Professional golf’s money issues could use a dose of NFL-sized perspective, says Xander Schauffele.
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Who knew professional golf would prove the old adage true?
You really I can’t buy happiness
Three years and many billions later, the money has brought a heightened sense of frustration to the golf world. Its fans are frustrated and stakeholders are holding on for dear life – even as its players are richer than ever.
Few people have seen more golf money in 2024 than Xander Schauffele. Schauffele, the winner of two degrees and some $17.6 million in course earnings this season, enters this week’s BMW Championship second on the PGA Tour money list – and he’s threatening to add to his total.
For the uninitiated, the BMW is the second of three PGA Tour playoff events to pay a total of $100 million for players in August. As the greatest living golfer not named Scottie Scheffler, Schauffele arrives in Colorado as one of the betting favorites to not only win this week’s tournament, but other the PGA Tour’s jewel of the week, the FedEx Cup, whose $25 million first prize would more than double his season earnings.
By more objective measures, making over $40 million in a calendar year qualifies as a pretty good thing, and Schauffele is certainly not arguing that point. In fact, by PGA Tour standards, it would qualify as the biggest money earned in a single season sometimes. That’s comparable to a mid-level starting quarterback in the NFL — pretty good for a sport with one-tenth of the NFL’s annual TV revenue.
But during an unusually extensive press availability Wednesday at BMW, Schauffele seemed confused by it all. Golf’s money has exploded, he argued, but it’s still nowhere near its professional sports counterparts.
“You look at the top-10 quarterbacks,” Schauffele said. “Scottie (Scheffler) has won seven times, I think that includes Olympic gold. And he has done significantly more than everyone else.”
“If you look at what the 10th, 10th best player in the world has done, it doesn’t smell like what Scottie has done. It just shows you how well Scottie has played in these big tournaments.”
(Schauffele is right. With two starts to go, Scheffler has earned $29 million in 2024. Tenth on the tour’s single-season money list is Shane Lowry at just over $5.5 million.)
“You look at quarterback no. 1, he’s getting $60 million and then the No. 1 quarterback. 10 is getting 52, and then number 15 is getting 39 or 40”.
Schauffele’s point rings true, but he seemed to be hinting at a larger hypocrisy. Why is chasing cash in golf considered greedy when the NFL gives so much more?
“When I look at other sports, when someone gets a $300 million contract, there’s all these positive comments about how someone got their purse or they’ve worked so hard to get this and they deserve it, things like that. “, said Schauffele. “It’s interesting to me. I think maybe golf is a gentleman’s game and you shouldn’t talk about money, but all the media wants to do is talk about money.”
Indeed, money is the third rail of golf’s culture wars. New battles crop up every day, but the main feeling to come out of it all is negativity. Money tracking in LIV is bad. Opposing the PGA Tour with more money is bad. Golf’s obsession with money is bad. Those who take the money are evil. Those who thought themselves virtuous are evil. Everything is bad. And everything is getting worse.
The irony of this sentiment, especially for those like Schauffele, is that he hasn’t received a dime from what is considered a dubious source of income. (However.) The PGA Tour and PIF remain divided in their talks about a merger, and while the two sides have brokered an uneasy peace, that peace does not include Saudi money pouring into Schauffele’s bank account. (Again: Still.)
However, there is a reason for the bitter taste. The PIF is golf’s most vocal financier, but the main purpose of its investment appears to be to purge an unsavory past from the public record and rehabilitate the Saudi image among wealthy Westerners. That’s not exactly “advancing the noble cause of golf.” And the PGA Tour claimed it was over the crash — only to go behind the public’s back to the Saudis and strike a deal of their own.
Human rights concerns aside, there are other problems with the billions the Saudis and the PGA Tour have poured into the game. In a sport that is supposed to be defined by its spirit of integrity and sportsmanship, stakeholders have used money to demonstrate the depths of their personal interest and greed. And for those who they don’t have given the siren call, money has subverted the public’s sense of a rational market. It’s one thing if Pat Mahomes makes $60 million during a historic season – he won it – but Scottie Scheffler? He played the right season at the right time.
The good news is that the checks keep getting cashed anyway, but maybe that’s not the point.
“I think the players who make the most money don’t think about the money because it’s not the most important thing,” Schauffele said Wednesday.
“Winning $25 million would be really nice and really nice, but I don’t think it’s going to change my life, and I can tell you if I lose and play bad, I’m going to be really upset about playing bad and not . the ability to peak at the right time.”
In the end, what matters most to Schauffele is almost refreshingly simple: Winning. Try as they might, you can’t put a price on it.
