As the 2025 PGA Tour regular season draws to a close, it’s a season that’s been dominated yet again by world number one, Scottie Scheffler.
The entertaining year has also seen long-term PGA big earner Rory McIlroy return to major-winning form with his thrilling Career Grand Slam confirmed in the Masters at Augusta National.
However, it’s neither of these two dominant forces in professional golf that tops the 2025 Prize Money charts.
It’s Joaquin Niemann who’s claimed the most lucrative winning payouts this year – $21,212,762, to be exact.
The Chilean’s 2025 haul eclipses that of Scheffler, who earned $19,202,883, despite the American winning two Major tournaments by some margin, and undoubtedly the best golfer in the world of late.
And three PGA titles, along with a Green Jacket, only earned him $16,156,418 in 2025 – some $5 million short of Niemann’s total.
Strength in numbers on the LIV Golf Tour
The 26-year-old has been relatively uncompetitive in Major tournaments where both golf Tours collide, but has been cashing in on the absence of the world’s best, winning five LIV events in 2025.
Victories in Adelaide, Singapore, Mexico City, Virginia and the UK have seen Niemann put together some scintillating final rounds in the low sixties, showing his closing skill.
On the contrary, the Chilean only managed to win two PGA Tour events – the 2019 Greenbrier and 2022 Genesis Invitational – in four years before his 2022 LIV Golf switch.
LIV’s unique format is where Niemann has found his mojo: small fields, 54 holes and fewer Ryder Cup stars have made it somewhat easier to get over the line.
And what’s more, when he does get over the line, there’s a customary LIV winner’s pay cheque of at least an eye-watering $4 million at each event.
Money vs Tradition
The contrast when comparing his season to that of Scheffler and McIlroy is stark; both have played ruthlessly to beat the best of both Tours and claim Major tournaments this year.
Scheffler’s wins were commanding, calculated and, at times, seeming utterly effortless.
McIlroy’s Masters win was the truest test of mettle, emotionally seismic and a victory over the world’s best with a whole lot more weight on his shoulders.
But while their wins brought trophies rich with history and dominated the headlines, Niemann’s graft in the periphery brought the pay cheques.
LIV’s prize structure rewards winners like no others with one victory worth more than most PGA tour events, and Niemann has racked up five.
Still, there’s one place Niemann seems to fall short, and that’s the one place where both Tours collide: the Majors.
Despite his success in recent months, he’s missed the cut in his past two Majors and has just one Top 10 finish in 26 career starts.
For leading the prize money charts in 2025, his trophy cabinet lacks the pieces that define careers and earn a space in golfing folklore.
Niemann is 2025’s richest golfer, but Scheffler is its best, Rory, perhaps, its most loved, while his brilliance is measured in dollars – not green jackets or claret jugs.
And yet, with over $21 million in the bank this year, it’s hard to ignore him as one of the best, as he proves just how far the money game has gone.
The question remains, who’d be happier with their 2025 season?
Those who made history, or he who made the big bucks?
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