the live golf series has turned the golf world upside down with big name players leaving the tour to compete in the controversial yet lucrative new league but why would players like phil mickelson dustin johnson and bryson deschambeau risk their pga membership and sponsorship to play for a league bankrolled by saudi arabia as the richest tournament in golf history the answer is obviously money lots and lots of money let's break down each tournament purse by the numbers all i hear go get the money so i'll go get it get it get it hate means i'll do something right so i'ma let him after resigning his pga membership charles schwartzel went on to win the individual stroke play prize at the inaugural live event in london winning over 4 million dollars on just 54 holes against a no-cut field of 47 other golfers that breaks down to over 74 000 per hole played the total purse for the event was 20 million dollars here's how that compares to the top prize pools in the pga and majors let's start with the four majors which include the masters pga championship u.s open and british open the average payout is 2.3 million dollars earning 36.5 000 per hole the biggest payday on the pga tour is the season ending tour championship the 2022 winner will take home a record 18 million dollars an increase over the 15 million won in 2021 but what about your average pga tour event every single live event pays out more than the players championship which is the tour's biggest purse of the year for any single event paying 3.6 million dollars to play 72 holes or 50 000 per hole excluding the tour championship the first place prize for the average non-major event on the tour pays out 1.5 million dollars if you're doing the math that's less than half of what liv pays out so yeah the live prize money is substantial compared to the pga tour payouts but players competing in the live invitationals don't even need to win to bring home the big bucks the pga initially suspended 17 players from the tour for defecting to live and many of them ended up earning more money playing in a single event than they have their entire career combined with the average golfer making 521 000 per event dustin johnson got a guaranteed 120 million dollars just for signing with liv and phil mickelson 200 million for context tiger woods has won a total of roughly 121 million dollars playing in 370 pga tour events throughout his 26 year professional career with this kind of cash being thrown around anything is possible more defectors more suspensions and definitely more drama golf as we know it will likely never be the same and this is just the beginning [Applause]