As the Saudi league returns to Adelaide, Zurich Classic’s prize money is dwarfed by LIV.
This week, both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are active; however, Adelaide’s participants in the latter will contend for a massive prize sum of £20 million.
The prize money for LIV Golf Adelaide this week is nearly triple the amount offered at PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic in New Orleans.
In recent times, the Zurich Classic has emerged as a regular feature of the PGA Tour and offers a distinctive format from the usual weekly tournaments on the American circuit. The competition follows a team-based approach where players participate in pairs across two varied formats.
At TPC Louisiana, the first and third rounds adhere to a fourball configuration where each pair’s players use their individual ball before the better of two is selected for determining scores per hole.
The second and fourth rounds involve foursomes, where each player of a pair takes turns shooting the same ball. In New Orleans, several famous golfers are competing together, including Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry who competed in the Olympics as partners.
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who are considered as strong contenders in the tournament, will be playing together. They have a successful history at the Zurich event – having won it as an American Ryder Cup duo in 2022; they also showed their mettle by achieving a remarkable top-five finish during their title defence last year.
In addition to the above, sibling pairs are also making their mark in the field. 2022 U.S. Open victor Matt Fitzpatrick is accompanied by his younger brother Alex and Danish twins Nicolai and Ramsus Hojgaard compete together as well. The prize pool for participants totals up to £7.1 million.
If they secure the title on Sunday, the victorious duo will receive slightly more than £1 million each. Though it has a longstanding place on the PGA Tour schedule, The Zurich Classic was not deemed deserving of Signature Event status by its American-based governing body. This decision resulted in an absence from one of golf’s most coveted prizes: a purse worth £16 million.
As a response to the emergence of their LIV Golf competitors, the PGA Tour increased its prize offerings. This week marks the return of LIV Adelaide, as they make an anticipated comeback at Grange after causing quite a stir during their debut in 2023 from Down Under.
In Adelaide, competitors stand to win a staggering £20 million, with the individual tournament offering up £16 million in prizes and the top three teams splitting a pool of £4 million after 54 holes. As per tradition at LIV events, the victor will walk away with an impressive earnings total of £3.2 million for their performances over this three-day event.
As the CEO of LIV and an Australian native, Greg Norman is eagerly anticipating the upcoming week. His goal for 2023 is to continue building on the momentum set forth by the Adelaide event. In regards to bringing LIV to his home country, Norman expressed during a Wednesday interview that it was one of his personal initiatives after being appointed as CEO and commissioner of LIV.
I was aware of Australia’s significance, both in terms of what it meant for the sport of golf and its shortcomings. The Premier accurately identified these points – last year’s overwhelming response from fans only confirms this sentiment, which persists to this day.
