The 2025 Open Championship is underway as Rory McIlroy attempts to win his home major at Royal Portrush.
The Open is the oldest golf competition in the world and the winner will collect the famous Claret Jug, first awarded in 1872. They will also receive a healthy winners’ cheque from the R&A worth $3.1m (£2.4m).
The R&A raised the total prize fund to $17m (£13.4m) in 2024, up $500,000 from the previous year but still the lowest of the four major championship.
JJ Spaun took home $4.3m for winning the US Open, McIlroy earned $3.6m for winning the Masters, and Scottie Scheffler received $3.3m for winning the US PGA Championship earlier this year.
Asked before last year’s Open whether he was concerned by The Open’s position as the least lucrative event of the big four, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers replied: “A, I didn’t know, and B, I don’t care.
“While we will always offer a very competitive prize fund for the Open, our wider focus is on increasing participation and improving pathways in golf. We have to make choices about how we allocate resources and make the resources we have go as far as they can. Our responsibility is to ensure the game is thriving 50 years from now.”
The Open Championship 2025 prize money
First place: $3.1m (£2.4m)
Second place: $1,759,000
Third place: $1,128,000
Fourth place: $876,000
Fifth place: $705,000
Sixth place: $611,000
Seventh place: $525,000
Eighth place: $442,500
Ninth place: $388,000
Tenth place: $350,600
