What golfers actually earn

What a season of pro golf pays, and what it costs to play.

Median season money, 2025

What the median golfer on each tour earned — 10 or more starts, majors excluded.

Minimum starts

Who lost money?

How many players didn’t earn enough to cover their costs.

Korn Ferry Tour · the tour below the PGA Tour54%

87 of 160 players lost money. A season on this tour costs about $124k. These players earned about $66k, so they were roughly $58k short.

Challenge Tour · the tour below the DP World Tour50%

76 of 153 players lost money. A season on this tour costs about $35k. These players earned about $19k, so they were roughly $16k short. That estimate is from 2020 and isn’t adjusted for inflation, so the real gap is bigger.

LPGA Tour23%

36 of 158 players lost money. A season on this tour costs about $120k. These players earned about $76k, so they were roughly $44k short. That estimate is from 2022 and isn’t adjusted for inflation, so the real gap is bigger.

DP World Tour11%

17 of 158 players lost money. A season on this tour costs about $83k. These players earned about $43k, so they were roughly $40k short. That estimate is from 2020 and isn’t adjusted for inflation, so the real gap is bigger.

PGA Tour9%

19 of 203 players lost money. A season on this tour costs about $180k. These players earned about $94k, so they were roughly $86k short.

Where these cost figures come from

Korn Ferry Tour: $110k–$138k a season, published 2025. We use the middle of that range. James Nicholas’s published 2025 accounts — budgeted ~$110k ($4k × 26 weeks), spent $137.8k on playing costs (caddie $58k, lodging $27.7k, flights $17k, food $12.8k).
Challenge Tour: $32k–$38k a season, published 2020. We use the middle of that range. Gary Boyd, Challenge Tour pro, writing in GolfMagic — £25–30k.
LPGA Tour: $115k–$125k a season, published 2022. We use the middle of that range. Stephanie Meadow, LPGA pro, to Golfweek/USA Today — $115–125k a year including her team (caddie, coaches), on average hotels and host-family stays.
DP World Tour: $76k–$89k a season, published 2020. We use the middle of that range. Gary Boyd, Challenge Tour pro, writing in GolfMagic — £60–70k, caddie mandatory.
PGA Tour: $172k–$187k a season, published 2025. We use the middle of that range. Derived from Golf Digest’s Undercover Pro itemised week (~$8,200 fixed: lodging $3,200, caddie base ~$2,000, coach/trainer $2,000, flight $800, food $200) × 21 starts, then ÷ 0.92 for a caddie on 8%.

No cost estimate has been published for LIV Golf, PGA Tour Champions, Asian Tour, Legends Tour, China Tour, Ladies European Tour, Asian Development Tour, PGA Tour Americas, Alps Tour, or Pro Golf Tour, so those tours are left out rather than guessed at.

“Lost money” means prize money alone didn’t cover the estimate. Sponsorship and appearance fees aren’t counted, and near the bottom of a tour those are often what keeps a player going. Since 2023 the PGA Tour has also guaranteed fully exempt members with 15 or more starts a $500,000 season minimum, and the DP World Tour has since added a $150,000 version — that isn’t prize money, so it isn’t here, and on those two tours the count who fell short is an overstatement. Read this as the gap they had to close, not their bank balance.

Full distribution

Because a median hides the spread. Same filters as the chart above, by earnings percentile — plus how many earned nothing all season.

Tour	Players			Median
LIV Golf	52	$1,534,792	$2,449,083	$4,109,649	$5,810,506	$10,334,560	0
PGA Tour	203	$136,009	$545,094	$1,253,400	$2,793,088	$8,061,808	0
PGA Tour Champions	92	$60,724	$226,662	$405,500	$879,551	$1,941,711	0
DP World Tour	158	$38,592	$174,544	$391,510	$785,308	$1,616,921	1
LPGA Tour	158	$50,158	$128,225	$344,646	$1,025,637	$2,166,224	1
Asian Tour	98	$18,550	$55,707	$121,466	$221,417	$573,320	0
Korn Ferry Tour	160	$14,956	$63,334	$108,424	$236,013	$492,144	0
Legends Tour	53	$29,399	$52,616	$100,211	$166,094	$284,857	0
China Tour	67	$16,450	$44,713	$74,130	$175,172	$433,385	2
Ladies European Tour	118	$4,300	$19,167	$39,921	$75,829	$206,004	1
Challenge Tour	153	$5,008	$19,331	$35,204	$77,818	$167,936	0
Asian Development Tour	41	$5,401	$10,910	$21,235	$31,948	$61,588	0
PGA Tour Americas	101	$5,080	$12,217	$20,014	$38,686	$73,649	0
Alps Tour	94	$0	$1,989	$5,632	$10,803	$27,230	7
Pro Golf Tour	109	$0	$921	$2,456	$6,767	$16,838	12

How this is built

Every figure is summed from the tournament leaderboards we ingest, per player, per season. A missed cut or withdrawal pays nothing but still counts as a start, which is why these medians sit well below the money-list numbers people quote.

Only players with 10 or more starts on a tour count towards it. Without a floor, club pros and Monday qualifiers with a single appearance would set the bottom half of every tour.

The four men’s majors aren’t run by any one tour, so their money is kept separate and left out by default. “Include majors” adds a player’s major winnings to every tour they qualify on here. The LPGA and PGA Tour Champions run their own majors, so the toggle doesn’t affect them.

DP World, Challenge and Alps Tour money is published in euros and converted at a flat $1.08, not the rate of the day. Team events like the Ryder Cup have no prize money and aren’t counted.

The season-cost figures are third-party estimates, not GolfHub data; each is sourced and dated above. Real expenses also vary with how much a player travels.

Cost isn’t fixed either: caddies usually take a percentage of winnings on top of a weekly rate, so part of it rises with the prize money.