It’s not every week that you earn $2.2 million and walk off the golf course bitterly disappointed, but that’s exactly how Daniel Berger will have felt after watching Akshay Bhatia come up the outside and pip him to the post.
The slender Californian played like the money didn’t matter coming down the stretch, and his aggressive approach paid dividends – literally and figuratively – as he came from five back with nine to play to secure his third PGA Tour win and the biggest payday of his career by far.
The 24-year-old, who joined the PGA Tour in 2023, has now won over $18 million in career earnings, and the near-$5.5 million he’s accrued in the first six events of 2026 – he missed the cut in the first two of these – has already seen him surpass the $5.3 million he earned in 2024 which had previously been his most lucrative year.
Berger, who’s been a PGA Tour member since 2015, still earned more than he’s earned in any other week in his career, and has now passed the $32 million-mark in his PGA Tour career.
At LIV Hong Kong, Jon Rahm ended his 26-tournament wait for victory by blitzing the field on the final day and added another $4 million to his career tally.
It was just rewards for the Spaniard who chartered a plane at his own expense to allow eight of his fellow LIV golfers to make their way from the Middle East to Hong Kong for the event.
Including bonus payments for end-of-year rankings positions – he earned a total of $36 million by topping the list in both 2024 and 2025 – Rahm has now earned over $84 million in just over two years.
An excellent week for Graeme McDowell – the highlight of which was a hole-in-one on Friday, saw ‘G-Mac’ adequately reimbursed with over $411,000 in tournament earnings after his first top-10 finish of the season, while Tom McKibbin’s five-over-par back nine on Sunday proved very costly as he fell to T24 and earned $185,000.
Leona Maguire’s first top-20 finish of 2026 earned her $31k and change at the Blue Bay LPGA in China, where South Korea’s Mi Hyang Lee ended a nine-year search for her third LPGA Tour win and collected the $390,000 winner’s share of the purse.
Áine Donegan’s second start as an LET pro ended with a second consecutive paycheque, and the Lahinch woman earned €3,290.00 for her tie for 32nd at the Australian Women’s Classic where home favourite Kelsey Bennett took the top prize of €52,500.00.
Arnold Palmer Invitational selected payouts
Position
Player
Score
Earnings
1
Akshay Bhatia
-15
$4,000,000
2
Daniel Berger
-15
$2,200,000
T3
Ludvig Aberg
-12
$1,200,000
T3
Cameron Young
-12
$1,200,000
5
Collin Morikawa
-11
$840,000
T6
Sahith Theegala
-10
$702,000
T6
Russell Henley
-10
$702,000
T6
Min Woo Lee
-10
$702,000
T9
Harry Hall
-8
$578,000
T9
Rickie Fowler
-8
$578,000
HSBC Liv Hong Kong selected payouts
Pos.
Player
Score
Earnings
1
Jon Rahm
-23
$4,000,000
2
Thomas Detry
-20
$2,250,000
3
Thomas Pieters
-19
$1,500,000
4
Harold Varner III
-18
$1,000,000
5
Matthew Wolff
-17
$800,000
6
Carlos Ortiz
-16
$700,000
7
Dean Burmester
-15
$600,000
T8
David Puig
-14
$411,667
T8
Sergio Garcia
-14
$411,667
T8
Louis Oosthuizen
-14
$411,667
T8
Elvis Smylie
-14
$411,667
T8
Graeme McDowell
-14
$411,667
T8
Lucas Herbert
-14
$411,667
T24
Tom McKibbin
-10
$185,000
Blue Bay LPGA selected payouts
Pos.
Name
Money
Score
1
Mi Hyang Lee
$390,000
-11
2
Weiwei Zhang
$239,531
-10
T3
Aditi Ashok
$154,091
-8
T3
Auston Kim
$154,091
-8
T5
Hye-Jin Choi
$83,931
-7
T5
A Lim Kim
$83,931
-7
T5
Yu Liu
$83,931
-7
T5
Rio Takeda
$83,931
-7
9
Jenny Bae
$58,359
-5
T18
Mary Liu
$31,422
-1
T18
Leona Maguire
$31,422
-1
T18
Alexa Pano
$31,422
-1