It's Not About the Money.

I'm almost sure we're right about this

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On Monday, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club announced the prize money for this year’s Open Championship. It turns out they’re coming in last place, offering the lowest overall purse and winner’s share among the four major championships in men’s golf: the U.S. Open, Masters, PGA Championship and this one, which we used to call the British Open.

Frankly, this came as a shock. Not because the Open pays the least, but because, before Monday, it had never occurred to me — not once — to think about what the winner got paid at any of the majors. When did this become a thing?

That guy in the photo up there — he looks pretty happy. His name is Brian Harman, and he’s an American from Savannah, Georgia, and he won last year’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool by six strokes in a dominating performance from the second round on.

Harman plays left-handed, and among lefties, only Bob Charles and Phil Mickelson had ever won an Open title before. He was so off the board at Royal Liverpool that his pre-tournament odds were 125 to 1. It was just a complete, shocking, total victory, an insane week, a lifetime memory.

Also, he definitely got paid for winning.

Did anybody in the world care how much?

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Anyway, money. The pro golf world has been superheated over cash for a long time, and it all kicked into hyperspace the last couple of years with the advent of LIV Golf and its massive, guaranteed, life-changing contracts doled out to players on that tour — most of whom, let’s be honest, won’t be duking it out atop the leaderboard this week at Royal Troon.

The Open will pay $3.1 million to the winner, from a $17 million purse. It’s only a tiny increase from last year’s $3 million champion’s share, and the Royal & Ancient knows that, because the organization did it on purpose.

"The R&A has a responsibility to strike a balance between maintaining The Open's position in the global game and developing amateur and recreational golf in 146 countries internationally," R&A CEO Martin Slumbers said in a statement. "We have to make choices if we want to continue to build on the significant growth in participation that is essential for golf's future."

Yep. Believe it or not, the R&A is a massive force in the development and promotion of golf globally, especially among young players and at the grass-roots levels. Those efforts require significant spending. It’s silly and self-defeating to dole out ever-more massive payouts to touring pros — and anyway, if a golfer has completely sold out to the buck, he can find a greater purse than almost any of the majors by playing a single LIV event.

You can always chase cash. But the great golfers want to win majors, wear the green jacket, lift the Claret Jug.

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I’ve never heard a golfer talk about the prize money at a major championship, and that’s saying something, because pro golfers seem to talk about tournament payouts all the time. It’s almost as if winning a major were, you know, special.

At one point, the R&A’s Slumbers said the organization is concerned about "the impact that substantial increases in men's professional prize money are having on the perception of the sport,” and that’s on point. As LIV has proved, golf fans aren’t moved by larger payouts to guys who are already at the top of the sport’s financial food chain.

On the other hand, everybody loves a major champion. When Brian Harman lifted the Claret Jug last year and called it “iconic,” that felt right. But when he added, “It’s cool,” he got to the heart of it. I’m sure this year’s winner will cash the check, but that ain’t the thing.