The youth movement is overtaking the PGA Tour this week.
Four amateurs teed it up this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic including Luke Clanton, Ben James, Jackson Koivun and 15-year-old Miles Russell. Reining Masters and U.S. Open Low Amateur Neal Shipley also got a sponsor’s exemption this week, but he made his PGA Tour pro debut at Detroit Golf Club.
It’s clear the organizers of the young Detroit Tour stop are keen to open up their event to the game’s next generation, but in an odd way, they’re also helping out the regular professionals on the PGA Tour.
Ahead of the tournament on Tuesday, Min Woo Lee offered a well wish for the high school sophomore Russell, who’s already turned heads contending at a Korn Ferry Tour event earlier this year.
“Hopefully he has fun and doesn’t beat me, but does well,” Lee said.
But, from a financial point of view, it doesn’t really matter if Russell, or Clanton — who made the cut and was three shots back after 54-holes, or any of the amateurs beat Lee this week. While players in college and high school are able to sign NIL contracts and earn money that way, they still can’t collect prize money on the PGA Tour.
If an amateur was to win, as Nick Dunlap did earlier this year at the American Express, they don’t get any winnings and the first-place share goes to the runner-up. Christiaan Bezuidenhout benefited from Dunlap’s win in January, taking home $1.512 million. Ironically, Clanton finished tied with Dunlap this week.
But now with NIL, as Clanton admitted Saturday night, players might be tempted to stay in college longer since they can get paid in addition to their scholarships.
“Yeah. Again, like I play golf to play golf,” Clanton explained. “I think being able to play golf with your buddies every single day, it’s something you don’t get very much. I’ve got 12 dudes on that team that I absolutely love, so it’s awesome.”
He’s definitely playing golf to play golf this week because he won’t get a penny from this week’s purse.
With that, below you can check out the complete payout breakdown for this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detriot Golf Club . The total purse is $9.2 million.
How much every player made at the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic
1. Cameron Davis, $1.656 million
T2. Davis Thompson, $616,400
Min Woo Lee
Akshay Bhatia
Aaron Rai
T6. Rico Hoey, $300,150
Eric Cole
Erik van Rooyen
Cameron Young
T10. Taylor Moore, $206,233.33
J.J. Spaun
Dylan Wu
Hayden Springer
Nick Dunlap
Luke Clanton (a)
Sam Stevens
T17. David Skinns, $149,500
Troy Merritt
Ben Silverman
T20. Carl Yuan, $113,068
Andrew Novak
Patton Kizzire
Ben Kohles
Neal Shipley
T25. Nate Lashley, $74,980
Matt Kuchar
Patrick Fishburn
Justin Lower
Jhonattan Vegas
Joel Dahmen
T31. Nicholas Lindheim, $48,583.08
Ben Griffin
Kevin Yu
Ryan McCormick
Ryo Hisatsune
Jacob Bridgeman
Harry Hall
Roger Sloan
Max Greyserman
Beau Hossler
Jake Knapp
Rickie Fowler
Patrick Rodgers
T44. Taylor Montgomery, $29,164
Maverick McNealy
Blaine Hale, Jr.
Brandon Wu
Ryan Moore
Ben James (a)
Chris Kirk
Hayden Buckley
T52. Matti Schmid, $22,650.40
Mark Hubbard
Bud Cauley
Nick Hardy
Michael Kim
T57. Davis Riley, $21,160
Callum Tarren
Kevin Streelman
Robby Shelton
Vince Whaley
Joe Highsmith
T63. Zach Johnson, $20,332
Pierceson Coody
Nico Echavarria
66. Nicolai Hojgaard, $19,964
T67. Ryan Fox, $19,412
Luke List
Chandler Phillips
Wesley Bryan
Chris Gotterup
T72. Taylor Pendrith, $18,768
Aaron Baddeley
74. Peter Malnati, $18,492
(a) = amateur, does not receive share
