Did you enjoy watching the recently concluded AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am? Nick Tylor definitely had a good time in Pebble Beach. Why not? Aside from winning the tournament – his second PGA TOUR victory – the Canadian also bagged $1.404 million. Kevin Streelman came in second for a still cool prize of $850,200. For this week, though, it’s going to be another story for the 2020 PGA TOUR, as it heads to the Riviera Country Club in California for the 2020 Genesis Open. Unlike in previous editions of the tournament, this year’s Genesis Open will be an invitational one with a total field of only 120 players, smaller than the usual 156-golfers size. The field may be smaller, but the total purse will be at its highest ever, with $9.3 million to be distributed to all qualified finishers.
The Genesis Open, formerly known as The Los Angeles Open started way back in 1926 when the total purse was only $10,000. It stayed that way every year until 1932 when the purse went down to only $7,500. Over the next four years, it sank to only $5,000. Decades later, in 1967, the Los Angeles Open purse rose to $100,000. In 1971, when the tournament became known as the Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open, Billy Casper won the $22,000 champion’s prize taken from the purse of $110,000. The first time the tournament’s purse reached $1 million was in 1989 when Nissan took over as the main sponsor. Prior to the Genesis Invitational, the tournament was called the Northern Trust Open from 2008 to 2016 and Genesis Open from 2017 to 2019. Last year, J.B. Holmes topped the field to pocket $1.332 million (total purse is $7.4 million).
The Complete Breakdown
According to the usual formula used followed by the PGA TOUR to award prizes, the winner of the 2020 Genesis Open will take home $1.674 million. The table below shows how the prizes for the next nine-best finishers should be split up.
