New York, London, Nassau (8/1 – 33)
Dustin Johnson came out on top of 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series. In the first season of the new professional golf tour, now a fierce rival to the PGA Tour, Dustin Johnson was crowned “Individual Champion”.
The former PGA Tour player won the LIV Golf Invitational Boston on 4 September 2022. Johnson also collected total 135 points from 7 events in the 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series. The 38-year-old American snatched First Place in the final individual points standings.
He came in ahead of Branden Grace (South Africa), Peter Uihlein (USA) and Patrick Reed (USA), all of whom collected 79 points. What’s more, Dustin Johnson also won big in terms of prize money, coming in first in the final standing of leading players in the money list.
Johnson took home $10.5 million in individual prize money and over $7 million in team prize money. Another $18 million bonus also ended up in Johnson’s pocket. That means Johnson received a total of over $35 million. Financially speaking, Johnson seems to have made a correct decision to switch from PGA Tour to LIV Golf: at the beginning of 2022, Johnson was still a PGA Tour player.
On May 31 of this year, it was announced that Johnson will be part of the field for the inaugural event on the LIV Golf Invitational Series running from June 9-11. When PGA Tour decreed that golfers will have to choose between them or LIV Golf, Johnson hesitated not a second, announcing his resignation from PGA Tour from the beginning of June. In fact, the money that Johnson will earn from LIV Golf spectacularly belittles his earnings from PGA Tour.
Johnson has played in PGA Tour since 2007. Based on the data from PGA Tour official website, he appeared in 307 events and collected almost $75 million in prize money. Not chump change by any reckoning.
Now, however, from only 7 events, Johnson finished LIV Golf in 2022 with over $35 million in earnings – nearly half of his earnings working the PGA Tour circuit.
The case of Johnson shows the reason why so many PGA Tour players are breaking rank and joining LIV Golf, starting off last year: the money is too good to decline. Financed by Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, LIV Golf seems to have access to a limitless stream of cash. They recruited several major champions and former world number ones, with enormous signing fees.
Johnson was reportedly paid $150 million to play in the LIV series. Quoted from USA Today, Johnson said that his family played a big part in his decision to join LIV Golf. “I’m very thankful for the PGA Tour and everything that it’s done for me,” said Johnson. “This is something that I thought was best for me and my family. I’m very excited about playing. Obviously, this is the first week. It’s just something exciting, something new. I think it’s great for the game of golf.”
In any case, the first season of LIV Golf has certainly been great for Johnson. The second season is set to start on February 26, with the LIV Golf Mayakoba events in Mexico.
Events in Tucson (March 19), Adelaide (April 23), Singapore (April 30), Tulsa (May 14), Valderrama (July 2), and Greenbrier (August 6) will follow. The season consists of fourteen 54-hole tournaments featuring 48 players who will compete for a total $405 million in prize money.
