Graeme McDowell has been in the headlines for the past few months after inadvertently becoming the de-facto face of LIV Golf.
The Saudi backed Golf series has courted controversy since it's very first event at the Centurion club in London at the beginning of June. The tour, which has already poached a number of huge names in golf like Phil Mickleson and Bryson De Chambeau, has used the vast resources of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment fund to offer massive prize money to players.
And everyone who competes takes home a healthy cheque regardless of how well they've played. McDowell himself is evidence of this.
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The 2010 US Open winner has had an underwhelming start to life in LIV. His highest finished is ninth in the inaugural event at the Centurion Club in London. G-Mac has backed this up with 35th and 37th placed finishes in Portland and Bedminster respectively.
For his exertions, the Northern Irishman has taken home $847,000. For context, McDowell made more from these three events than he did in his last 15 starts on the PGA Tour.
While McDowell has jumped ship, Rory McIlroy have stayed loyal and continue to ply their trade on the PGA Tour. McIlroy and Lowry have both been vocal in their opposition to LIV, and have mentioned in the past how important the legacy of PGA Tour events are to them.
But how do their competition earnings match up to McDowell? Let's start with McIlroy first.
The Hollywood star won the RBC Canadian Open at the same time as the first LIV event was taking place. For this win, McIlroy took home a hefty paycheck of $1,556,000.
McIlroy didn't play in the John Deere or Rocket Mortgage Classic which took place during LIV Portland and LIV Bedminster. McIlroy has played in four events since the creation of LIV Golf, finishing first at the RBC Canadian Open ($1,556,000), 5th at the US Open ($715,491), 19th at the Travelers Championship ($106,101.67) and 3rd at The Open ($933,000), taking home a total of $3,310,592.67.
Lowry on the other hand has also played in four tournaments since LIV came on the scene. The 2019 Open Championship winner has finished in 10th place at the RBC Canadian Open ($202,275), missed the cut at the US Open ($10,000), tied 21st at The Open ($139,000) and tied 83rd ($12,994) at the Wyndham Championship, earning a grand total of $364,269.
McIlroy is an annomoly and can't really be used as a comparison because he has played so well and earned so much money this summer. However, Lowry and McDowell's numbers make for interesting reading.
Both golfers have had one top-10 finish each, and have placed somewhere in the middle or towards the bottom of the leaderboard in most of their other events. Despite this, McDowell has earned over $500,000 more than the Offaly native.
McDowell's 9th placed finish at the Centurion Club and Lowry's 10th placed finish at the RBC Canadian Open show just how wide apart LIV Golf and the PGA Tour are when it comes to prize money. McDowell earned $560,000, almost $360,000 more than his Irish counterpart.
Thankfully, Lowry isn't short of a few quid, having accumulated a total of $3,259,349 this season. This pales in comparison to McIlroy, who has made an astronomical $8,234,566 this term.
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