Top 5 highest paid golfers
The profits of professional athletes have increased significantly over the past 20 years. The average player on the PGA Tour can earn a very comfortable life without even winning the tournament. For the highest-paid professional golfers, tournament fees represent only a small fraction of their income. They earn significantly more on business and transactions. For clarity, let’s look at the income of the highest paid professional players per year.
Tiger Woods
Does it surprise you that the Tiger is the biggest earner among Golf professionals? In fact, he is the highest paid professional athlete in any sport. Woods tops the list, earning about $ 70 million a year. Woods is the all-time leader on the PGA Tour and became the first dollar billionaire athlete in 2009. His sponsors for many years are AT & T, Buick, Gillette, Gatorade, Electronic Arts, Accenture and Nike.
Phil Mickelson
Phil Mickelson is on the list of the highest paid professional golfers at number 2. He won 4 major Championships and 41 PGA Tour tournaments. His sponsors, KPMG, Callaway, Barclays, ExxonMobil and Rolex. Mickelson currently earns about $ 42 million a year.
Arnold Palmer
Known as the” king ” of Golf, Arnold Palmer is one of the most popular golfers ever to play. Although he earned only $ 1.9 million in tournaments, his popularity and name still brings about $ 36 million a year. Palmer is known as one of the most liquid golfers. He owns a company designing Golf courses, participated in the creation of a sports channel about Golf, owns Bay Hill Club and Lodge and even released his own drink – sweet iced tea and lemonade under the brand “Arnold Palmer”.
Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus is the third in the list of winners during the PGA Tour, he owns a record number of major victories (there were 18). Although revenue for Championships and tournaments was only $ 5.7 million, but the total earnings of Niklaus reaches $ 30 million per year. Niklaus owns and operates one of the largest Golf design companies in the world. Niklaus has written several Golf training books, an autobiography, a book about his design methods and philosophy on the Golf course, starred in several videos about the sport. In addition, he owns the company “Nicklaus Golf Equipment”, whose activities are aimed at financing golfers of all levels and abilities.
Greg Norman
Despite the fact that Norman rarely plays competitive Golf, he is one of the greatest masters in the history of this game. He has 88 victories in tournaments around the world, 20 victories in PGA Tour tournaments and two in major Championships. He was the number one player in the world for 300 weeks. His career could have progressed even more rapidly, given all the tournaments and major Championships that Norman missed. Norman now earns at least $ 24 million a year from many of his companies.
Potential candidates for 5th place
The fifth place in the ranking of the most successful and highly paid golfers is difficult to give to someone alone. Harry Player earns more than $ 16 million a year. Sergio Garcia, Ernie ELS and Luke Donald earn over $ 15 million dollars a year. Perhaps Rory McIlroy could be the first in the rankings, after recently signing a $ 200 million deal with Nike.
