Jonah Karzmer: PGA Tour generous with its billions

This past week saw the conclusion of golf’s 2019 major championships. Shane Lowry’s British Open victory was an emotional and highly charged win for all of Ireland and our game as a whole. Watching the ceremony, even I was surprised by the “spoils” Lowry won last week.

Five-year exemptions to Tours and majors. British Open invites for 30-plus years. And $1,935,000. That’s right, almost $2 million (Dr. Evil voice)!

That figure really got me thinking about just how much money the Tour stars of today make. Personally, I like it when I beat my friend Geno for “extrees” which is a $10 bet. Two million for 4 days of golf? Seems crazy to me, so I did a little research for this column.

This year, Brooks Koepka is leading the Tour with $7.8M in money. Russell Henley is 100th on the money list with $1.01M. I wanted to see how those figures compared to decades past.

In 1995, Greg Norman was the leading money winner with $1.6M in earnings. Paul Azinger finished 100th that year with $182,000.

In 1985, Curtis Strange was the leading money winner with $542,000. Brad Fabel finished 100th with $75,000. That’s a PGA Tour player making $75,000 for the entire year. Last week, Cameron Smith finished tied for 20th at The Open and made $91,350.

Inflation? According to online calculators, $100 from 1985 would be worth $238 today, an increase of 138 percent. To get a good comparison, I calculated per tournament money from the leaders in 1985 to today. Curtis Strange won $542,000 in 25 events, for an average earning per tournament of $21,680. Brooks has made $7,800,000 in 17 events, for an average earning per tournament of $458,000. That’s a 2.012 percent increase. With tournament sponsorships and TV contracts providing a lot of the purse money, I think every Tour player today should wear a big “THANK YOU TIGER” hat each week.

But as much as player’s earnings have increased, here’s the really cool part about the PGA Tour — so have Tour donations.

People ask me all the time why I love golf so much. Sure, it’s been a special part of my life personally for as long as I can remember. But let’s look at the PGA Tour in comparison to the big three sports — NFL, MLB and NBA.

The PGA Tour is a non-profit organization designed to benefit the communities and charities that host Tour events.

According to PGATOUR.COM, the Tour contributes to more than 3,000 charities annually across nine main categories: youth, volunteerism. military, health and medical, growth of the game, environment, education and leadership, disaster relief and community.

Each Tour event is a non-profit organization that donates net proceeds local charities. The running total of all event donations to date — almost $3 billion.

Just one of those charities, The First Tee Program, makes a huge impact on children across our country. In 2016, The First Tee reached 5.3 million youths across 1,200 courses and 9,000 schools. Their mission is not just about golf but also “Character building, life-enhancing values, and [promoting] healthy life choices through the game of golf.”

I did a quick Wikipedia search for comparisons. The Tour’s Wiki page has “Charity” listed as its third category. On the MLB, NFL and the NBA Wikipedia pages, charity is nowhere to be found.

And the $3B figure from above only counts Tour event donations. Tour players themselves are nationally known for their philanthropic. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer have entire children’s hospital systems in their charitable portfolios.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure stars from other sports have their own philanthropic causes (see LeBron James). But when it comes to an entire sport, this is just another example of why I say golf is the greatest game in the world.

Jonah Karzmer is a former golf professional who writes a golf column for The Vindicator. In his spare time he sells commercial insurance and loves getting feedback on his weekly columns via email at Jonah@thekarzmerinsurance.com.