5 mind-boggling numbers to know about the FedEx Cup purse payout

You’ve heard the basics by now about the FedEx Cup finale, the Tour Championship at East Lake, where Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele are battling over some mega prize money, with the winner walking away with $15 million. That’s such a high first-place prize it’s hard to comprehend — but while you’re trying, here are five other numbers to ponder as you take in Sunday’s final-round action.

$70 million — The complete FedEx prize pool is up this year is way up from years past. Last season’s prize pool of $45 million seemed pretty high, as did the first-place prize of $10 million. But with more and more money flooding into the game (look no further than the $9 million purse Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson player for last November) the playoffs upped their game. Now the total payout sits at $70 million.

$10 million — The difference between first ($15 million) and second ($5 million) in the FedEx Cup’s final standings is a ridiculous sum of $10 million. There’s a reason for this: when players are coming down the stretch at East Lake, they’ll be feeling the pressure a little bit more if there’s that much more to lose. Still, it’s an interesting contrast to weekly Tour purses, where the runner-up usually notches 60 percent of the winner’s check.

$1.1 million — Eight players will earn seven-figure checks at East Lake this week, beginning with the first prize of $15 million and trickling all the way down to $1.1 million for a solo eighth result. It’s not that the ninth-place take-home total of $900,000 is anything to shake a stick at, but there’s something about taking down a cool million that would be special even for these multi-millionaires. Or so we’d imagine.

$395,000 — World No. 2 Dustin Johnson and Lucas Glover appear to have secured a share of last place. Good news for the both of them: A healthy sum of $395,000 was allotted for the 30th-place finisher at the Tour Championship. Their two-way tie for 29th at 10 over par will secure them an even $400k each.

Buried by the stories at the top of the leaderboard is one at the bottom: Dustin Johnson posted scores of 73-72-75-73 to finish tied for last this week. In his last eight starts, he hasn't finished better than 20th place. In his eight starts before that, he had six top-10s.

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelGolf) August 25, 2019

$70,000 — The fun doesn’t stop for those players who didn’t happen to make it to the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s good news for the guys who clocked in between No. 126 and No. 150 on the final season’s standings; they each notched a nifty bonus payday of $70k. That’s right — you didn’t even have to make the FedEx Cup to get part of the winnings.

You can check out the complete breakdown of pay here.