MajorPurse
A historical purse tracker for golf's biggest events that lets fans and journalists pull year-over-year winner's-share comparisons, see how The Open stacks against other majors across decades, and visualize the long arc of golf prize money growth.
Golf history fans, journalists, and curious bettors who want to compare eras and tournaments by money, not just scores
- Year-by-year purse and winner's-share comparison across all four majors going back 50+ years
- Inflation-adjusted view so you can see what Bobby Locke's 1952 winnings would be worth today
- Major-vs-major winner-share ratio chart (currently The Open is the lowest among the four)
- Shareable charts and graphics for journalists and social posts
With The Open's $750K bump being called out as 'the smallest of the four majors,' there's a clear narrative hook about purse gaps — fans and media want the visual story.
The Open 2026 purse story is heavily covered by CBS Sports, Today's Golfer, Sporting News, Sportbible, and Legion Report, and 'the open payouts 2026' reportedly has 2,000+ searches — strong seasonal but recurring interest around majors each summer.The Open prize money 2026: Full breakdown from Birkdale ↗2026 Open prize money, purse: Payouts for Ryan Fox, field from $17.5 million ↗
No dedicated 'major purse tracker' product exists; coverage is fragmented across single-topic articles (Legion Report's Open page), broad databases (SalaryLeaks, GolfStats.com with 2.1M records), and player-focused tools (DataGolf). A focused year-over-year major-comparison product is open but not uncrowded.Open Championship Prize Money by Year (2026) - legionreport.com ↗Golf Tournaments | Career Prize Money Database ↗
Hard to monetize — the data is public R&A/USGA/PGA announcements, the annual purse story is covered free by major sports outlets every July, and existing stat sites like DataGolf rely on broader predictive models rather than purse history to drive subscriptions.Data Golf ↗Best Sites For Free Golf Statistics | Top Golf Stats Websites ↗
Durable story — PGA Tour prize pool grew ~$494M from 1994 to 2024, majors have escalated through the LIV/PGA league wars, and historical purse context has been covered since at least 1860; the narrative hook persists.The Mindblowing Difference In PGA Tour Prize Pools From 1994 to 2024 ↗Open Championship Prize Money by Year (2026) ↗
Trivial to build — purse data is officially published each year by R&A/USGA/PGA/Augusta and is already compiled in text form by outlets like Legion Report; turning it into charts and cross-major comparisons is straightforward web work.Open Championship Prize Money by Year (2026) ↗