In 1958, Arnold Palmer was the PGA Tour money leader, with $42,000 in winnings. This year, Vijay Singh has won a little over a million in just two tournaments. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is poised to become a $4 BILLION dollar man.
How fast has the tour grown? Just sixteen years ago, the purse total for the season was $41 million. That’s topped by this year’s first eight tournaments alone.
Of course, tournaments aren’t the only—or even the major—component of the golf industry. A 2002 study found that the “golf economy” (the value of all golf goods and services) in that year was worth $62 billion. Compare that the movie industry’s $57 billion. That’s bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of Peru, Romania, Ukraine or Morocco.
As much as I love golf, I find these numbers astounding. To think that we consume enough golf to keep an entire country going for year. Wow.
Discover more from GolfBlogger Golf Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
