How much prize money is on offer at The 2026 Open Championship? Full breakdown by position
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is amongst a star-studded Open Championship field battling it out for glory at Royal Birkdale – but a major championship isn’t the only thing on the line with a whopping prize money purse also available.
While The Open sits fourth of golf’s majors in terms of financial rewards available, the R&A have announced an increase to $17.75m across the field in 2026 – a bump of $750,000 on what was on offer at Royal Portrush 12 months ago.
The Masters and US Open both set their prize purses at $22.5 million this year with the US PGA offering $20.5 million to players.
Jordan Spieth was crowned ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’ when The Open was last held at Royal Birkdale in 2017, taking home $1.845m of the $10.25m on offer, but this year’s winner will bank a whopping $3.2m.
McIlroy is looking to further close the gap on the PGA Tour’s all-time career money leader Tiger Woods ($120,999,166) – he currently sits second on an eye-watering $116,377,022, while 2025 Open champion Scottie Scheffler ($114,577,711) is also quickly closing the gap.
The top-three finishers at the Southport course this weekend will all receive over $1m – second is worth $1.842m and third banks $1.181m.
While other tournaments race to set new standards in terms of prize money available, R&A chief executive Mark Darbon insists the organisation wants to find a correct balance.
"We look at prize money as part of a broader package that we offer here at The Open Championship,” he said in a press conference this week. “We've also increased and continued to increase our investment into the player experience, and we're very proud of the fact that we consistently get told by the players that the experience – the facilities, the services, the support – that we offer during Open Championship week sets the benchmark for the rest of golf.
"We're intent on ensuring that that continues to remain the case.
"So prize money is but one component of that comparison. At the same time, we're trying to find a model that gets the balance right.
"We have a relatively unique model at the R&A. We invest the proceeds that we generate from this Open Championship back into the sport.
"That's really important for us, and we think we're finding the right balance."
The 2026 Open Championship prize money breakdown by position:
1st: $3,200,000, 2nd: $1,842,000, 3rd: $1,181,000, 4th: $917,000, 5th: $738,000, 6th: $639,700, 7th: $549,700, 8th: $463,250, 9th: $406,200, 10th: $367,000, 11th: $334,200, 12th: $296,000, 13th: $278,500, 14th: $260,700, 15th: $241,900, 16th: $222,700, 17th: $212,000, 18th: $202,000, 19th: $193,600, 20th: $184,500, 21st: $175,900, 22nd: $167,100, 23rd: $158,100, 24th: $149,300, 25th: $144,250, 26th: $138,000, 27th: $133,000, 28th: $128,400, 29th: $122,800, 30th: $116,500, 31st: $112,700, 32nd: $106,900, 33rd: $103,100, 34th: $100,200, 35th: $96,700, 36th: $92,900, 37th: $88,500, 38th: $84,100, 39th: $81,000, 40th: $78,400, 41st: $75,200, 42nd: $71,500, 43rd: $68,300, 44th: $64,400, 45th: $60,700, 46th: $57,600, 47th: $55,300, 48th: $53,100, 49th: $50,700, 50th: $49,400, 51st: $48,350, 52nd: $47,500, 53rd: $46,800, 54th: $46,100, 55th: $45,300, 56th: $44,700, 57th: $44,250, 58th: $43,950, 59th: $43,625, 60th: $43,325, 61st: $43,100, 62nd: $42,900, 63rd: $42,700, 64th: $42,500, 65th: $42,150, 66th: $41,825, 67th: $41,500, 68th: $41,200, 69th: $40,900, 70th: $40,700
Non-qualifiers after two rounds: Leading 10 professional golfers and ties $12,900; next 20 professional golfers and ties $10,750; remainder of professional golfers and ties $9,100.