The 2022 Players Championship created headlines before it had even begun thanks to its then-record $20 million purse, the largest in PGA Tour history.

Much has changed in the 12 months since the last TPC Sawgrass event, which was won by Cameron Smith, thanks to the emergence of the PGA Tour rival that the Australian now plays on, LIV Golf.

That heralded a new era of unprecedented purse sizes, with $25 million in each of the venture's seven regular tournaments. As it threatened to cherry-pick much of the top talent from the PGA Tour, the more established circuit responded with some eye-catching purses of its own.

The introduction of designated events for 2023 ensured that several tournaments, including last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, would have purses equal to last year’s Players Championship prize fund. Three purses have reached that level in 2023 so far, at Bay Hill and in the WM Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational before it. However, this week’s event stands apart once again, with a LIV Golf-matching $25m on offer for the top-quality field - the largest figure in PGA Tour history for one tournament. 

That’s in keeping with an event that, to many, is a Major in all but name. After all, as well as the purse and incredible field, the tournament – like The Masters – has a regular home with iconic holes including the famous island green at the 17th.

Meanwhile, even though the Players Championship doesn’t offer the same number of Official World Golf Ranking points as the Majors (80 rather than 100), it does offer the winner a five-year exemption on Tour and a three-year exemption for all four Majors.

It’s the huge purse that is surely one of the biggest attractions of the tournament, though, and because of the distribution, the winner will claim even more than the $4m awarded to the victors in the individual LIV Golf events. A staggering $4.5m will come the way of the 2023 winner, $900,000 more than Smith earned for his win in 2022.

As for the runner-up, he will at least be able to draw comfort from missing out on the trophy with a bank balance swelled by a further $2.725m. That compares very favourably with the $2.18m earned by Anirban Lahiri for his second-place finish last year – a career-changing sum at the time – and works out at $25,000 more than Justin Thomas claimed for winning the event only two years ago.

The game has undergone some big changes in the 12 months since the last Players Championship. The extraordinary sum on offer in this week's event arguably provides one of the clearest demonstrations of just how much. 

Below is the full breakdown of the prize money for the 2023 Players Championship. 

The Players Championship Prize Money Breakdown

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Prize Money	Position
1st	$4,500,000
2nd	$2,725,000
3rd	$1,725,000
4th	$1,225,000
5th	$1,025,000
6th	$906,250
7th	$843,750
8th	$781,250
9th	$731,250
10th	$681,250
11th	$631,250
12th	$581,250
13th	$531,250
14th	$481,250
15th	$456,250
16th	$431,250
17th	$406,250
18th	$381,250
19th	$356,250
20th	$331,250
21st	$306,250
22nd	$281,250
23rd	$261,250
24th	$241,250
25th	$221,250
26th	$201,250
27th	$193,750
28th	$186,250
29th	$178,750
30th	$171,250
31st	$163,750
32nd	$156,250
33rd	$148,750
34th	$142,500
35th	$136,250
36th	$130,000
37th	$123,750
38th	$118,750
39th	$113,750
40th	$108,750
41st	$103,750
42nd	$98,750
43rd	$93,750
44th	$88,750
45th	$83,750
46th	$78,750
47th	$73,750
48th	$69,750
49th	$66,250
50th	$64,250
51st	$62,750
52nd	$61,250
53rd	$60,250
54th	$59,250
55th	$58,750
56th	$58,250
57th	$57,750
58th	$57,250
59th	$56,750
60th	$56,250
61st	$55,750
62nd	$55,250
63rd	$54,750
64th	$54,250
65th	$53,750

What Is The Purse For The 2023 Players Championship?

The 2023 Players Championship has a record purse of $25m. That's an increase of $5m on last year's tournament. The winner will claim $4.5m, with the runner-up taking home $2.725m.

Who Is The Youngest Player To Win The Players Championship?

In 2017, Si Woo Kim became the youngest player to win The Players Championship aged 21. He beat Louis Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter by three shots to win the first prize of $1.89m.