In 2026, one of the sport’s most significant debates ceases to end and is starker than ever.
Following the CME Group Tour Championship at the end of 2025, Jeeno Thitikul led the LPGA Tour money list, having earned $7,578,330 across the season.
While this is a sum the majority of humans can’t imagine having, Thitikul’s year-long earnings would have been good for 20th place in the PGA Tour money list of 2025.
This was a fraction of Scottie Scheffler‘s monstrous bank balance of $27,659,500 across 20 events. Although rewarding Thitikul with an enormous $4 million cheque for winning last year’s season-ending finale is a vast upscale investment in the women’s game, there is still a significant disparity between the two spheres.
2025 was another year of dominance for Scheffler, who won seven times, including the PGA Championship and The Open. He was handsomely rewarded in the PGA Tour’s grossly inflated financial climate. Even despite a slight down year on course, where he won only three times (low for his standards!), he scooped the $10 million purse at the Tour Championship.
Scheffler’s excellence is becoming more regular, but each of his last two full seasons could be compared to Nelly Korda’s 2024 season. Her third win at the Annika at the end of that season capped off a seven-trophy haul that included a PGA Championship win.
Her on-course earnings for that year? $4,391,930. Korda won’t have sniffed at that, but she and Scheffler rose to similar levels of superstardom in that 12 months, and there is a cavern between what their performances were worth in currency.
What is also remarkable, as an example, is that Rory McIlroy won $4.5 million at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the 2025 Players Championship, alone, which means he won more at this event than Korda won in the entirety of 2024.
The PGA Tour has long offered big prize money. The organisation also has one of the sport’s mostgenerous pension schemes. However, when LIV Golf was born in 2022, the circuit’s financial reserves were opened like Pandora’s Box, making $4 million in winner purses and $20 million in total prize funds the rule instead of the exception.
Scheffler’s dollar total for last year and previous seasons must account for the squeeze placed on the tour by the new Saudi-funded league and its compulsion to compete. But with more new money being pumped into golf, the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour are yet to taste the pie in the same way the men’s tour has.
Below, we run down the top 20 of the LPGA money list and the top 10 of the PGA Tour money list. We’ll also compare the nearest equivalent on the PGA Tour to the LPGA Tour leader, giving a sense of the gap between the two.
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Last updated: July 29
LPGA money list 2026 (events played)
1. Nelly Korda – $6,220,214 (15)
2. Haeran Ryu – $4,521,414 (15)
3. Ruoning Yin – $2,553,624 (17)
4. Miyu Yamashita – $2,486,457 (18)
5. Jeeno Thitikul – $2,390,611 (16)
6. Hyo Joo Kim – $2,208,441 (15)
7. Ina Yoon – $2,147,964 (16)
8. Brooke Henderson – $2,125,937 (16)
9. Sei Young Kim – $2,011,447 (16)
10. Charley Hull – $1,830,311 (14)
11. Gaby Lopez – $1,803,311 (14)
12. Jin Hee Im – $1,702,741 (19)
13. Hannah Green – $1,696,560 (14)
14. Lottie Woad – $1,503,489 (18)
15. Allisen Corpuz – $1,468,754 (17)
16. Akie Iwai – $1,436,494 (22)
17. Esther Henseleit – $1,414,797 (17)
18. Patty Tavatanakit – $1,385,516 (14)
19. Auston Kim – $1,252,206 (15)
20. Lauren Coughlin – $1,206,751 (16)
PGA Tour money leaders 2026 (events played)
1. Scottie Scheffler – $30,937,525 (20)
2. Cameron Young – $15,068,482 (20)
3. Matt Fitzpatrick – $14,679,817 (21)
4. Wyndham Clark – $14,644,936 (23)
5. Rory McIlroy – $11,573,749 (14)
6. Viktor Hovland – $11,495,826 (19)
7. Chris Gotterup – $10,446,028 (23)
8. Si Woo Kim – $10,271,694 (24)
9. Ryan Gerard – $10,004,898 (26)
10. Collin Morikawa – $9,994,628 (17)
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22. Hideki Matsuyama – $6,088,207, the closest equivalent on the PGA Tour to LPGA Tour leader Nelly Korda.
The gap continues to grow between the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour, with LIV’s emergence accelerating the trend. Nine players on the PGA Tour breached the $10 million mark in 2026 after the Tour Championship, with Scottie Scheffler reaching a staggering $30 million in prize money after his win at East Lake.
That’s nearly five times Korda’s winning in 2026. Both World Number One’s, but a chasm between them in their earnings.
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