The first three men’s Majors of the year all announced record prize money, and that trend continues with The Open, where $17.75m was available at Royal Birkdale – an increase of $750,000 on 2025.
Even with that boost, the prize money for the tournament is less than the other three, with $20.5m offered at the PGA Championship and $22.5m available at The Masters and the US Open.
In fact, The Open is the only one of the four Majors that has less prize money than the PGA Tour’s Signature Events, which regularly distribute $20m.
Of course, when it comes to The Open, it’s not so much about the money as the prestige, with the achievement for many in the field just being there at all.
For those with loftier ambitions, there is the opportunity to lift one of the most famous trophies in golf, the Claret Jug, and write their name into the history books.
Still, that doesn’t mean that the winner won’t welcome the prize money that comes along with the various other perks of claiming victory, and in 2026, Ryan Fox’s decisive putt on Sunday evening banked him a hefty $3.2m.
While seeing that figure would be enough to make many players’ eyes light up, it’s not quite that simple.
Fox will ultimately benefit from significantly less than that thanks to other factors, including taxes and shares due to their team.
There’s also the matter of ensuring that the person who was with them every step of the way, their caddie, is adequately compensated, too.
What a caddie earns is largely determined by the size of the player’s prize money.
But considering Fox will go down in history after navigating four days of testing links golf on firm and fast fairways, it’s unlikely he’ll begrudge handing over a decent chunk to his looper.
It is widely accepted that winners of tournaments generally give their caddies 10% of their prize money.
In 2025, Scottie Scheffler claimed $3.1m for his victory, meaning his caddie Ted Scott would have likely received $310,000. That was the same figure as Xander Schauffele won in 2024, meaning his caddie Austin Kaiser would have likely earned the same amount as Scott.
The 2026 payout is a touch more than that, $3.2m, which should see his caddie, Dean Smith, better by $320,000.
The caddies of players finishing further down the leaderboard are also expected to be well rewarded.
Players finishing elsewhere in the top-10 of The Open leaderboard are expected to pay their caddies around 7% of the prize money, with around 5% going to the caddies of other players in the field.
If there’s a solo winner, the runner-up will claim $1.842m, which would likely leave his caddie around $129,000 wealthier.
At the other end of the leaderboard, Jesper Svensson’s caddie will only have picked up a bonus of around $2,000 after the Swede finished solo 78th – last among those who made the cut.
