The simple answer to this question on most professional golf tours, including the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, is no, they don’t. There are some variations and potentially more ‘no cut’ events to come, but the top 65 and ties in most regular PGA Tour and DP World Tour events make it through to the final two rounds and get paid; the rest earn nothing.
While potentially flying halfway round the world with caddie and hotel costs, then failing to earn a penny thus making a loss, may sound a little harsh to some, it's the way it has been for many, many years now.
It helps to streamline the field for the weekend play, so only those with any realistic chance of challenging for the title continue to play the second half of the tournament. And, continuing on that theme of harshness (or perhaps, reality), it also creates a kind of ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario.
If only the best players get paid, those who don’t quite make the grade simply can’t afford to do it for too long as they will run out of money and be forced into pursuing other lines of employment, or dropping back down to lesser tours and trying to work their way back up again. But even there, they won't get paid if they fail to make the cut.
However, there are one or two other elements to factor in to our headline question...
The Majors
The number of players who make the cut in the Majors varies a little from the standard 65. It’s top 50 at The Masters, top 70 at the PGA Championship and The Open and top 60 at The US Open. Of more concern to us in this article, though, is that the Majors do make an exception and pay even those who miss the cut. This is perhaps to reward them in some small way just for qualifying for one of golf’s four biggest events.
At the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, all players who missed the cut still earned $4,000 (the player who finished last of those who made the cut earned $25,000). At the 2023 Masters, those who missed the cut walked away with $10,000; at the 2022 Open Championship it was staggered in three different amounts from €10,476.35 down to €6,984.24; and at the 2022 US Open it was $10,000.
The Covid effect
As a special one-off during 2021 – the second year affected by Covid – the DP World Tour did pay those who missed the cut for the whole year. The amount varied a little but was around €1,000 to assist with some of the extra costs and logistics (such as testing) that players experienced during that pandemic year. That ceased after the Joburg Open in November 2021.
Earnings Assurance Programmes
It’s possible the programmes detailed below are a direct or indirect response to LIV Golf’s arrival, but for the first time, exempt players on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are guaranteed a certain level of income in 2023.
For the 2022/23 season, The PGA Tour introduced an earnings assurance programme, which guarantees players in the ‘Korn Ferry Tour priority’ category and above at least $500,000, with the Tour making up any gap in earnings at the end of the season.
There is the option of upfront payments for rookies and others earning their way onto the PGA Tour, and if they don’t make that $500,000 threshold, they don’t have to return the money. Another new initiative offers non-exempt members (in the 126-150 category and below) $5,000 for every missed cut to assist with travel costs.
The DP World Tour has followed suit, with chief executive, Keith Pelley, announcing a new ‘Earnings Assurance Programme’ in November 2022 for the 2023 season. This guarantees a minimum $150,000 to those who compete in 15 or more events on the DP World Tour. If their ‘made cut’ earnings fall short of that figure, the tour will top it up, offering guaranteed money for the first time.
"I have always believed that it is an incredible accomplishment for any professional golfer to simply gain their playing rights," Pelley said. "This new initiative recognises and rewards that achievement. Although we will never lose the magic of the meritocracy and purity of a performance-based structure, this now offers certainty of income to those players who have made it to the pinnacle of the professional game in Europe."
The principle of ‘missed cut = no money’ remains, but things are changing.
