Ultimate moneyball - LIV's season comes to a close

As the LIV season drew to a close with the Miami Team Championships on Sunday, the staggering finances on offer were again to the fore as the Bryson DeChambeau led Crushers GC scooped the top prize of $14 million.

But not is all it appears, as the four team members – DeChambeau, Anirban Lahiri, Charles Howell III and Paul Casey – each pocket 10 percent of the pool, with the remaining 60 percent going to the team. Not that a $1.4 million cheque is anything to be sniffed at, of course. For Casey, the lowest earning member of the team in 2024, it takes his season’s tally to over $4.2 million, while team captain DeChambeau has made almost $15 million.

The RangeGoats GC, runners up to the Crushers, collected $8 million, with each of Bubba Watson, Talor Gooch, Harold Varner III and Thomas Pieters earning $800,000 for their troubles, with seventh-placed Cleeks GC, home of Graeme McDowell, being awarded $2.75 million.

With 60 percent being retained by team ownership – currently LIV Golf itself – the desire clearly is to entice outside investors to take team ownership, by which their return on investment, in addition to publicity for the brand, could be extremely profitable indeed should they top the rankings at the end of the season.

But that return on investment would likely pale in comparison to the earnings of Talor Gooch, who along with three individual wins, took home the $18 million bonus for topping the individual rankings, taking his total earnings for the year to an incredible $36 million and change.

To put that in context, Scottie Scheffler, who set a record for the most earnings taken in a PGA Tour season, earned just over $23 million (including Tour Championship bonus), although Viktor Hovland, who collected the top-prize $18 million FedEx Cup bonus, topped out at $32 million.

In total, 49 of the 51 players who took part in LIV events in 2023 earned over $1 million, with four players hitting the eight-figure mark, and Varner and Lahiri coming desperately close to making it six.

Adrian Meronk, who secured his third DP World Tour victory of the 2023 season, (his first came in December 2022, but counts towards the 2023 Race to Dubai) earned almost $640,000 for his win at the Andalucía Masters, while Tom McKibbin, pocketed $26,000 for his T34 finish.

By contrast to McKibbin, a solo 35th finish at LIV Jeddah, the most recent individual event on the LIV circuit, saw Bernd Wiesberger collect $155,000.

The LIV players’ total season earnings, including payouts from the team championship, are listed below.

Position	Player	Winnings
1	Talor Gooch	$36,120,012*
2	Cameron Smith	$18,155,417**
3	Brooks Koepka	$17,670,833***
4	Bryson DeChambeau	$14,735,000
5	Harold Varner III	$9,925,833
6	Anirban Lahiri	$9,761,250
7	Charles Howell III	$9,478,333
8	Dustin Johnson	$8,802,417
9	Branden Grace	$8,727,417
10	Mito Pereira	$8,570,583
11	Patrick Reed	$8,208,833
12	Sebastian Munoz	$7,778,917
13	Sergio Garcia	$6,662,131
14	Marc Leishman	$6,636,250
15	Peter Uihlein	$6,611,630
16	Danny Lee	$6,054,250
17	Dean Burmester	$6,040,749
18	Carlos Ortiz	$5,663,845
19	Louis Oosthuizen	$5,562,880
20	Brendan Steele	$5,510,345
21	Cameron Tringale	$5,384,584
22	Scott Vincent	$4,742,917
23	Abraham Ancer	$4,681,964
24	Richard Bland	$4,679,726
25	Joaquin Niemann	$4,642,666
26	David Puig	$4,503,333
27	Henrik Stenson	$4,354,750
28	Pat Perez	$4,352,500
29	Paul Casey	$4,271,250
30	Matthew Wolff	$4,095,833
31	Jason Kokrak	$4,091,666
32	Thomas Pieters	$3,855,666
33	Kevin Na	$3,757,262
34	Eugenio Chacarra	$3,584,583
35	Bubba Watson	$3,514,583
36	Charl Schwartzel	$3,059,166
37	Ian Poulter	$3,003,333
38	Matt Jones	$2,981,833
39	Phil Michelson	$2,921,250
40	Graeme McDowell	$2,772,679
41	Bernd Wiesberger	$2,737,917
42	Lee Westwood	$2,293,000
43	Laurie Canter (s)	$2,251,214
44	James Piot	$2,241,333
45	Jediah Morgan	$2,166,250
46	Chase Koepka	$1,880,714
47	Sihwan Kim	$1,773,000
48	Martin Kaymer	$1,740,833
49	Sam Horsfield	$1,523,333
50	Andy Ogletree (s)	$788,333
51	Kieran Vincent (s)	$206,666
52	Wade Ormsby (s)	$40,833