Record purse up for grabs at Troon, not everyone is happy

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TROON, Scotland — The world’s best golfers will be playing for an Open Championship record purse this week at Royal Troon, even if tournament boss Martin Slumbers isn’t necessarily thrilled about it.

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On Monday, the R&A announced that the winner of the season’s final major will be taking home $3.1 million US and that the total purse for the Open Championship is $17 million.

Both numbers are records for the championship, with the winner’s cheque topping last year’s record mark of $3 million that Brian Harman took home from a $16.5-million total purse.

The defending Champion Golfer of the Year was asked on Monday if he would play the tournament for less money, or even for no money at all and simply for the pride of victory.

“Yeah, I would personally. I’m not sure everyone would, but I would,” Harman said. “Some people care more about money than I do, I suppose. I play golf for me. I play golf to see how good I can get at golf. I play golf because I enjoy torturing myself with things that are really hard to do. That’s just me.”

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“Most times when I get done with a tournament, I couldn’t tell you within commas of how much that I made that week.”

Judging by the past few years and the ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, Harman appears to be in the minority, which has Slumbers — who is set to step down as R&A CEO at the end of the year — worried about the future of the game.

Slumbers issued sobering remarks questioning the direction the professional game is trending in recent years.

“We remain concerned about the impact substantial increases in men’s professional prize money are having on the perception of the sport and its long-term financial sustainability,” Slumbers said. “We are determined to act with the interests of the global game in mind as we pursue our goal of ensuring golf continues to thrive in 50 years’ time.”

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The financial side of the men’s professional game has become something of an arms race, with cash used as a weapon since the Saudi-led LIV  Golf turned the sport upside down just over two years ago.

“It’s not good for the game,” Canadian Mackenzie Hughes said of LIV Golf earlier this year. “It’s overvalued golfers to a large degree and made golf as a whole a greedy, dark place. But it is here and maybe here to stay and that’s unfortunate.”

With the R&A working as the governing body of golf for 61 million golfers across 146 countries, Slumbers’ concern seems to be that the money doled out to keep the world’s best players happy could be better spent elsewhere.

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“The R&A has a responsibility to strike a balance between maintaining The Open’s position in the global game, providing the funds required for governance and developing amateur and recreational golf in 146 countries internationally,” Slumbers said. “We have to make choices if we want to continue to build on the significant growth in participation that is essential for golf’s future.”

Despite the increase, the Open Championship is still the smallest purse of any of the four majors and every LIV Golf event pays more to its winner.

The first year the Open Championship featured a purse was 1863, when 10 pounds was split evenly between the eight professionals in the 14-man field. A year later, the purse was increased to 15 pounds which included a winner’s prize of six pounds that went to Old Tom Morris.

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