The 2026 Masters champion will earn 113 times what the first winner received in 1934

• Masters champions can earn millions of dollars for placing at this iconic golf tournament. That is a huge jump from the original $1,500 top prize awarded to the winner of the first ever tournament in 1934. However, a number of professional golfers say that prize money is not the reason they compete in the event.

(SeaPRwire) –   The Masters is one of the four major championships in men’s professional golf, and it holds several long-lasting traditions: the famous green blazer given to the winner, caddies’ signature white jumpsuits, the annual Champions Dinner, the Par 3 Contest, and the tournament’s well-known egg salad sandwiches. In fact, sports broadcaster Jim Nantz first called the Masters a “tradition unlike any other.”

But one major thing that has changed drastically over the 92 years since the very first tournament is the payout that the winner takes home.

The original purse, explained

Back in 1934, Masters founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts organized a total $5,000 “purse”, or overall prize pool, for all competing players, with $1,500 going to the winner and gradually smaller incremental amounts distributed to players in lower finishing positions, according to Today’s Golfer. 

The $1,500 prize that went to the first ever champion Horton Smith would equal more than $37,000 in today’s purchasing power, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator. While the official total purse and winner’s payout for the 2026 Masters tournament have not yet been finalized, Rory McIlroy took home a record-breaking $4.2 million when he won in 2025. That amount is more than 113 times larger than the payout Horton Smith received back in 1934. As of June 2025, McIlroy’s net worth is estimated at around $84 million, according to Forbes.

How prize money has grown over 92 years

The total purse in 2025 was $21 million, so roughly the top 50 finishing players all walked away with a payout. The top four players at last year’s Masters each took home more than $1 million, and players who finished in positions one through 25 all earned well over $100,000. That 2025 purse was the largest in Masters history, and the overall prize pool has always either stayed the same or grown over time, Today’s Golfer reports. 

McIlroy told Sky Sports in 2022 that anyone who believes professional golfers are underpaid “need their heads examined.”

“I play golf for a living. There are nurses and teachers, and they are the people that should be getting paid a lot more,” McIlroy said. “So, I just would not feel right at all saying that I am underpaid for playing a game for a living.”

Looking back through history, legendary golfer Arnold Palmer — the namesake of the popular lemonade and iced tea drink — was the first Masters winner to take home a five-figure payout when he won in 1958, according to Golfweek. By 1984, the winner’s payout reached six figures, but it was not until 2001 that a Masters winner earned more than $1 million from the tournament, and that milestone went to Tiger Woods.

Although Ben Hogan earned only $3,000 for winning the 1951 Masters and $5,000 for his 1953 victory, he famously said that the tournament was about the sport itself, far more than it was about the money.

“If the Masters offered no money at all, I would be here trying just as hard,” Hogan said. 

What $1,500 buys you in 2026 (not much)

While $1,500 went much further back in 1934 than it does today, its current inflation-adjusted equivalent of around $37,000 does not stretch very far now. It is nowhere near enough to cover a down payment on a typical home in the U.S., according to Zillow. The average down payment for a house in the U.S. is nearly $80,000, per Bankrate. That equals 19% of the median home sale price recorded in the fourth quarter, which was $414,900.

But the $4.2 million payout from the 2025 Masters would be enough for a winner to buy a median-priced home in Los Angeles, which costs roughly $1.1 million, according to Realtor.com. 

The 1934 Masters winner’s original payout is also not enough to buy a brand-new Tesla, as some of the brand’s base models start at around $50,000. But today’s winner can afford an entire fleet of new cars — or splurge on a high-end luxury sports car.

The average player on the PGA Tour during the 2021 season earned $1.5 million, according to Sports Illustrated.

A version of this story was originally published on .com on April 8, 2025.