DailyExpertNews
—
Dustin Johnson took his LIV Golf earnings for the season past $35 million with the win in the final event of the year in Miami on Sunday.
After already taking home an $18 million winner’s bonus for taking the individual championship in Jeddah earlier this month, the American led the 4Aces to the team title at Trump National Doral to secure his four-man squad the $16 million team prize.
Along with Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez, the team shot down a collective 7-under 281 to take a one-time win over Open champion Cameron Smith’s Team Punch, who finished second in the 12-team competition with a prize pool. of $50 million.
Johnson’s $4 million off team competition winnings boosts his inaugural series earnings to $35,637,767, according to The Associated Press.
It marks a massive spike in earnings for Johnson, who has equaled nearly half the total earnings of a career on the PGA Tour in just eight LIV Golf events. Over 16 seasons and 307 events on the sport’s flagship tour, the two-time major winner amassed nearly $75 million in prize money.
The 38-year-old’s previous most profitable season was in 2015-16, where three wins — including the US Open — over 22 PGA Tour events brought him $9.37 million in revenue. The American played 12 events on the Tour last season, with a six-seeded finish at The Open being the best of his four major appearances.
“It’s pretty good,” Johnson told reporters when asked to summarize his year.
“I feel like it should have been a lot better, but I’m quite happy with what happened in the end, winning the team championship.
“You add up the numbers and it was great, I played well [but] … I didn’t play my best, there is always room for improvement, but that’s golf.”
Johnson’s compatriot Peter Uihlein, who has never won on the PGA Tour, collected just over $12.5 million during the series to double his 10-year pro career earnings, while teammate Perez took his series earnings of more than $8 million. with the Miami win, nearly double the roughly $4.3 million the 46-year-old earned in his most profitable season on the PGA Tour in 2017.
“All the push-back, all the negative comments, everything we’ve gotten – at this point I really don’t care. I get paid, I don’t give a damn,” Perez said.
“My team played incredible this year… To have these guys and their caddies and families and coaches and everyone, it’s just one big family now.
“I just couldn’t be happier. It’s unbelievable.”
The LIV Golf series will expand to 14 events next season, paving the way for even bigger payouts, with six-time major winner Phil Mickelson insisting the tour is “not going away”.