PGA Tour overhauls playoff bonus structure for this season

The PGA Tour has restructured the distribution of playoff bonuses, including the FedEx Cup champion this season earning $10 million in prize money instead of $25 million as in the past two years.
The new payouts from the $100 million total in bonus money — first reported Wednesday by Front Office Sports and posted on the PGA Tour website — were revealed weeks after an announcement in May that the Tour Championship’s “starting strokes” format will be eliminated. The season-ending tournament in August — for the top 30 following two previous playoff events — will be a standard 72-hole stroke-play format at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
The new three-tier system will reward golfers based on the FedEx Cup points standings after the regular-season finale at the Wyndham Championship (the top 10 splitting $20 million, with No. 1 getting $10 million), and after the second playoff event, the BMW Championship (top 30 splitting $23.93 million, with No. 1 getting $5 million).
The Tour Championship winner will get $10 million of the remaining prize money ($57.08 million), with the rest paid to the other 29 players based on their finishes. Players ranked Nos. 31-150 will divide $17.08 million in deferrals.
“To account for the increased volatility of the final event, reward season-long performance and recognize the significance of the FedExCup, the FedExCup bonus distributions for the top 30 positions were rebalanced,” the PGA Tour posted on its website.
Front Office Sports worked the scenario that if current points leader Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 at the end of the regular season and after the BMW Championship and then wins the Tour Championship, he will receive the same total of $25 he collected for winning the 2024 FedEx Cup.
The tour also posted that there are no changes in 2025 for the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, which pays $40 million to the top 10 players in the standings at the end of the regular season. First place is worth $8 million, and each place earns less down to $2 million for 10th place.
The bonus structure was led, per the Front Office Sports report, by the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council’s business subcommittee, which consists of Maverick McNealy, Keith Mitchell, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Kisner, and is overseen and player director Patrick Cantlay.