Daniel Berger has been through a lot over the past handful of years. On Sunday at Bay Hill, he can notch a career-altering victory.
Berger, who was once ranked No. 12 in the Official World Golf Rankings, has battled a slew of injuries ever since the 2021 Ryder Cup. He lost 19 months to deal with a bulging disc issue in his back that took time to diagnose properly. When he came back to the PGA Tour, he found that his form had unsurprisingly slipped. He grinded back inside the top 100 in the world and then broke a finger at last year’s BMW Championship.
After years of injuries and bad luck, Berger enters Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a one-shot lead over Akshay Bhatia. He’s three clear of Cameron Young, Sepp Straka and Collin Morikawa.
It has been five years since Berger’s last win at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Five years is a long time. But in 18 holes on Sunday, Berger can wash all that away. He can punch his ticket to the Masters and secure a win that would be hard to put into words.
“I would think that life is, you know, you can’t control what happens,” Berger said of the last five years. “You know, you just do your best, and things happen, and I wouldn’t trade what I’ve gone through over this time for another win or whatever. I think your path is your path, and I’m here today because of what I went through over the last couple years. So I just do my best to be the best golfer that I can be, and whatever happens, happens.”
A win would also come with a $4 million winner’s check as part of the $20 million purse this week at Bay Hill.
You can check out the entire payout breakdown below:
Arnold Palmer Invitational money: Total purse, payout breakdown
1st: $4 million
2nd: $2.2 million
3rd: $1.4 million
4th: $1 million
5th: $840,000
6th: $760,000
7th: $700,000
8th: $646,000
9th: $600,000
10th: $556,000
11th: $514,000
12th: $472,000
13th: $430,000
14th: $389,000
15th: $369,000
16th: $349,000
17th: $329,000
18th: $309,000
19th: $289,000
20th: $269,000
21st: $250,000
22nd: $233,000
23rd: $216,000
24th: $200,000
25th: $184,000
26th: $168,000
27th: $161,000
28th: $154,000
29th: $147,000
30th: $140,000
31st: $133,000
32nd: $126,000
33rd: $119,000
34th: $114,000
35th: $109,000
36th: $104,000
37th: $99,000
38th: $94,000
39th: $90,000
40th: $86,000
41st: $82,000
42nd: $78,000
43rd: $74,000
44th: $70,000
45th: $66,000
46th: $62,000
47th: $58,000
48th: $56,000
49th: $54,000
50th: $52,000
