The Hawaiian Open has been around for several decades now, with its first champion getting crowned way back in 1965 when Gay Brewer shot a seven-under-par to break a tie in a playoff. In 1999, the Hawaiian Open has been renamed to the Sony Open two decades ago, when the Japanese electronics brand took over as the lead sponsor. The history of the Sony Open is one of the most colorful ones among PGA Tournaments, as it has plenty of fun stories and memorable occurrences. Take for example the time in 2004, when the Sony Open allowed Michelle Wie to compete. More recently, the 2019 Sony Open title was won by Matt Kuchar, who won by four strokes. Other recent champions of the event are Patton Kizzire (2018), Justin Thomas (2017), and Fabian Gomez (2016). Having said all of that, let’s now take a look at the purse in the upcoming 2020 PGA Sony Open.
When Brewer became the first-ever Hawaii Open champion, he pocketed just $9,000. That was a great deal of money during that time, but it was way less than what Kuchar took home a year ago. For winning the 2019 Sony Open, Kuchar went home with $1.152 million. The total purse in the Sony Open has increased in each edition since 2015. Jimmy Walker won in 2015 and collected $1.008 million. The following year, he won again Gomez topped the field for $1.044 million before Thomas wore the crown and boosted his bank account with $1.08 million. In 2018, Kizzire finished first for $1.116 million.
This 2020, the total purse is set at $6.6 million (up from $6.4 million last year) with the champion set to receive a tournament record of $1.188 million – the standard 18% take of the total.
The Complete Breakdown
Finish
Payout Amount
1st
$1.188 million (18% of total)
The PGA is not releasing the exact numbers on how the extra (after subtracting the 1st place 18%) and remaining $164,000 is being proportioned to the rest of the field. However, it will be distributed in the same proportion of the total as it was in 2019, which was allotted to the next 20 finishers as follows:
