The inaugural LIV Golf season saw Dustin Johnson emerge the highest earner from its eight tournaments, eventually surpassing $35m.
The expanded 2023 League season, with six more events, promised the potential for an even more impressive figure for its leading player, but who was the highest earner, and how much did he claim?
Most would have backed one of LIV Golf's biggest stars, such as Johnson, a rejuvenated Bryson DeChambeau, former World No.1 Brooks Koepka or 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith, to claim the most money from the 2023 season.
In the end, though, the honour went to a player with a considerably lower profile. Until 2023 Talor Gooch was perhaps best known for his three-shot win in the 2021 RSM Classic. However, a stellar season that saw the Range Goats GC player claim three victories and one runner-up finish gave him a year to remember - and swelled his bank balance enormously.
Big paydays of $4m came Gooch’s way after each of his three victories, in Adelaide, Singapore and Andalucia, helping take him past $15m before the final regular event of the season in Saudi Arabia. Gooch was edged out in a playoff by Brooks Koepka in that tournament, but despite that disappointment, his runner-up finish still banked him another $2.25m, taking his earnings to $17,320,012.
He was far from done there, though. The event also saw Gooch crowned individual champion for the season, an achievement that earned him another one-off payment of $18m, taking his earnings for the year to $35,320,012 heading into the season-closing Team Championship.
There was $50m up for grabs at Trump National Doral. Gooch’s team finished runner-up at the event, meaning it claimed $8m. Nowadays, the majority of team earnings are reinvested into the franchises, but there was still another payday for its players, with 40% of the prize money, or $3.2m in the case of Range Goats GC, shared equally among captain Bubba Watson, Gooch, Thomas Pieters and Harold Varner III.
That handed Gooch an extra $800,000, taking his total earnings for the season to a staggering $36,120,012. Not bad for a player who, before joining LIV Golf, had taken career earnings of $9,250,299 in 123 appearances on the PGA Tour.
