be in a great position to land his maiden Major championship.
Remarkably, each of the top-three positions offer more than $1 million while everyone who finishes 34th or better will scoop at least $100,000 (£74,600) – that is before various factors such as taxes reduce how much every pro golfer really earns.
Any professional who made the cut at Royal Birkdale is guaranteed to claim $39,700 while the leading 10 pros and ties who missed the cut will take away $12,900 (£9,600).
The next 20 leading pros (and ties) will earn $10,750 (£8,000) each and the remaining pros who qualified for The Open but languished down at the bottom of the leaderboard will clinch $9,100 ($6,800).
Below is the full prize money breakdown for The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale before ties are taken into account. This list will be updated once The Open has concluded.
THE OPEN PRIZE MONEY BREAKDOWN 2026Swipe to scroll horizontally
Position
Prize Money
1st
$3,200,000
2nd
$1,842,000
3rd
$1,181,000
4th
$917,000
5th
$738,000
6th
$639,700
7th
$549,700
8th
$463,250
9th
$406,200
10th
$367,000
11th
$334,200
12th
$296,000
13th
$278,500
14th
$260,700
15th
$241,900
16th
$222,700
17th
$212,000
18th
$202,000
19th
$193,600
20th
$184,500
21st
$175,900
22nd
$167,100
23rd
$158,100
24th
$149,300
25th
$144,250
26th
$138,000
27th
$133,000
28th
$128,400
29th
$122,800
30th
$116,500
31st
$112,700
32nd
$106,900
33rd
$103,100
34th
$100,200
35th
$96,700
36th
$92,900
37th
$88,500
38th
$84,100
39th
$81,000
40th
$78,400
41st
$75,200
42nd
$71,500
43rd
$68,300
44th
$64,400
45th
$60,700
46th
$57,600
47th
$55,300
48th
$53,100
49th
$50,700
50th
$49,400
51st
$48,350
52nd
$47,500
53rd
$46,800
54th
$46,100
55th
$45,300
56th
$44,700
57th
$44,250
58th
$43,950
59th
$43,625
60th
$43,325
61st
$43,100
62nd
$42,900
63rd
$42,700
64th
$42,500
65th
$42,150
66th
$41,825
67th
$41,500
68th
$41,200
69th
$40,900
70th
$40,700
71st
$40,575
72nd
$40,450
73rd
$40,325
74th
$40,200
75th
$40,075
76th
$39,950
77th
$39,825
78th
$39,700