CHARLESTOWN'S Blake Windred has collected the biggest pay cheque of his career after finishing equal 38th in the richest tournament in golf history, the inaugural LIV Invitational series event.
Windred, the lowest-placed of six Australians who contested the controversial breakaway event at the Centurion club, north of London, picked up $US136,000 ($A193,000) for his efforts.
The 24-year-old qualified for a spot in the field after finishing in the top two placegetters on the recent Australasian order of merit.
He was second in the order of merit with $125,285 in prizemoney. He has also earned $78,503 over the past 18 months playing on the European Challenge Tour.
Windred finished 11 over at Centurion, after rounds of 78, 72 and 71, 18 shots behind South African winner Charl Schwartzel.
Schwartzel banked the single biggest one-tournament payday in golf annals, scooping $US4.75 million ($A6.74 million).
Schwartzel held on for a one-shot victory for the individual victory and also pocketed another $US750,000 ($A1.1 million) for being a part of the four-man outfit who won the team event.
He collected more prizemoney from the three-day, 54-hole event than he had from the last four years combined.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think we could play for that much money in golf," said Schwartzel, who had not won a PGA or European Tour event since 2016.
He entered the final day with a three-shot lead and did just enough to hold off compatriot Hennie Du Plessis despite finishing with a two-over 72 for a seven-under total of 203.
Twenty players have now defected from the PGA Tour, with former Masters champ Patrick Reed the latest, confirming on Saturday, as the final round was being completed, that he'd signed up to LIV Golf.
Windred's Australian compatriot Travis Smyth became a millionaire in just one week after cashing in on the untold riches that controversial Saudi Arabian petrodollars are pumping into the game.
The Shellharbour, NSW professional, who's been battling to make a living mainly on the Asian tour, followed on from his previous weekend's breakthrough in the Asian Tour's International Series event - also in England and similarly funded by Saudi money - by earning $US741,000 ($A1.1 million) in just seven days.
Smyth had won a comparatively modest $US32,000 ($A45,000) all season on the Asian tour.
But his second-placed finish at Slaley Hall netted him $US220,000 ($A312,000) alone, four times as much as he'd ever won in an event before, and earned him entry to the real Aladdin's cave - the LIV Golf launch event.
At Centurion, Smyth may have had an ordinary week, shooting 10-over par for the three rounds to finish joint 33rd among the 48 players, yet that was still enough to earn him an extraordinary $US146,000 ($A207,000).
But his real stroke of luck was to finish second in the team even.
That earned the world No.395 a quarter share of another $1.5 million ($A2.1 million) pot.
