Rahm sets PGA Tour season-earnings record

Tony Finau won the PGA Tour’s Mexico Open held at Vidanta in Vallarta, Mexico on Monday with a 24-under 260. Jon Rahm of Spain won second place with three strokes behind Finau. While Rahm was the champion and Finau was ranked second in the same competition last year, the two switched places this year.

Even though Rahm won second place, he set a new record in the history of the PGA Tour. He broke the previous record for most money earned in a single season with his prize money for second place of 839,300 dollars. Rahm has earned 14,462,840 dollars this season, while the previous record of 14,046,910 dollars was set by Scottie Scheffler of the U.S. last year.

He was able to break the single-season money record in April, well before the season’s end, because of not only his excellent performance but also significant raises in prize money. Rahm won the American Express and the Genesis Invitational after achieving his first win of the season at the Tournament of Champions in January. With another win for the Masters Tournament, the first major tournament of the season held in early April, he won tournament championships four times this year. He also has maintained his No. 1 ranking in the world.

Now, it is garnering attention whether Rahm can begin an era of total seasonal prize money of over 20 million dollars. He will compete in around 10 tournaments for the remaining season, even though he will skip the Wells Fargo Championship, a large-scale tournament to begin on Thursday. There are five more large-scale tournaments, including the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and three more major tournaments. If he wins just two of them, his total prize money for the season will exceed 20 million dollars. The total prize money he has earned during his career is a little below 50 million dollars at 49,486,883 dollars at the moment. The current record for career earnings is held by Tiger Woods with 120,954,766 dollars.


Heon-Jae Lee uni@donga.com